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tuba

(Encyclopedia)tuba to͞oˈbə [key] [Lat.,=trumpet], valved brass wind musical instrument of wide conical bore. The term tuba is applied rather loosely to any low-pitched brass instrument other than the trombone; s...

Scott, George C.

(Encyclopedia)Scott, George C. (George Campbell Scott), 1927–99, American actor, b. Wise, Va. Fiery and intense, Scott played his first major roles in Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, and As You Like It for t...

rose of Jericho

(Encyclopedia)rose of Jericho, common name for two plants belonging to different families in the plant kingdom. One, an annual desert plant (Anastatica hierochuntica) of the family Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae; must...

Sirk, Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Sirk, Douglas, 1900–87, German-American film director, b. Hamburg as Claus Detlef Sierck. A successful director in German theater and film, he fled the Nazi regime in 1937. Two years later he emigra...

skywriting

(Encyclopedia)skywriting, advertising medium in which aircraft spell out trade names and sales slogans in the sky by means of the controlled emission of thick smoke. The technique was first developed (1922) by J. C...

glider

(Encyclopedia)glider, type of aircraft resembling an airplane but having at most a small auxiliary propulsion plant and usually no means of propulsion at all. The typical modern glider has very slender wings and a ...

Cousteau, Jacques Yves

(Encyclopedia)Cousteau, Jacques Yves zhäk ēv ko͞ostōˈ [key], 1910–97, French oceanographer and naval officer. In 1943, with Émil Gagnan, he invented the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba)...

Coriolis effect

(Encyclopedia)Coriolis effect kôrˌē-ōˈlĭs [key] [for G.-G. de Coriolis, a French mathematician], tendency for any moving body on or above the earth's surface, e.g., an ocean current or an artillery round, to ...

Hoyle, Sir Fred

(Encyclopedia)Hoyle, Sir Fred hoil [key], 1915–2001, British astrophysicist and mathematician, b. Bingley, Yorkshire. During the years of World War II, Hoyle primarily worked on technical problems related to rada...

Hou Hsiao-hsien

(Encyclopedia)Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1947–, Taiwanese film director, b. Guangdong, China. His first feature film, Cute Girl (1980), and subsequent ones were generally saccharine romances until the semibiographical A Ti...