Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) type, for printing, was invented in China (c.1040), using woodblocks. Related devices, such as seals and stamps for making impressions in clay, had been used in ancient times in Babylon and elsewhere....

(Encyclopedia) library, a collection of books or other written or printed materials, as well as the facility in which they are housed and the institution that is responsible for their maintenance. Modern libraries m...

(Encyclopedia) lead, metallic chemical element; symbol Pb [Lat. plumbum]; at. no. 82; at. wt. 207.2; m.p. 327.502℃; b.p. about 1,740℃; sp. gr. 11.35 at 20℃; valence +2 or +4. One of the oldest metals used by h...

(Encyclopedia) sewerage, system for the removal and disposal of chiefly liquid wastes and of rainwater, which are collectively called sewage. The average person in the industrialized world produces between 60 and 14...

(Encyclopedia) Middle Eastern religions, religious beliefs and practices of the ancient inhabitants of the Middle East. Little was known about the religions of the city-states of W Asia until stores of religious lit...

(Encyclopedia) diamond, mineral, one of two crystalline forms of the element carbon (see allotropy), the hardest natural substance known, used as a gem and in industry. The discoveries of 1870–71 in South Africa...

(Encyclopedia) Douglas, Stephen Arnold, 1813–61, American statesman, b. Brandon, Vt. The Democratic national convention at Charleston, S.C., in 1860 adopted Douglas's recommendations in a platform advocating non...

(Encyclopedia) Charleston. 1 City (2020 pop. 17,286), seat of Coles co., E Ill.; inc. 1835. Charleston is an industrial, rail, and trade center located in an ...

(Encyclopedia) Ford, Henry, 1863–1947, American industrialist, pioneer automobile manufacturer, b. Dearborn, Mich. Henry Ford's son, Edsel Bryant Ford, 1893–1943, b. Detroit, shared in the control of the vast ...

(Encyclopedia) biblical archaeology, term applied to the archaeology of the biblical lands, especially those of the ancient Middle East. While the thousands of written texts found in the languages of the ancient Mid...