Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Surgeon General, United States

(Encyclopedia)Surgeon General, United States, former head of the U.S. Public Health Service, which is responsible for protecting the people's health (see public health). Since a 1986 reorganization, the surgeon gen...

Yerba Buena Island

(Encyclopedia)Yerba Buena Island, 300 acres (121 hectares), W Calif., in San Francisco Bay. It is the midpoint of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, which crosses the island through a tunnel. There are coast g...

Cayley, Sir George

(Encyclopedia)Cayley, Sir George, 1773–1857, British scientist. He is recognized as the founder of aerodynamics on the basis of his pioneering experiments and studies of the principles of flight. He experimented ...

Blériot, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Blériot, Louis lwē blārēōˈ [key], 1872–1936, French aviator and inventor. He devoted the fortune acquired by his invention of an automobile searchlight to the invention and construction of mon...

fracture

(Encyclopedia)fracture, breaking of a bone. A simple fracture is one in which there is no contact of the broken bone with the outer air, i.e., the overlying tissues are intact. In a comminuted fracture the bone is ...

Cape Canaveral

(Encyclopedia)Cape Canaveral kənăvˈərəl [key], low, sandy promontory extending E into the Atlantic Ocean from a barrier island, E Fla., separated from Merritt Island by the Banana River, a lagoon; named (1963)...

Kent, George Edward Alexander Edmund, duke of

(Encyclopedia)Kent, George Edward Alexander Edmund, duke of, 1902–42, fourth son of George V of Great Britain. He traveled extensively as “salesman of the empire.” A member of the Royal Air Force after 1940, ...

Kaneohe

(Encyclopedia)Kaneohe käˈnāōhā [key], uninc. city (1990 pop. 35,448), Honolulu co., Hawaii, on the east coast of Oahu, on Kaneohe Bay. Once the site of a pineapple plantation and cannery, it is a residential s...

Harris, Sir Arthur Travers

(Encyclopedia)Harris, Sir Arthur Travers, 1892–1984, British marshal of the Royal Air Force (RAF). In World War I, he served for a time in German West Africa before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in Franc...

Chambéry

(Encyclopedia)Chambéry shäNbārēˈ [key], town, capital of Savoie dept., E France, in the Alpine trough. It ...