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Blaeu, Willem Janszoon

(Encyclopedia)Blaeu, Willem Janszoon vĭˈləm yänˈsōn blou [key], 1571–1638, Dutch cartographer and printer. He studied astronomy and instrument making under the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. The printing es...

Sloane, T(homas) O'Conor

(Encyclopedia)Sloane, T(homas) O'Conor, 1851–1940, American scientist, lecturer, writer, and periodical editor, Ph.D. Columbia, 1876. Sloane was a member of the editorial staff of the Scientific American, where h...

Uman

(Encyclopedia)Uman o͞omänˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 91,000), central Ukraine, at the confluence of the Kamenka and Umanka rivers. It is a rail junction and has plants producing scientific instruments. Mentioned in...

harmonica

(Encyclopedia)harmonica. 1 The simplest of the musical instruments employing free reeds, known also as the mouth organ or French harp. It was probably invented in 1829 by Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin, who called h...

palladium, chemical element

(Encyclopedia)palladium [Gr. Pallas, goddess of wisdom], metallic chemical element; symbol Pd; at. no. 46; at. wt. 106.42; m.p. 1,554℃; b.p. 2,970℃; sp. gr. 12.02 at 20℃; valence +2, +3, or +4. Palladium is a...

percussion instrument

(Encyclopedia)percussion instrument, any instrument that produces musical sound when its surface is struck with an implement (such as a mallet, stick, or disk) or with the hand. Perhaps the most universally familia...

African music

(Encyclopedia)African music, the music of the indigenous peoples of Africa. Sub-Saharan African music has as its distinguishing feature a rhythmic complexity common to no other region. Polyrhythmic counterpoint, wh...

violin

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Violins and viols violin, family of stringed musical instruments having wooden bodies whose backs and fronts are slightly convex, the fronts pierced by two ƒ-shaped resonance holes. The instr...

Ealing

(Encyclopedia)Ealing ēˈlĭng [key], outer borough of Greater London, SE England.At one time, it was highl...

Edison

(Encyclopedia)Edison, township (2020 pop. 107,588), Middlesex co., NE N.J., inc. 1870 as Raritan Township, renamed 1954. Edison's varied manufactures include chemical...