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Deventer, Sir Jacob Louis van

(Encyclopedia)Deventer, Sir Jacob Louis van yäˈkōp lo͞oēˈ fän dĕfˈəntər [key], 1874?–1922, Boer general. In the South African War he commanded guerrilla forces in the Cape Colony. During World War I he...

Meulen, Adam Frans van der

(Encyclopedia)Meulen, Adam Frans van der äˈdäm fräns vän dĕr mölˈən [key], c.1632–1690, Flemish painter of battle scenes and portraits. He was invited to Paris c.1665 and accompanied Louis XIV on militar...

Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig lo͞otˈvĭkh mēˈĕs vän dĕr rōˈə [key], 1886–1969, German-American architect. A pioneer of modern architecture and one of its most influential figures, he is famous...

Van de Graaff, Robert Jemison

(Encyclopedia)Van de Graaff, Robert Jemison văn də gräf [key], 1901–67, American physicist, b. Tuscaloosa, Ala., grad. Univ. of Alabama (B.S., 1922), Ph.D. Oxford, 1928. He was research associate at Massachuse...

van der Waals, Johannes Diderik

(Encyclopedia)van der Waals, Johannes Diderik yōhäˈnəs dēˈdərĭk vän dər väls [key], 1837–1923, Dutch physicist. It had been known for some time that the behavior of real gases differs from that of an i...

Van Horne, Sir William Cornelius

(Encyclopedia)Van Horne, Sir William Cornelius, 1843–1915, president (1888–99) and chairman of the board (1899–1915) of the Canadian Pacific Railway, b. Illinois. He worked on U.S. railways before becoming (1...

alpha particle

(Encyclopedia)alpha particle, one of the three types of radiation resulting from natural radioactivity. Alpha radiation (or alpha rays) was distinguished and named by E. R. Rutherford in 1909, who found by measurin...

Arnold, Benedict

(Encyclopedia)Arnold, Benedict, 1741–1801, American Revolutionary general and traitor, b. Norwich, Conn. As a youth he served for a time in the colonial militia in the French and Indian Wars. He later became a pr...

scintillation counter

(Encyclopedia)scintillation counter, device for detecting and measuring radiation by means of tiny visible flashes produced by the radiation when it strikes a sensitive substance known as a phosphor (see phosphores...

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