Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

311 results found

Wolfe, Thomas Clayton

(Encyclopedia)Wolfe, Thomas Clayton, 1900–1938, American novelist, b. Asheville, N.C., grad. Univ. of North Carolina, 1920, M.A. Harvard, 1922. An important 20th-century American novelist, Wolfe wrote four mammot...

screw

(Encyclopedia)screw, simple machine consisting essentially of a solid cylinder, usually of metal, around which an inclined plane winds spirally, either clockwise or counterclockwise. It is used to fasten one object...

Benedictines

(Encyclopedia)Benedictines, religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, following the rule of St. Benedict [Lat. abbr.,=O.S.B.]. The first Benedictine monastery was at Monte Cassino, Italy, which came to be regar...

protective coloration

(Encyclopedia)protective coloration, coloration or color pattern of an animal that affords it protection from observation either by its predators or by its prey. The most widespread form of protective coloration is...

Farragut, David Glasgow

(Encyclopedia)Farragut, David Glasgow fărˈəgət [key], 1801–70, American admiral, b. near Knoxville, Tenn. Appointed a midshipman in 1810, he first served on the frigate Essex, commanded by David Porter, his s...

Rodin, Auguste

(Encyclopedia)Rodin, Auguste ōgüstˈ rōdăNˈ [key], 1840–1917, French sculptor, b. Paris. He began his art study at 14 in the Petite École and in the school of Antoine Barye, earning his living by working fo...

Polanski, Roman

(Encyclopedia)Polanski, Roman, 1933–, Polish-French film director, b. Paris. His family returned to Kraków, Poland, when he was three. His parents were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps and his mother died ...

Corman, Roger William

(Encyclopedia) Corman, Roger William, 1926-, American film director, screenwriter, and producer, b. Detroit, Mi., Stanford Univ. (B.S., 1947). Corman studied industr...

Warren Commission

(Encyclopedia)Warren Commission, popular name given to the U.S. Commission to Report upon the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, established (Nov. 29, 1963) by executive order of President Lyndon B. Johnso...

zinc

(Encyclopedia)zinc, metallic chemical element; symbol Zn; at. no. 30; at. wt. 65.38; m.p. 419.58℃; b.p. 907℃; sp. gr. 7.133 at 25℃; valence +2. Zinc is a lustrous bluish-white metal. It is found in Group 12 o...