Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

cinnabar

(Encyclopedia)cinnabar sĭnˈəbär [key], mineral, the sulfide of mercury, HgS. Deep red in color, it is used as a pigment (see vermilion), but principally it is a source of the metal mercury. It is mined in Spain...

Luray

(Encyclopedia)Luray lo͝orāˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 4,587), seat of Page co., N Va., in the Shenandoah valley, in a farm area; inc. 1812. There is light manufacturing and the town is the headquarters of Shenandoa...

Mariotte, Edme

(Encyclopedia)Mariotte, Edme ĕdˈmə märyôtˈ [key], 1620?–1684, French physicist. His De la nature de l'air (1676) includes a statement of Boyle's law (see gas laws), which he discovered independently and whi...

Kroll, Leon

(Encyclopedia)Kroll, Leon krōl [key], 1884–1974, American painter and lithographer, b. New York City. Kroll studied in New York with J. H. Twachtman and later in Paris. He returned to New York, where he became a...

Worcester ware

(Encyclopedia)Worcester ware, ceramic ware, first manufactured in 1751, when the Lowdin pottery was moved from Bristol to Worcester. Soft paste was employed, and tea services, vases, armorial mugs, and portrait pla...

Southdown sheep

(Encyclopedia)Southdown sheep, mutton breed of sheep originated on the South Downs of Sussex, England, and now raised throughout the world. It is a small sheep, the most thickset of all breeds, and it is valued for...

siderite

(Encyclopedia)siderite kălˈĭbīt [key], a mineral, varying in color from brown, green, or gray to black and occurring in nature in massive and crystalline form. A carbonate of iron, FeCO3, it serves as an iron o...

Perkin, Sir William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Perkin, Sir William Henry, 1838–1907, English chemist. In 1856 he discovered the first aniline dye (aniline purple, known as mauve and mauveine); by founding a factory to make it, Perkin established...

Kandinsky, Wassily

(Encyclopedia)Kandinsky, Wassily or Vasily kăndĭnˈskē, Rus. vəsēˈlyē kəndyēnˈskē [key], 1866–1944, Russian abstract painter and theorist. Usually regarded as the originator of abstract art, Kandinsky ...

Gossec, François Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Gossec, François Joseph fräNswäˈ zhôzĕfˈ gôsĕkˈ [key], 1734–1829, Belgian composer; pupil of Rameau. In 1784 he organized the École Royale de Chant and taught (1795–1816) composition at...