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tuning systems

(Encyclopedia)tuning systems, methods for assigning pitches to the twelve Western pitch names that constitute the octave. The term usually refers to this procedure in the tuning of keyboard instruments. The need fo...

zemstvo

(Encyclopedia)zemstvo zĕmstˈvō [key] [Rus., from zemlya=land], local assembly that functioned as a body of provincial self-government in Russia from 1864 to 1917. The introduction of the zemstvo system was one o...

cellular telephone

(Encyclopedia)cellular telephone or cellular radio, telecommunications system in which a portable or mobile radio transmitter and receiver, or “cellphone,” is linked via microwave radio frequencies to base tran...

binary star

(Encyclopedia)CE5 A. Eclipsing binary: Primary component passing behind secondary (dimmer) component B. Light curve for eclipsing binary binary star or binary system, pair of stars that are held together by the...

Canadian National Railway

(Encyclopedia)Canadian National Railway, rail system in Canada and the United States, extending from coast to coast in Canada with many branch lines in each province and in the United States. The system began as an...

streetcar

(Encyclopedia)streetcar, small, self-propelled railroad car, similar to the type used in rapid-transit systems, that operates on tracks running through city streets and is used to carry passengers. Most often cars ...

Atchafalaya

(Encyclopedia)Atchafalaya əchăˈfəlīˌə [key], navigable river, c.170 mi (270 km) long, S central La. The Atchafalaya meanders south, in a former channel of the Mississippi, to the Gulf of Mexico. A distributa...

Midland Canal

(Encyclopedia)Midland Canal, Ger. Mittelland Kanal, artificial waterway system of Germany, extending eastward c.200 mi (320 km) along the North German plain from the Dortmund-Ems Canal, Germany, to Magdeburg, Germa...

Wirt, William Albert

(Encyclopedia)Wirt, William Albert, 1874–1938, American educator, b. Markle, Ind., grad. DePauw Univ. (Ph.B., 1898; Ph.D., 1916). In 1907 he became superintendent of schools in Gary, Ind., where he developed a pl...

functionalism, in anthropology and sociology

(Encyclopedia)functionalism, in anthropology and sociology, a theory stressing the importance of interdependence among all behavior patterns and institutions within a social system to its long-term survival. It was...