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Rapid City

(Encyclopedia)Rapid City, city (1990 pop. 54,523), seat of Pennington co., SW S.Dak., on Rapid Creek, in an irrigated farm region served by the Bureau of Reclamation's Rapid Valley project; founded 1876 after the d...

Cobbett, William

(Encyclopedia)Cobbett, William kŏbˈĭt [key], 1763?–1835, British journalist and reformer. The son of a farm laborer, he ran away from home at 14 and later joined the British army. He resigned in order to expos...

Kolar

(Encyclopedia)Kolar kōlärˈ [key], city (1991 pop. 83,287), Karnataka state, SW India. Manufactures include textiles and leather goods. Founded in the late 19th cent., Kolar was the center of the Indian gold-mini...

Archimedes

(Encyclopedia)Archimedes ärkĭmēˈdēz [key], 287–212 b.c., Greek mathematician, physicist, and inventor. He is famous for his work in geometry (on the circle, sphere, cylinder, and parabola), physics, mechanic...

Mansa Musa

(Encyclopedia)Mansa Musa (Musa I) mänˈsä mo͞oˈsä [key], c.1280–1337, ruler of the Mali empire (1312–37). A devout Muslim, he brought the Mali empire to its greatest height, encompassing what is now Niger ...

Telluride

(Encyclopedia)Telluride tĕlˈyərīd [key], town (1990 pop. 1,309), seat of San Miguel co., SW Colo., on the San Miguel River in the San Juan Mts., inc. 1887. A trade center in a sheep, dairying, and mining (gold,...

Boa Vista

(Encyclopedia)Boa Vista bōˈə vēshˈtə [key], city, capital of Roraima state, NW Brazil, on the Rio Branco. Its ...

Zeya

(Encyclopedia)Zeya zāˈä, Rus. zyāˈə [key], river, c.800 mi (1,290 km) long, rising in the Stanovoy Range, Russian Far East, and flowing south to join the Amur River at Blagoveshchensk. It carries gold in its ...

amalgamation process

(Encyclopedia)amalgamation process əmălˌgəmāˈshən [key], in particular, a method to extract gold and silver from ores. The ore is crushed and treated with mercury, in which the metal dissolves. The amalgam i...

amalgam

(Encyclopedia)amalgam əmălˈgəm [key], alloy containing mercury. The alloy may be liquid or solid, depending on the proportion of mercury, although all naturally occurring amalgams, i.e., those of gold and silve...