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time and motion study

(Encyclopedia)time and motion study, analysis of the operations required to produce a manufactured article in a factory, with the aim of increasing efficiency. Each operation is studied minutely and analyzed in ord...

Beck, Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Beck, Ludwig lo͞otˈvĭkh bĕk [key], 1880–1944, German general, leader of resistance to Hitler. A highly cultivated career soldier, he served on the general staff during World War I and by 1933 ha...

Simenon, Georges

(Encyclopedia)Simenon, Georges zhôrzh sēmənôNˈ [key], 1903–89, Belgian novelist. One of the most prolific of modern authors, he is best known for the more than 75 stories he wrote featuring the intuitive Fre...

Semmelweis, Ignaz Philipp

(Encyclopedia)Semmelweis, Ignaz Philipp ĭgˈnäts fēˈlĭp zĕmˈəlvīs [key], 1818–65, Hungarian physician. He was a pioneer in employing asepsis. While on the staff of the general hospital in Vienna, he reco...

Poinsett, Joel Roberts

(Encyclopedia)Poinsett, Joel Roberts poinˈsĕt [key], 1779–1851, American diplomat and politician, b. Charleston, S.C. In 1810 he was sent as a special commissioner to South America to investigate political cond...

Sastre, Alfonso

(Encyclopedia)Sastre, Alfonso älfōnˈsō säˈstrā [key], 1926–, Spanish dramatist, essayist, and critic, b. Madrid. Approaching his work from a Marxist and existentialist point of view, he explores the proble...

Salvian

(Encyclopedia)Salvian sălˈvēən [key], fl. 5th cent., Christian writer of Gaul. His Latin name was Salvianus. He was a monk and priest of Lérins (from c.424) and became a renowned preacher and teacher of rhetor...

Quetelet, Adolphe

(Encyclopedia)Quetelet, Adolphe ädôlfˈ kĕtəlāˈ [key], 1796–1874, Belgian statistician and astronomer. He was the first director (1828) of the Royal Observatory at Brussels. As supervisor of statistics for ...

Quinet, Edgar

(Encyclopedia)Quinet, Edgar ĕdgärˈ kēnāˈ [key], 1803–75, French historian. A romantic nationalist, he was much influenced by Johann Gottfried von Herder and was a close friend and associate of Jules Michele...

Osborne, Thomas Mott

(Encyclopedia)Osborne, Thomas Mott, 1859–1926, American prison reformer, b. Auburn, N.Y., grad. Harvard, 1884. As chairman (1913) of the state commission on prison reform he became a voluntary prisoner in the Aub...