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Qingdao

(Encyclopedia)Qingdao tsĭngˈtouˈ, chĭngˈdouˈ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 1,584,100), SE Shandong prov., E China, on the Yellow Sea. With an excellent ice-free harbor, it is a major fishing and trade port of C...

Portage

(Encyclopedia)Portage [1,] [2] pôrˈtəj; [3] pôrˈtĭj [key]. 1 Town (1990 pop. 29,060), Porter co., NW Ind., a suburb of Gary, on Lake Michigan; inc. 1959. The town, which was once surrounded by great industrie...

Osnabrück

(Encyclopedia)Osnabrück ôsˌnäbrükˈ [key], city (1994 pop. 168,078), Lower Saxony, NW Germany, on the Hase River, linked by canal with the Midland Canal. It is an inland port, a rail junction, and an industria...

dielectric

(Encyclopedia)dielectric dīˌĭlĕkˈtrĭk [key], material that does not conduct electricity readily, i.e., an insulator (see insulation). A good dielectric should also have other properties: It must resist breakd...

Eagleton, Thomas Francis

(Encyclopedia)Eagleton, Thomas Francis, 1929–2007, U.S. senator (1968–87), b. St. Louis, Mo. Admitted to the bar in 1953, he entered Democratic politics in Missouri and served as circuit attorney for St. Louis ...

Charters, Samuel Barclay

(Encyclopedia)Charters, Samuel Barclay, 1929–2015, American musical historian and author, b. Pittsburgh. In the 1950s he studied jazz and blues in New Orleans and traveled through the South, where he recorded neg...

fiber optics

(Encyclopedia)fiber optics, transmission of digitized messages or information by light pulses along hair-thin glass or plastic fibers. Each fiber is surrounded by a cladding having a high index of refractance so th...

graphite

(Encyclopedia)graphite grăfˈīt [key], an allotropic form of carbon, known also as plumbago and black lead. It is dark gray or black, crystalline (often in the form of slippery scales), greasy, and soft, with a m...

asphyxia

(Encyclopedia)asphyxia ăsfĭkˈsēə [key], deficiency of oxygen and excess of carbon dioxide in the blood and body tissues. Asphyxia, often referred to as suffocation, usually results from an interruption of brea...

Langmuir, Irving

(Encyclopedia)Langmuir, Irving lăngˈmyo͞or [key], 1881–1957, American chemist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Associated (1909–50) with the research laboratory of the General Electric Company, he introduced atomic-hydrog...