Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

luxury tax

(Encyclopedia)luxury tax, levy on articles that are not essential to a normal standard of living. Such taxes may be imposed strictly for revenue purposes or they may be intended to discourage consumption of certain...

Rogers, Henry Huttleston

(Encyclopedia)Rogers, Henry Huttleston, 1840–1909, American financier, b. Fairhaven, Mass. After he moved (1860) to Pennsylvania, he entered the oil business, experimented in the refining of petroleum, and, in pa...

Agricola, Georgius

(Encyclopedia)Agricola, Georgius gāˈôrk bouˈər [key], 1494–1555, German physician and scientist, known as the father of mineralogy. He was a pioneer in physical geology and the first to classify minerals sci...

Berni, Francesco

(Encyclopedia)Berni, Francesco fränchāsˈkō bĕrˈnē [key], 1497?–1535, Italian humorous poet, a priest. He was noted for his burlesque capitoli, light, often ribald verses in terza rima. He revised Boiardo's...

Abbado, Claudio

(Encyclopedia)Abbado, Claudio, 1933–2014, Italian conductor, b. Milan. He debuted (1960) in his native city, conducting the orchestra at La Scala, where he subsequently served (1968–86) as musical director. He ...

Thénard, Louis Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Thénard, Louis Jacques lwē zhäk tānärˈ [key], 1777–1857, French chemist. He became professor at the Collège de France (1802), dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Paris (1821), chancellor of the ...

Seton, Ernest Thompson

(Encyclopedia)Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860–1946, American writer and artist, b. England. His name was originally Ernest Seton Thompson. His stories and paintings of wildlife, especially Wild Animals I Have Known ...

Shaw, Leslie Mortier

(Encyclopedia)Shaw, Leslie Mortier, 1848–1932, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (1902–7), b. Morristown, Vt. Admitted to the Iowa bar in 1876, he organized (1880) a banking firm that specialized in agricultural c...

Pearson, John

(Encyclopedia)Pearson, John, 1613–86, English prelate and scholar. He was a royalist chaplain (1645) in the civil war, but during Cromwell's regime he lived quietly in London. His Exposition of the Creed (1659), ...

iridium

(Encyclopedia)iridium ĭrĭdˈēəm [key], metallic chemical element; symbol Ir; at. no. 77; at. wt. 192.217; m.p. about 2,410℃; b.p. about 4,130℃; sp. gr. 22.55 at 20℃; valence +3 or +4. Iridium is a very ha...