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Alice

(Encyclopedia)Alice, city (2020 pop. 17,891), seat of Jim Wells co., S Tex.; inc. 1910. Long a cow town at a railroad junction, Alice remains a cattle-shipping center. Oil and natural gas are also impor...

ethane

(Encyclopedia)ethane ĕthˈān [key], CH3CH3, gaseous hydrocarbon. It is a continuous-chain alkane. As a constituent of natural gas, it is used for fuel. It can be prepared by cracking and fractional distillation o...

Pharr

(Encyclopedia)Pharr fär [key], city (1990 pop. 32,921), Hidalgo co., extreme S Tex.; inc. 1916. It is located in the irrigated region of the lower Rio Grande valley. Transportation equipment and concrete blocks ar...

Passaic, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Passaic, river, c.80 mi (130 km) long, rising near Morristown, NE N.J., and flowing with a winding course NE then S past several industrial towns to Newark Bay. It is navigable by large vessels to the...

actinium series

(Encyclopedia)actinium series, natural radioactive decay series beginning with uranium-235 (also called actinouranium) and ending with lead-207. See radioactivity. ...

Wyoming, University of

(Encyclopedia)Wyoming, University of, at Laramie; coeducational; land-grant and state supported; chartered 1886, opened 1887. The Rocky Mt. Herbarium, which has an outstanding collection of plants of the central Ro...

Sydney, University of

(Encyclopedia)Sydney, University of, at Sydney, Australia, founded 1850, as Australia's first university. It began with a small faculty of arts, acquired a new campus in 1855, added faculties of law, medicine, and ...

Sulphur, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Sulphur, city (1990 pop. 20,125), Calcasieu parish, SW La.; inc. 1914. It is a trade center for an area producing natural gas, oil, and timber as well as sorghum, soybeans, cattle, and crawfish. Indus...

bitumen

(Encyclopedia)bitumen bĭtyo͞oˈmən [key] a generic term referring to flammable, brown or black mixtures of tarlike hydrocarbons, derived naturally or by distillation from petroleum. It can be in the form of a vi...

Leidy, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Leidy, Joseph līˈdē [key], 1823–91, American scientist, b. Philadelphia, grad. Univ. of Pennsylvania medical school. From 1853 he taught anatomy at his alma mater. He was also professor of natura...