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Smoot, George Fitzgerald, 3d

(Encyclopedia)Smoot, George Fitzgerald, 3d smo͞ot [key], 1945–, American astrophysicist, b. Jacksonville, Fl., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1970. Smoot has been a professor at the Univ. of Califor...

Regiomontanus

(Encyclopedia)Regiomontanus rēˌjēōmŏnˌtāˈnəs [key] [Lat.,=belonging to the royal mountain, i.e., to Königsberg], 1436–76, German astronomer and mathematician, b. Königsberg. His original name was Johan...

spinet

(Encyclopedia)spinet, musical instrument of the harpsichord family. Although the terms virginal and spinet, interchangeable until the end of the 17th cent., were sometimes used indiscriminately to designate any har...

Beauvais

(Encyclopedia)Beauvais bōvāˈ [key], town, capital of Oise dept., N France. Tractors, ceramic tiles, text...

Theremin, Leon

(Encyclopedia)Theremin, Leon thĕrˈəmən [key], 1896–1993, Russian engineer and inventor, b. St. Petersburg as Lev Sergeyevich Termen. He studied and worked in his native city, attending its university and cons...

satinwood

(Encyclopedia)satinwood, name for a hard and durable wood with a satinlike sheen, much used in cabinetmaking, especially in marquetry. It comes from two tropical trees of the family Rutaceae (rue family). East Indi...

Sigsbee, Charles Dwight

(Encyclopedia)Sigsbee, Charles Dwight, 1845–1923, American naval officer, b. Albany, N.Y. He saw service in the Gulf of Mexico in the Civil War, was subsequently stationed with the Asian squadron, taught at Annap...

Pesaro

(Encyclopedia)Pesaro pāˈzärō [key], city (1991 pop. 88,713), capital of Pesaro e Urbino prov., in the Marche region, central Italy, on the Adriatic Sea at the mouth of the Foglia River. It is an agricultural an...

bellows

(Encyclopedia)bellows, expansible, gas-tight chamber used to pump or store a gas. One of the simplest and most familiar types of bellows is the manual one used for providing a forced draft to a fire. The expansible...

Japanese music

(Encyclopedia)Japanese music, the highly eclectic musical culture of the Japanese islands. Over the years, Japan has borrowed musical instruments, scales, and styles from many neighboring areas. The indigenous musi...