Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Moses Lake

(Encyclopedia)Moses Lake, city (1990 pop. 11,235), Grant co., central Wash., on Moses Lake; settled 1897, inc. 1938. A distribution and shipping point for the Columbia basin project, it produces are sugar, potatoes...

parachute

(Encyclopedia)parachute, umbrellalike device designed to retard the descent of a falling body by creating drag as it passes through the air. The development of modern aircraft has led to many experiments in the aer...

potassium nitrate

(Encyclopedia)potassium nitrate, chemical compound, KNO3, occurring as colorless, prismatic crystals or as a white powder; it is found pure in nature as the mineral saltpeter, or niter. (The name saltpeter is also ...

Kourou

(Encyclopedia)Kourou, town and commune (2007 pop. 25,918), N French Guiana, on the coast 26 mi (42 km) NW of Cayenne. A rocket-launching base, the Guiana Space Center, is mainly in the commune near the town; the So...

Richard, Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Richard, Maurice (Joseph Henri Maurice Richard) zhōzĕfˈ äNrēˈ môrēsˈ rēˈshärˌ [key], 1921–2000, Canadian hockey player, b. Montreal. Richard, nicknamed “the Rocket” by his admirers,...

White, Robert Michael

(Encyclopedia)White, Robert Michael, 1924–2010, American aviator, b. New York City. A fighter pilot during World War II, he was shot down over Germany and held in a prisoner-of-war camp (Feb.–Apr, 1945); he was...

Churchill, town, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Churchill, town, NE Manitoba, Canada, a remote port on Hudson Bay at the mouth of the Churchill River. The northern terminus of the Hudson Bay Railway, ...

Orbiting Astronomical Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO), series of four orbiting observatories (see observatory, orbiting) launched between 1966 and 1972 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to...

Kiruna

(Encyclopedia)Kiruna kēˈrünä [key], city (1990 pop. 20,470), Norrbotten co., N Sweden. The northernmost city in Sweden, it is the center of the Lapland iron-mining region. The ore is shipped on the Lapland rail...

Strategic Defense Initiative

(Encyclopedia)Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), former U.S. government program responsible for research and development of a space-based system to defend the nation from attack by strategic ballistic missiles (se...
 

Browse by Subject