Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

crank

(Encyclopedia)crank, mechanical linkage consisting of a bar attached to a pivot at one of its ends in such a way that it is capable of rotating through a complete circle about the pivot. One of the principal uses o...

mute

(Encyclopedia)mute myo͞ot [key], in music, device designed to diminish uniformly the loudness of a musical instrument. For example, a trumpet mute is cone-shaped and fits into the instrument's bell, and a violin m...

Temple, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Temple, city (1990 pop. 46,109), Bell co., central Tex.; inc. 1882. In a rich blackland region, Temple has grain and textile mills, railroad shops, and plants that make computer printers and terminals...

Bondfield, Margaret Grace

(Encyclopedia)Bondfield, Margaret Grace, 1873–1953, British political and trade union leader. A Labour member of Parliament (1923–24, 1926–31), she served as secretary to the minister of labor (1924) and, und...

Louise of Savoy, duchesse d'Angoulême

(Encyclopedia)Louise of Savoy, duchesse d'Angoulême düshĕsˈ däNgo͞olĕmˈ [key], 1476–1531, regent of France; daughter of Duke Philip II of Savoy and mother of King Francis I of France and Margaret, queen o...

Fuller, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Fuller, Margaret, 1810–50, American writer, lecturer, and public intellectual, b. Cambridgeport (now part of Cambridge), Mass. She was one of the most influential personalities in the American liter...

Mead, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Mead, Margaret, 1901–78, American anthropologist, b. Philadelphia, grad. Barnard, 1923, Ph.D. Columbia, 1929. In 1926 she became assistant curator, in 1942 associate curator, and from 1964 to 1969 s...

Mitchell, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Margaret, 1900–1949, American novelist, b. Atlanta, Ga. Her one novel, Gone with the Wind (1936; Pulitzer Prize), a romantic, panoramic portrait of the Civil War and Reconstruction periods...

Drabble, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Drabble, Margaret, 1939–, English novelist, b. Sheffield, Yorkshire; sister of A. S. Byatt. Drabble's rigorous and unsentimentally realistic vision of an England split between traditional values and...

McDowell, Ephraim

(Encyclopedia)McDowell, Ephraim məkdoulˈ, –douˈəl [key], 1771–1830, American pioneer surgeon, b. Virginia. He studied with the Scottish surgeon John Bell in Edinburgh and practiced in Danville, Ky. He was n...
 

Browse by Subject