Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

fuel injection

(Encyclopedia)fuel injection, system in an internal-combustion engine that delivers fuel or a fuel-air mixture to the cylinders by means of pressure from a pump. It was originally used in diesel engines because of ...

Antofagasta

(Encyclopedia)Antofagasta äntōfägäˈstä [key], city, capital of Antofagasta region, N Chile, a port on the Pacific Ocean. Antofagasta was founded by Chileans in 1870 to exploit nit...

Ibn Khaldun

(Encyclopedia)Ibn Khaldun ĭˈbən khäldo͞onˈ [key], 1332–1406, Arab historian, b. Tunis. He held various offices under the rulers of Tunis and Morocco and served (1363) as ambassador of the Moorish king of Gr...

Allais, Maurice Félix Charles

(Encyclopedia)Allais, Maurice Félix Charles môrēsˈ shärl älĕˈ [key], 1911–2010, French economist, Ph.D. Univ. of Paris, 1949. After working in the French mine administration, he joined the École National...

De Bow, James Dunwoody Brownson

(Encyclopedia)De Bow, James Dunwoody Brownson də bōˈ [key], 1820–67, American editor and statistician, b. Charleston, S.C. He became (1844) editor of the Southern Quarterly Review. In 1846 he went to New Orlea...

Cooper, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Cooper, Thomas, 1759–1839, American scientist, educator, and political philosopher, b. London, educated at Oxford. His important works include Political Essays (1799); the appendixes to the Memoirs ...

Saint-Barthélemy

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Barthélemy, island and French overseas collectivity (2010 est. pop. 7,400), 8 sq mi (21 sq km), West Indies, one of the Leeward Islands; also called St. Barts in English. Gustavia is the capita...

Sahel

(Encyclopedia)Sahel sähĕlˈ [key], name applied to the semiarid region of Africa between the Sahara to the north and the savannas to the south, extending from Senegal and Mauritania on the west, through Mali, N B...

Tubman, William Vacanarat Shadrach

(Encyclopedia)Tubman, William Vacanarat Shadrach, 1895–1971, president of Liberia (1944–71). As a young man he was a lawyer, a collector of internal revenue, a teacher, and an officer of the Liberian militia. H...

Beccaria, Cesare Bonesana, marchese di

(Encyclopedia)Beccaria, Cesare Bonesana, marchese di chĕˈzärā bōnāzäˈnä märkāˈzā dē bĕk-kärēˈä [key], 1738–94, Italian criminologist, economist, and jurist, b. Milan. Although of a retiring dis...