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automation

(Encyclopedia)automation, automatic operation and control of machinery or processes by devices, such as robots that can make and execute decisions without human intervention. The principal feature of such devices i...

debit card

(Encyclopedia)debit card, card that allows the cost of goods or services that are purchased to be deducted directly from the purchaser's checking account. They can also be used at automated teller machines for with...

heart-lung machine

(Encyclopedia)heart-lung machine, device that maintains the circulation of the blood and the oxygen content of the body when connected with the arteriovenous system; it is also called the pump oxygenator. The machi...

perpetual-motion machine

(Encyclopedia)perpetual-motion machine, device that would be able to operate continuously and supply useful work, in violation of the laws of thermodynamics. A machine that would produce more energy in the form of ...

cathode-ray tube

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Cathode-ray tube cathode-ray tube (CRT), special-purpose electron tube in which electrons are accelerated by high-voltage anodes, formed into a beam by focusing electrodes, and projected towar...

Turing, Alan Mathison

(Encyclopedia)Turing, Alan Mathison, 1912–54, British mathematician and computer theorist. While studying at Cambridge he began work in predicate logic that led to a proof (1937) that some mathematical problems a...

Anderson, Sherwood

(Encyclopedia)Anderson, Sherwood, 1876–1941, American novelist and short-story writer, b. Camden, Ohio. After serving briefly in the Spanish-American War, he became a successful advertising man and later a manage...

smart card

(Encyclopedia)smart card, small device that resembles a credit card but contains an embedded microprocessor to store and process information. Magnetic-stripe cards, which store a very small amount of information (m...

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