Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Pichegru, Charles shärl pēshgrüˈ [key], 1761–1804, French general in the French Revolutionary Wars. Successful on the Rhine front (1793), he invaded (1794) the Netherlands, entered (1795) Amster...

(Encyclopedia) fiber optics, transmission of digitized messages or information by light pulses along hair-thin glass or plastic fibers. Each fiber is surrounded by a cladding having a high index of refractance so th...

(Encyclopedia) tilapia təläˈpēə [key] or St. Peter's fish, a spiny-finned freshwater fish of the family Cichlidae, native chiefly to Africa and the Middle East. Fish of the genera Oreochromis, Sarotherodon, and...

(Encyclopedia) twilight, period between sunset and total darkness or between total darkness and sunrise. Total darkness does not occur immediately when the sun sinks below the horizon because light from the sun that...

(Encyclopedia) Richardson, Elliot Lee, 1920–99, U.S. government official, b. Boston. Admitted to the bar in 1949, he was (1957–59) assistant secretary of health, education and welfare under President Dwight D. E...

(Encyclopedia) Greengard, Paul, 1925–2019, American neuroscientist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins, 1953. Greengard was on the staff at Geigy Research Laboratories (1959–67) and a professor at the Albert ...

(Encyclopedia) Fackenheim, Emil Ludwig āmēl lo͞otˈvĭkh făkˈənhīm [key], 1916–2003, Canadian-Israeli rabbi and philosopher, b. Halle, Germany, grad. Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, 1939; Ph...

(Encyclopedia) Melrose, town (1991 pop. 2,221), Scottish Borders, S Scotland, on the Tweed River. It is the site of one of the finest ruins in Scotland—Melrose Abbey, owned by the nation and founded for Cistercian...

(Encyclopedia) Doughty, Sir Arthur George douˈtē [key], 1860–1936, Canadian historian and archivist, b. England. As archivist (1904–35) of the dominion, he largely created the archives of the nation. He wrote ...

(Encyclopedia) Eastman, Joseph Bartlett, 1882–1944, U.S. government administrator, b. Katonah, N.Y. President Wilson appointed him in 1919 to the Interstate Commerce Commission. As federal coordinator of railroads...