Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

cryotron

(Encyclopedia)cryotron krīˈōtrŏnˌ [key], magnetically controlled electronic switching device that operates at extremely low temperatures; it is designed to supplant, in part, the transistor in special electron...

Hooker, John Lee

(Encyclopedia)Hooker, John Lee, 1917–2001, American blues singer and guitarist, b. near Clarksdale, Miss. From a cotton-sharecropping family, he learned the blues from his stepfather and various visiting Delta bl...

hearing aid

(Encyclopedia)hearing aid, device used in some forms of deafness to amplify sound before it reaches the auditory organs. Modern hearing aids are electronic. They contain a tiny receiver and a transistor amplifier, ...

Gorton, Sir John Grey

(Encyclopedia)Gorton, Sir John Grey, 1911–2002, Australian political leader, b. Melbourne. A fighter pilot in World War II, he was elected to the senate as a Liberal in 1949. He held a number of cabinet posts in ...

Geiger, Johannes Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Geiger, Johannes Wilhelm (Hans Geiger) gīˈgər [key], 1882–1945, German physicist. Geiger received a doctorate in physics at Erlangen in 1906, then went to Manchester, where he assisted British c...

Frist, Bill

(Encyclopedia)Frist, Bill (William Harrison Frist), 1952–, American politician and physician, b. Nashville, Tenn., grad. Princeton (B.A., 1974), Harvard Medical School (M.D., 1978). From a distinguished medical f...

Fuchs, Sir Vivian Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Fuchs, Sir Vivian Ernest fo͝oks [key], 1908–99, English geologist and explorer, b. Kent, educated at Cambridge. He was a geologist on expeditions to Greenland (1929) and to Africa (1930–38). Afte...

Keegan, Sir John Desmond Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Keegan, Sir John Desmond Patrick, 1934–2012, British military historian, b. London. The foremost British military historian of his era, he attended Oxford and after graduation went to the United Sta...

Paley Center for Media

(Encyclopedia)Paley Center for Media, American archive of radio and television programs, and forum for the discussion of the role and evolution of electronic media as well as the intersections of media and society;...

Seaside

(Encyclopedia)Seaside. 1 City (1990 pop. 38,901), Monterey co., W Calif., on Monterey Bay, in a fruit region; founded 1887, inc. 1954. Its economy is based largely upon tourism. California State Univ. Monterey Bay ...