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Bouvet Island

(Encyclopedia)Bouvet Island bo͞ovāˈ [key], uninhabited volcanic island, c.58 sq mi (150 sq km), S Atlantic Ocean, about 1,600 mi (2,576 km) SW of the Cape of Good Hope. A Norwegian possession since 1928, Bouvet ...

Cripple Creek

(Encyclopedia)Cripple Creek, village (2020 pop. 1,155), alt. 9,375 ft (2,858 m), seat of Teller co., central Colo.; inc. 1892. Primarily a summer resort, it was once ...

SOS

(Encyclopedia)SOS, code letters of the international distress signal. The signal is expressed in International Morse code as … — — — ……———… (three dots, three dashes, three dots). This c...

credit card

(Encyclopedia)credit card, device used to obtain consumer credit at the time of purchasing an article or service. Credit cards may be issued by a business, such as a department store or an oil company, to make it e...

Fink, Mike

(Encyclopedia)Fink, Mike, 1770?–1823?, American border hero, whose exploits have been so elaborated in legend that the actual facts of his life are difficult to discover. He was born probably at the frontier post...

Cartwright, Alexander Joy

(Encyclopedia)Cartwright, Alexander Joy, 1820–92, American baseball player, b. New York City. He worked as a bank teller and a bookseller, and was a volunteer firefighter with the Knickerbocker Fire Engine Compan...

Piazzetta, Giovanni Batista

(Encyclopedia)Piazzetta, Giovanni Batista jōvänˈnē bätēsˈtä pēätsĕtˈtä [key], 1682–1754, Italian painter. An exponent of the Venetian school, Piazzetta combined soft colors with a dramatic, chiaroscu...

Howe, Elias

(Encyclopedia)Howe, Elias, 1819–67, American inventor, b. Spencer, Mass. He was apprenticed in 1838 to an instrument maker and watchmaker in Boston at whose suggestion he turned his attention to devising a sewing...

mechanical advantage

(Encyclopedia)mechanical advantage: see machine. ...

Savery, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Savery, Thomas, c.1650–1715, English engineer. He became a military engineer, rising to the rank of captain by 1702. He spent his free time performing experiments in mechanics, inventing such device...