Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Stevenson, Robert Louis

(Encyclopedia)Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850–94, Scottish novelist, poet, and essayist, b. Edinburgh. Handicapped from youth by delicate health, he struggled all his life against tuberculosis. He studied law and w...

liver

(Encyclopedia)liver, largest glandular organ of the body, weighing about 3 lb (1.36 kg). It is reddish brown in color and is divided into four lobes of unequal size and shape. The liver lies on the right side of th...

record player

(Encyclopedia)record player or phonograph, device for reproducing sound that has been recorded as a spiral, undulating groove on a disk. This disk is known as a phonograph record, or simply a record (see sound reco...

Tbilisi

(Encyclopedia)Tbilisi tĭfˈlĭs, Rus. tĭflyēsˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 1,259,682), capital of Georgia, SW Asia, on the Kura River and the Transcaucasian RR and at the southern end of the Georgian Military Road. ...

pulley

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Pulleys: The mechanical advantage (MA) of a system of pulleys is equal to the number of supporting strands: in A MA=1 and in B MA=2. pulley, simple machine consisting of a wheel over which a r...

Tammany

(Encyclopedia)Tammany tămˈənē [key] or Tammany Hall, popular name for the Democratic political machine in Manhattan. Tammany suffered a telling defeat in the election of 1932 and did not regain its former s...

depreciation

(Encyclopedia)depreciation, in accounting, reduction in the value of fixed or capital assets, as by use, damage, weathering, or obsolescence. It can be estimated according to a number of methods. In the straight-li...

Coventry, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Coventry kŏvˈəntrē, kŭvˈ– [key], city and metropolitan borough (2021 est. met...

combine

(Encyclopedia)combine kŏmˈbīn [key], agricultural machine that performs both harvesting and threshing operations. Although it was not widely used until the 1930s, the combine was in existence as early as 1830. E...

governor, device

(Encyclopedia)governor, automatic device used to regulate and control such variables as speed or pressure in the functioning of an engine or other machine. A governor may be an electric, hydraulic, or mechanical de...

Browse by Subject