Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

N

(Encyclopedia)N, 14th letter of the alphabet. It is a usual symbol for a voiced alveolar (or dental) nasal, as in the English not. The diagraph ng represents a different sound, a voiced velar nasal, as in the Engli...

B

(Encyclopedia)B, second letter of the alphabet. Its Greek correspondent is named beta. It is a usual symbol for a voiced bilabial stop. In musical notation it is used to represent a note in the scale. In chemistry ...

Pelletier, Pierre Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Pelletier, Pierre Joseph pyĕr zhôzĕfˈ pĕlətyāˈ [key], 1788–1842, French chemist. With J. B. Caventou, he was cofounder of alkaloid chemistry and codiscoverer of quinine, strychnine, brucine,...

Marggraf, Andreas Sigismund

(Encyclopedia)Marggraf, Andreas Sigismund ändrāˈäs zēˈgĭsmo͝ont märkˈgräfˌ [key], 1709–82, German chemist, a pioneer in analytical chemistry. He proved that alumina, magnesia, and lime are distinct ea...

Kuhn, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Kuhn, Richard rĭkhˈärt ko͞on [key], 1900–1967, Austrian chemist, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, Heidelberg. For his research on the carotinoids (he prepared eight of them in pure form...

Buchner, Eduard

(Encyclopedia)Buchner, Eduard āˈdo͞oärt bo͞okhˈnər [key], 1860–1917, German chemist. He taught at Berlin, Breslau, and, from 1911, at Würzburg. He discovered (1896) that alcoholic fermentation of sugars i...

Takamine, Jokichi

(Encyclopedia)Takamine, Jokichi jōˈkēchē täkäˈmĭnāˌ [key], 1854–1922, Japanese chemist. He served (1881–84) as chemist in the employ of the Japanese government and (1887) organized a fertilizer manufa...

van't Hoff, Jacobus Hendricus

(Encyclopedia)van't Hoff, Jacobus Hendricus yäkōˈbəs hĕndrēˈkəs vänt hôf [key], 1852–1911, Dutch physical chemist. He taught at the universities of Amsterdam (1878–96) and Berlin (from 1896). For his ...

Wallach, Otto

(Encyclopedia)Wallach, Otto, 1847–1931, German chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Göttingen, 1869. Wallach was a professor at the Univ. of Bonn from 1870 to 1889 and at the Univ. of Göttingen from 1889 to 1915. In 1910 he...

V

(Encyclopedia)V, 22d letter of the alphabet (see U). It is a usual symbol for a voiced labiodental spirant, as in the English vat. In Roman numerals it corresponds to Arabic 5. In chemistry V is the symbol of the e...