Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Epée, Charles Michel, Abbé de l'

(Encyclopedia)Epée, Charles Michel, Abbé de l' shärl mēshĕlˈ äbāˈ də lāpāˈ [key], 1712–89, French pioneer teacher of deaf-mutes. A Jansenist priest, he developed a manual system of communication for ...

Secord, Laura (Ingersoll)

(Encyclopedia)Secord, Laura (Ingersoll) sēˈkôrd [key], 1775–1868, Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. Born in Massachusetts, she was taken by her parents to Canada after the American Revolution. In 1813 she l...

Ayutla

(Encyclopedia)Ayutla äyo͞otˈlä [key], town, Guerrero state, S Mexico. Its full name is Ayutla de los Libres [Ayutla of the free]. It is the commercial center for an agricultural, ca...

Stuart, James

(Encyclopedia)Stuart, James, 1713–88, English architect, archaeologist, and painter. After working his way to Rome in 1742, Stuart accompanied Nicholas Revett on an archaeological expedition to Naples. Under the ...

Spada, Lionello

(Encyclopedia)Spada, Lionello lyōnĕlˈlō späˈdä [key], 1576–1622, Italian painter, active mainly in Emilia. His signature was an L placed across a sword [Ital. spada=sword]. His work shows influence of the ...

Brindisi

(Encyclopedia)Brindisi brēnˈdēzē [key], Latin Brundisium, city, capital of Brindisi prov., in Apulia, S...

hardening

(Encyclopedia)hardening, in metallurgy, treatment of metals to increase their resistance to penetration. A metal is harder when it has small grains, which result when the metal is cooled rapidly. Sometimes small ar...

Donner Party

(Encyclopedia)Donner Party, group of emigrants to California who in the winter of 1846–47 met with one of the most famous tragedies in Western history. The California-bound families were mostly from Illinois and ...

Petraeus, David Howell

(Encyclopedia)Petraeus, David Howell pĕtrāˈəs [key], 1952–, American military officer and government official, b. Cornwall, N.Y., studied West Point (B.S., 1974), U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (...

parity

(Encyclopedia)parity or space parity, in physics, quantity that refers to the relationship between an object or process and the image that it can produce in a mirror. For example, any right-handed object will produ...