Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) prefabrication, in architectural construction, a technique whereby large units of a building are produced in factories to be assembled, ready-made, on the building site. The technique permits the spee...

(Encyclopedia) Pittsfield, city (1990 pop. 48,622), seat of Berkshire co., W Mass., between mountain ranges, on branches of the Housatonic River; inc. as a town 1761, as a city 1889. The city is the metropolis of th...

(Encyclopedia) Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804–64, American novelist and short-story writer, b. Salem, Mass., one of the great masters of American fiction. His novels and tales are penetrating explorations of moral and...

(Encyclopedia) Olson, Charles, 1910–70, American critic and poet, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1932; M.A., 1933). His literary reputation was established with Call Me Ishmael (1947), a study of the in...

(Encyclopedia) Delano, Amasa ămˈəsə dĕlˈənō [key], 1763–1823, American sea captain, b. Duxbury, Mass. At 15, he served as a soldier in the American Revolution and later as a privateersman. His experiences ...

(Encyclopedia) Jones, Thomas ap Catesby, 1789–1858, American naval officer, b. Westmoreland co., Va. He joined the navy in 1805 and helped suppress piracy and the slave trade in the Gulf of Mexico (1808–12). In ...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Geodesic dome geodesic dome jēˌədĕsˈĭk, –dēˈsĭk [key], structure that roughly approximates a hemisphere. Popular in recent years as economical, easily erected buildings, geodesic do...

(Encyclopedia) Marquand, John Phillips märˈkwänd [key], 1893–1960, American novelist, b. Wilmington, Del., grad. Harvard, 1915. Most of Marquand's gently satirical novels examine life among the rich and sociall...

(Encyclopedia) Tiwi Islands, island group (2016 pop. 2,453), Northern Territory, Australia, c.50 mi (80 km) N of Darwin, in the Timor Sea. Consisting of Bathurst Island and the much larger Melville Island to the eas...

(Encyclopedia) Langer, William Leonard, 1896–1977, American historian, b. Boston. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1923 and began teaching there in 1927. Langer served in U.S. intelligence in World War II and...