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tuning fork

(Encyclopedia)tuning fork, steel instrument in the shape of a U with a short handle. When struck it produces an almost pure tone, retaining its pitch over a long period of time; thus it is a valuable aid in tuning ...

Beefeaters

(Encyclopedia)Beefeaters, popular name for the Yeomen of the Guard and for the warders of the Tower of London. Both wear colorful uniforms modeled after those of the Elizabethan period. ...

Hogwood, Christopher Jarvis Haley

(Encyclopedia)Hogwood, Christopher Jarvis Haley, 1941–2014, British conductor, musicologist, and harpsichordist, b. Nottingham, grad. Cambridge (1964). He was an leader of the early-music movement, which sought t...

antique

(Encyclopedia)antique. The term has been used collectively to designate classical Greek and Roman works of art, particularly sculptures; as an adjective to indicate an object, a period, or a style of ancient or ear...

rejería

(Encyclopedia)rejería rāhārēˈä [key], the art of making iron screens and grilles, developed in Spain from the Romanesque period through the Renaissance. It employs chiseled and hammered metal as well as wroug...

Five-Year Plan

(Encyclopedia)Five-Year Plan, Soviet economic practice of planning to augment agricultural and industrial output by designated quotas for a limited period of usually five years. Nations other than the former USSR a...

day

(Encyclopedia)day, period of time for the earth to rotate once on its axis. The ordinary day, or solar day, is measured relative to the sun, being the time between successive passages of the sun over a stationary o...

puts and calls

(Encyclopedia)puts and calls, in securities trading. A call is a contract that gives the holder the right to purchase a given stock at a specific price within a designated period of time. It is the opposite of a pu...

atlatl

(Encyclopedia)atlatl ätˈlätəl [key] [Nahuatl], device used to throw a spear with greater propulsion. Atlatls began to be used in the Americas in the post-Pleistocene period and were eventually replaced by the b...

isotherm

(Encyclopedia)isotherm, line drawn on a map of a particular region of the earth's surface connecting points of equal temperature; each point reflects one temperature reading or an average of several readings over a...

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