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firefly

(Encyclopedia)firefly or lightning bug, small, luminescent, carnivorous beetle of the family Lampyridae. Fireflies are well represented in temperate regions, although the majority of species are tropical and subtro...

lungs

(Encyclopedia)lungs, elastic organs used for breathing in vertebrate animals, excluding most fish, which use gills, and a few amphibian species that respire through the skin. The word is sometimes applied to the re...

Archimedes' principle

(Encyclopedia)Archimedes' principle, principle that states that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. The principle applies to both floating and submerged bo...

Ctesibius

(Encyclopedia)Ctesibius tĭsĭbˈēəs [key], fl. 2d cent. b.c., Alexandrian Greek inventor. He reputedly was the first to discover and apply the expansive power of air as a motive force. Among the inventions ascri...

Cort, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Cort, Henry, 1740–1800, English inventor. He revolutionized the British iron industry with his use of grooved rollers to finish iron, replacing the process of hammering, and through his invention of...

Cocoa, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Cocoa, city (2020 pop. 19,041), Brevard co., E Fla., on the Indian River (a lagoon), a segment of the Intracoastal Waterway; inc. 1895. It is a tourist ...

Antaeus

(Encyclopedia)Antaeus ăntēˈəs [key], in Greek mythology, giant; son of Poseidon and Gaea, the goddess of the earth. He became stronger whenever he touched the earth, his mother. He killed everyone with whom he ...

Hanford

(Encyclopedia)Hanford, city (2020 pop. 57,990), seat of Kings co., central Calif.; inc. 1891. It is an agricultural trade and processing center of the San Joaquin Val...

Getafe

(Encyclopedia)Getafe hātäˈfā [key], town, Madrid prov., central Spain. An industrial and agricultural c...

Fort Bragg

(Encyclopedia)Fort Bragg, U.S. army base, 11,136 acres (4,507 hectares), E N.C., N of Fayetteville; est. 1918. Originally an artillery post, it is now the principal U.S. army airborne-training center and the site o...