Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Koch kōk [key], family of American industrialists and philanthropists. Fred Chase Koch, 1900–1967, b. Quanah, Tex., grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1922, was a Wichita, Kans., entrepre...

(Encyclopedia) Prussia prŭshˈə [key], Ger. Preussen, former state, the largest and most important of the German states. Berlin was the capital. The chief member of the German Empire (1871–1918) and a state of t...

(Encyclopedia) Lateran Council, Third, 1179, 11th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. It was convened at the Lateran Palace, Rome, by Pope Alexander III after the Peace of Venice (1178) had reconciled h...

(Encyclopedia) Melfi mĕlˈfē [key], town (1991 pop. 15,757), in Basilicata, S Italy. It is an agricultural and tourist center noted for its wine. In 1041 it was made the first capital of the Norman county of Apuli...

(Encyclopedia) mortar, in warfare, term originally applied to certain types of artillery with high trajectories, but later applied to an infantry weapon that consists of a tube supported by a bipod that fires a proj...

(Encyclopedia) Mott, Frank Luther, 1886–1964, American author and professor of journalism, b. near What Cheer, Iowa. He directed (1927–42) the school of journalism at the State Univ. of Iowa and was dean (1942�...

(Encyclopedia) Brindisi brēnˈdēzē [key], Latin Brundisium, city, capital of Brindisi prov., in Apulia, S...

(Encyclopedia) Dewar, Sir James dyo͞oˈər [key], 1842–1923, British chemist and physicist, b. Scotland. He was professor of chemistry (from 1877) at the Royal Institution, London, and later was director of the D...

(Encyclopedia) Hoppe, Willie (William Frederick Hoppe) hŏpˈē [key], 1887–1959, American billiards champion, b. Cornwall, N.Y. He practiced billiards from a very early age and gave exhibitions before he won (190...

(Encyclopedia) Adams, Herbert Baxter, 1850–1901, American historian, b. Shutesbury, near Amherst, Mass. In 1876, the year he received his doctorate at Heidelberg, he became one of the original faculty of Johns Hop...