Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

veneer

(Encyclopedia)veneer vənērˈ [key], thin leaf of wood applied with glue to a panel or frame of solid wood. The art of veneer developed with early civilization. It produces richly grained effects cheaply and is us...

Simferopol

(Encyclopedia)Simferopol sēmfyĭrôˈpəl [key], city (1989 pop. 344,000), capital of Crimea, on the Salgir River and on the Sevastopol-Kharkiv rail line. From 1954 part of Ukraine (then the Ukrainian SSR), the ci...

liver

(Encyclopedia)liver, largest glandular organ of the body, weighing about 3 lb (1.36 kg). It is reddish brown in color and is divided into four lobes of unequal size and shape. The liver lies on the right side of th...

Tbilisi

(Encyclopedia)Tbilisi tĭfˈlĭs, Rus. tĭflyēsˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 1,259,682), capital of Georgia, SW Asia, on the Kura River and the Transcaucasian RR and at the southern end of the Georgian Military Road. ...

pulley

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Pulleys: The mechanical advantage (MA) of a system of pulleys is equal to the number of supporting strands: in A MA=1 and in B MA=2. pulley, simple machine consisting of a wheel over which a r...

record player

(Encyclopedia)record player or phonograph, device for reproducing sound that has been recorded as a spiral, undulating groove on a disk. This disk is known as a phonograph record, or simply a record (see sound reco...

Tammany

(Encyclopedia)Tammany tămˈənē [key] or Tammany Hall, popular name for the Democratic political machine in Manhattan. Tammany suffered a telling defeat in the election of 1932 and did not regain its former s...

depreciation

(Encyclopedia)depreciation, in accounting, reduction in the value of fixed or capital assets, as by use, damage, weathering, or obsolescence. It can be estimated according to a number of methods. In the straight-li...

Coventry, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Coventry kŏvˈəntrē, kŭvˈ– [key], city and metropolitan borough (2021 est. met...

combine

(Encyclopedia)combine kŏmˈbīn [key], agricultural machine that performs both harvesting and threshing operations. Although it was not widely used until the 1930s, the combine was in existence as early as 1830. E...