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Interior, United States Department of the

(Encyclopedia)Interior, United States Department of the, federal executive department established in 1849, delegated custodian of U.S. natural resources, and whose head, the Secretary of the Interior, has cabinet r...

Goebbels, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Goebbels, Joseph (Paul Joseph Goebbels) poul yōˈzĕf göbˈəls [key], 1897–1945, German National Socialist propagandist. He was kept out of the service in World War I by a clubfoot. After graduat...

milling

(Encyclopedia)milling, mechanical grinding of wheat or other grains to produce flour. Milling separates the fine, mealy parts of grain from the fibrous bran covering. In prehistoric times grain was crushed between ...

Marsilius of Padua

(Encyclopedia)Marsilius of Padua märsĭlˈēəs, păˈdyo͞oə [key], d. c.1342, Italian political philosopher. He is satirically called Marsiglio. Little is known with certainty of his life except that he was rec...

supercomputer

(Encyclopedia)supercomputer, a state-of-the-art, extremely powerful computer capable of manipulating massive amounts of data in a relatively short time. Supercomputers are very expensive and are employed for specia...

Elephant Butte Dam

(Encyclopedia)Elephant Butte Dam, main unit of the Rio Grande project of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on the Rio Grande, SW N.Mex.; completed 1916. The dam, with its large reservoir, is used for flood control, hy...

Cox, George Barnsdale

(Encyclopedia)Cox, George Barnsdale, 1853–1916, American politician, Republican boss of Cincinnati, b. Cincinnati. A former bootblack, he turned to real estate and local politics after selling his saloon in 1881....

Ctesibius

(Encyclopedia)Ctesibius tĭsĭbˈēəs [key], fl. 2d cent. b.c., Alexandrian Greek inventor. He reputedly was the first to discover and apply the expansive power of air as a motive force. Among the inventions ascri...

Iowa, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Iowa, river, 329 mi (529 km) long, rising in the lakes of N Iowa and flowing SE to the Mississippi River, SE Iowa; Cedar River (300 mi/483 km long) is its chief tributary. A power dam crosses the gorg...

Housatonic

(Encyclopedia)Housatonic ho͞osətŏnˈĭk [key], river rising in the Berkshires, W Mass., and flowing generally south c.130 mi (210 km) through W Connecticut to Long Island Sound at Stratford. The river has long b...