Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Harmon, Judson

(Encyclopedia)Harmon, Judson, 1846–1927, U.S. Attorney General and governor of Ohio, b. Newton, Ohio. He was a lawyer and a judge in Cincinnati for many years and served (1895–97) ably as U.S. Attorney General ...

Wilson, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Benjamin, 1721–88, English portrait painter and electrician who opposed Benjamin Franklin's theory of positive and negative electricity. Instead, Wilson supported Newton's gravitational-opti...

Copernican system

(Encyclopedia)Copernican system, first modern European theory of planetary motion that was heliocentric, i.e., that placed the sun motionless at the center of the solar system with all the planets, including the ea...

Melba, Dame Nellie

(Encyclopedia)Melba, Dame Nellie, 1861–1931, Australian soprano, whose name originally was Helen Porter Mitchell. After study with Mathilde Marchesi in Paris, she made her operatic debut in Brussels in 1887. Famo...

Hoccleve, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Hoccleve or Occleve, Thomas hŏkˈlēv, ŏkˈ– [key], c.1368–c.1450, English poet, an imitator of Chaucer. He was a clerk in the office of the Privy Seal. His longest work, The Regiment of Princes...

Veblen, Thorstein

(Encyclopedia)Veblen, Thorstein thôrˈstīn vĕbˈlən [key], 1857–1929, American economist and social critic, b. Cato Township, Wis. Of Norwegian parentage, he spent his first 17 years in Norwegian-American far...

Smith, Hoke

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Hoke, 1855–1931, American political leader, b. Newton, N.C. A successful lawyer in Atlanta, he acquired the Atlanta Journal in 1887. He served (1893–96) in President Cleveland's cabinet as ...

mechanics

(Encyclopedia)mechanics, branch of physics concerned with motion and the forces that tend to cause it; it includes study of the mechanical properties of matter, such as density, elasticity, and viscosity. Mechanics...

Hoover, J. Edgar

(Encyclopedia)Hoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar Hoover), 1895–1972, American administrator, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), b. Washington, D.C. Shortly after he was admitted to the bar, he enter...

Moivre, Abraham de

(Encyclopedia)Moivre, Abraham de äbrä-ämˈdə mwäˈvrə [key], 1667–1754, French-English mathematician. He fled to England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was called upon by the Royal Society ...