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capitularies

(Encyclopedia)capitularies kəpĭchˈo͝olĕrˌēz [key], decrees and written commands of the Carolingian kings of the Franks, so called because they were divided into capitula, or chapters. Both legislative and ad...

Balinese music

(Encyclopedia)Balinese music represents, to a large extent, a survival of the pre-Islamic music of Java. It was taken to Bali by Hindu Javanese in the 15th cent. and uses the tonal systems of Javanese music, of whi...

Jimson weed

(Encyclopedia)Jimson weed or Jamestown weed, large, coarse annual plant (Datura stramonium) of the family Solanaceae (nightshade family), native to warm-temperate and tropical regions of the New World, but long wid...

Lambert, John

(Encyclopedia)Lambert, John, 1619–83, English parliamentary general. He fought in the first civil war (1642–46) and assisted Henry Ireton in drawing up the Heads of the Proposals in 1647. In 1648 he commanded t...

mass spectrograph

(Encyclopedia)mass spectrograph, device used to separate electrically charged particles according to their masses; a form of the instrument known as a mass spectrometer is often used to measure the masses of isotop...

damp

(Encyclopedia)damp, in mining, any mixture of gases in an underground mine, especially oxygen-deficient or noxious gases. The term damp probably is derived from the German dampf, meaning fog or vapor. Several disti...

San Juan Boundary Dispute

(Encyclopedia)San Juan Boundary Dispute, controversy between the United States and Great Britain over the U.S.–British Columbia boundary. It is sometimes called the Northwest Boundary Dispute. The difficulty aros...

Arecibo Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Arecibo Observatory, radio-astronomy facility located near Arecibo, Puerto Rico, part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center. Conceived by, designed by, and built under the supervision of Wil...

Kertész, André

(Encyclopedia)Kertész, André kĕrtĕshˈ [key], 1894–1985, American photographer, b. Budapest. His black-and-white modernist photographs often capture small, lyrical, and emotionally resonant moments while also...

evaporimeter

(Encyclopedia)evaporimeter ĭvăpˌərĭmˈətər [key], instrument that measures the rate of evaporation of water into the atmosphere, sometimes called an atmometer. Evaporimeters are of two types, those that meas...