Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

301 results found

Wyss, Johann David

(Encyclopedia)Wyss, Johann David yōˈhän däˈvĭt vēs [key], 1743–1818, Swiss author. His Swiss Family Robinson (1813, tr. 1814), an internationally popular classic for children, relates the adventures of a s...

Rickey, Branch

(Encyclopedia)Rickey, Branch, 1881–1965, American baseball executive, b. Stockdale, Ohio. As manager or executive, he was with the St. Louis Browns (1913–15), the St. Louis Cardinals (1917–42), the Brooklyn D...

Thompson, Guy Lawrence

(Encyclopedia)Thompson, Guy Lawrence, 1897–1970, English surgeon, writer, and naturalist, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, he wrote Eric and Joan (1960), an account...

Patay

(Encyclopedia)Patay pätāˈ [key], village (1990 pop. 1,953), Loiret dept., N central France. At Patay, in 1429, Joan of Arc defeated the English—one of the most serious English defeats in the Hundred Years War....

Colonial Heights

(Encyclopedia)Colonial Heights, city (2020 pop. 18,170), in, but independent of, Chesterfield co., SE Va.; inc. as a city 1948. Chemicals, metal products, and whiskey...

Domrémy-la-Pucelle

(Encyclopedia)Domrémy-la-Pucelle dôNrāmēˈ-lä-püsĕlˈ [key], village, Vosges dept., E France, in Lorraine, on the Meuse River. Joan of Arc was born (1412?) in the village. The house in which she was born is ...

Watt, James

(Encyclopedia)Watt, James, 1736–1819, Scottish inventor. While working at the Univ. of Glasgow as an instrument maker, Watt was asked to repair a model of Thomas Newcomen's steam engine. He devised improvements t...

Willstätter, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Willstätter, Richard rĭkhˈärt vĭlˈshtĕtər [key], 1872–1942, German chemist. He was professor at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Chemistry, Berlin (1912–16), and at the Univ. of Munich (191...

Chapelain, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Chapelain, Jean zhäN shäplăNˈ [key], 1595–1674, French critic and poet. His works include La Pucelle (1656), an epic poem about Joan of Arc. Chapelain was a founding member of the French Academy...

color

(Encyclopedia)color, effect produced on the eye and its associated nerves by light waves of different wavelength or frequency. Light transmitted from an object to the eye stimulates the different color cones of the...