Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) futures market, a commodity exchange where contracts for the future delivery of grain, livestock, and precious metals are bought and sold. Speculation in futures serves to protect both the developers ...

(Encyclopedia) reclamation of land, practice of converting land deemed unproductive into arable land by such methods as irrigation, drainage, flood control, altering the texture and mineral and organic content of so...

(Encyclopedia) finance, theory and practice of conducting large public and private dealings in money. Important institutions of private finance include those that deal with insurance, banking, stocks (see stock), bo...

(Encyclopedia) Irvine ûrˈvīn [key], city (2020 pop. 307,670), Orange co., SW Calif.; inc. 1971. Its indus...

(Encyclopedia) Antoninus, Saint ăntōnīˈnəs [key], 1389–1459, Italian churchman, b. Antoninus Pierozzi. He was a Dominican and became archbishop of Florence. He ruled well and was renowned for his charitable w...

(Encyclopedia) Thun to͞on [key], city (1990 est. pop. 37,700), Bern canton, central Switzerland, on the Aare River, where it flows out of the Lake of Thun. Machinery, watches, pottery, and cheese are made there. Of...

(Encyclopedia) Burnham, Sherburne Wesley, 1838–1921, American astronomer, b. Thetford, Vt. After serving as observer at Dearborn Observatory, Chicago (1877–81, 1882–84), and as astronomer at Lick Observatory (...

(Encyclopedia) Gaspé, Philippe Aubert de fēlēpˈ ōbĕrˈ də gäspāˈ [key], 1786–1871, French Canadian author. He was high sheriff of Quebec for several years. His Les Anciens Canadiens (1863, tr. 1864, 1890...

(Encyclopedia) Gerry, Elbridge Thomas, 1837–1927, American reformer, b. New York City; grandson of Elbridge Gerry. Admitted (1860) to the New York bar, he came to be adviser to the American Society for the Prevent...

(Encyclopedia) midwifery mĭdˈwīˌfərē [key], art of assisting at childbirth. The term midwife for centuries referred to a woman who was an overseer during the process of delivery. In ancient Greece and Rome, th...