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Torrington

(Encyclopedia)Torrington, city (1990 pop. 33,687), Litchfield co., NW Conn., on the Naugatuck River; inc. 1740. It is the industrial and commercial hub of NW Connecticut and is known for its metal (especially brass...

sapodilla

(Encyclopedia)sapodilla, the edible fruit of Manilkara zapota (formerly Achras zapota), of the family Sapotaceae. The fleshy, brown fruit is the size of a small tomato, and has the flavor and texture of cinnamon, a...

carbide

(Encyclopedia)carbide, any one of a group of compounds that contain carbon and one other element that is either a metal, boron, or silicon. Generally, a carbide is prepared by heating a metal, metal oxide, or metal...

Vincennes, town, France

(Encyclopedia)Vincennes văNsĕnˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 42,651), Val-de-Marne dept., N central France, an industrial and residential suburb E of Paris. Radio, electrical, and photographic equipment, machinery, an...

Vitebsk

(Encyclopedia)Vitebsk vēˈtĕpsk, vēˈtyĭpsk [key], city (1989 pop. 350,000), Belarusian Vitsyebsk, capital of Vitebsk region, N Belarus, on the Western Dvina River. It is a river port and large railroad junctio...

automation

(Encyclopedia)automation, automatic operation and control of machinery or processes by devices, such as robots that can make and execute decisions without human intervention. The principal feature of such devices i...

Cormack, Allan MacLeod

(Encyclopedia)Cormack, Allan MacLeod məkloudˈ, côrˈmək [key], 1924–98, American physicist, b. Johannesburg, South Africa. After studying at the Univ. of Cape Town (B.S. physics, 1944, M.S. crystallography, 1...

Fécamp

(Encyclopedia)Fécamp fākäNˈ [key], town, Seine-Maritime dept., N France. A major port from the 12th to ...

ergonomics

(Encyclopedia)ergonomics, the engineering science concerned with the physical and psychological relationship between machines and the people who use them. The ergonomicist takes an empirical approach to the study o...

Irkutsk

(Encyclopedia)Irkutsk ĭrko͞otskˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 626,000), capital of Irkutsk region, S Siberian Russia, at the confluence of the Angara and Irkut rivers. It is an industrial center, a port, the site of a...