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West Chicago

(Encyclopedia)West Chicago, city (1990 pop. 14,796), Du Page co., NE Ill.; inc. 1906. Mostly residential, the city has food-processing plants and produces horticultural products, specialty tapes, and plastics. ...

West Covina

(Encyclopedia)West Covina, city (1990 pop. 96,086), Los Angeles co., S Calif., in the San Gabriel valley; settled 1905, inc. 1923. Primarily residential, the city has light manufacturing, including power transforme...

Head, Edith

(Encyclopedia)Head, Edith, 1907–81, American costume designer, b. Los Angeles, Calif. She began to design costumes for the motion pictures in the early 1930s, working at Paramount for most of her career and movin...

life preserver

(Encyclopedia)life preserver, a personal flotation device (PFD) intended to keep the wearer afloat, particularly in case of shipwreck. A Type I PFD will keep even unconscious people afloat in a face–up position; ...

Mecklenburg–West Pomerania

(Encyclopedia)Mecklenburg–West Pomerania mĕkˈlənbo͝orkh pämərāˈnēə [key], state (1994 pop. 1,890,000), 9,201 sq mi (23,838 sq km), NE Germany, bordering on the Baltic Sea. Schwerin is the capital. The r...

French West Africa

(Encyclopedia)French West Africa, former federation of eight French overseas territories. The constituent territories were Dahomey (now Benin), French Guinea (now Guinea), French Sudan (now Mali), Côte d'Ivoire, M...

French West Indies

(Encyclopedia)French West Indies: see West Indies. ...

Dutch West Indies

(Encyclopedia)Dutch West Indies: see Netherlands Antilles. ...

Danish West Indies

(Encyclopedia)Danish West Indies: see Virgin Islands of the United States. ...

Field, Cyrus West

(Encyclopedia)Field, Cyrus West, 1819–92, American merchant, promoter of the first Atlantic cable, b. Stockbridge, Mass.; brother of David Dudley Field and Stephen J. Field. As head of a paper business, he accumu...