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Porz am Rhein

(Encyclopedia)Porz am Rhein pôrts äm rīn [key], city, North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany, on the Rhine River; chartered 1951. Manufactures of this industrial city include glass and agricultural machinery. ...

Slade, Felix

(Encyclopedia)Slade, Felix, 1790–1868, English art collector and philanthropist. He endowed the Slade professorships of fine arts at Oxford and Cambridge universities and at University College, London, which also...

Wick

(Encyclopedia)Wick, town (1991 pop. 7,770), Highland, N Scotland, on Wick Bay at the mouth of the Wick River. The town consists of the villages of Louisburgh, Old Wick, and Pulteneytown. It is an important port for...

harmonica

(Encyclopedia)harmonica. 1 The simplest of the musical instruments employing free reeds, known also as the mouth organ or French harp. It was probably invented in 1829 by Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin, who called h...

hydrometer

(Encyclopedia)hydrometer hīdrŏmˈətər [key], device used to determine directly the specific gravity of a liquid. It usually consists of a thin glass tube closed at both ends, with one end enlarged into a bulb t...

praseodymium

(Encyclopedia)praseodymium prāˌzēōdĭmˈēəm, –sēō– [key] [Gr., =green twin], metallic chemical element; symbol Pr; at. no. 59; at. wt. 140.90765; m.p. 931℃; b.p. 3,512℃; sp. gr. about 6.8; valence +...

Spanish Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Spanish Succession, War of the, 1701–14, last of the general European wars caused by the efforts of King Louis XIV to extend French power. The conflict in America corresponding to the period of the ...

Rich, Penelope, Lady

(Encyclopedia)Rich, Penelope, Lady, 1562–1607, the “Stella” of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (1591). Daughter of Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex, she married (1581) Lord Rich (later earl of Wa...

refraction

(Encyclopedia)refraction, in physics, deflection of a wave on passing obliquely from one transparent medium into a second medium in which its speed is different, as the passage of a light ray from air into glass. O...

Bourbon

(Encyclopedia)Bourbon bo͞orbôNˈ [key], European royal family, originally of France; a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty (see Capetians). One branch of the Bourbons occupies the modern Spanish throne, and othe...