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watch

(Encyclopedia)watch, small, portable timepiece usually designed to be worn on the person. Other kinds of timepieces are generally referred to as clocks. At one time it was generally believed that the first watches ...

sound

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Sound waves: An air pressure wave radiating outward from a loudspeaker is perceived as sound. sound, any disturbance that travels through an elastic medium such as air, ground, or water to be ...

Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von

(Encyclopedia)Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von hĕrˈmän lo͞otˈvĭkh fĕrˈdēnänt fən hĕlmˈhôlts [key], 1821–94, German scientist. Although known especially as a physicist and biologist, he was al...

Goodman, Benny

(Encyclopedia)Goodman, Benny (Benjamin David Goodman), 1909–86, American clarinetist, composer, and band leader, b. Chicago. Goodman studied clarinet at Hull House. In Chicago he had the opportunity to hear (and ...

Offenbach, Jacques Levy

(Encyclopedia)Offenbach, Jacques Levy ôˈfənbäk, Fr. zhäk lāvēˈ ôfĕnbäkˈ [key], 1819–80, French composer, b. Cologne. The son of a cantor, he went to Paris to study at the conservatory and in 1849 beca...

Lemonnier, Pierre Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lemonnier, Pierre Charles pyĕr shärl ləmônyāˈ [key], 1715–99, French astronomer. For many years he was professor of physics at the Collège de France. He studied the moon and the influence of ...

Layton, Irving

(Encyclopedia)Layton, Irving, 1912–2006, Canadian poet, b. Romania as Israel Lazarovitch. His family emigrated to Montreal when he was an infant. He attended Macdonald College (B.Sc., 1939) and McGill Univ. (M.A....

Lee, Richard Henry

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Richard Henry, 1732–94, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Westmoreland co., Va.; brother of Arthur Lee, Francis L. Lee, and William Lee. He served in the house of burgesses (1758�...

Parks, Gordon

(Encyclopedia)Parks, Gordon (Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks), 1912–2006, African-American photographer, filmmaker, writer, and composer, b. Fort Scott, Kans. Parks purchased his first camera in 1938 and be...

Wiesbaden

(Encyclopedia)Wiesbaden vēsˈbäˌdən, vĭsˈ– [key], city (1994 pop. 270,873), capital of Hesse, central Germany, on the Rhine River, at the southern foot of the Taunus Mts. The city, an industrial center and ...