Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Hadrian's Wall, ancient Roman wall, 73.5 mi (118.3 km) long, across the narrow part of the island of Great Britain from Wallsend on the Tyne River to Bowness at the head of Solway Firth. It was mainly...

(Encyclopedia) Fairchild, David Grandison, 1869–1954, American botanist and agricultural explorer, b. East Lansing, Mich. He entered the service of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, where he organized (1895) and late...

(Encyclopedia) Lidman, Sara säˈrä lēdˈmän [key], 1923–2004, Swedish writer. Her novels The Tar Still (1953), Cloudberry Land (1955), and The Rain Bird (1958, tr. 1962), treating rural life in N Sweden, estab...

(Encyclopedia) London Bridge, granite, five-arched bridge formerly over the Thames, in London, England. It is 928 ft (283 m) long and was designed by John Rennie and built between 1824 and 1831. The early wooden bri...

(Encyclopedia) lots. The casting of lots was an ancient method of making a choice, settling a dispute, or determining a course of action. In biblical times lots were cast to determine the will of God (it is believed...

(Encyclopedia) Mankato mănkāˈtō [key], city (1990 pop. 31,477), seat of Blue Earth co., S Minn., at the confluence of the Blue Earth and Minnesota rivers; inc. 1865. It is a trade and processing center for a far...

(Encyclopedia) oilcloth, originally, cloth treated with oil or other substances so as to be waterproof and used for fishermen's and sailors' wear, for coach robes and covers, and later as a floor covering, called fl...

(Encyclopedia) Öland öˈländ [key], narrow island (1995 pop. 25,690), 520 sq mi (1,347 sq km), Kalmar co., SE Sweden, in the Baltic Sea, separated from mainland Sweden by the Kalmarsund. Borgholm is the chief tow...

(Encyclopedia) Díaz Mirón, Salvador sälväᵺōrˈ dēˈäs mērōnˈ [key], 1853–1928, Mexican poet. Díaz Mirón's life abounded with revolutionary plots, political quarrels, duels, and vigorous journalistic ...

(Encyclopedia) Blankenburg bätˈ [key], city, Saxony-Anhalt, E central Germany. It is a spa located at the ...