Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) eyeglasses or spectacles, instrument or device for aiding and correcting defective sight. Eyeglasses usually consist of a pair of lenses mounted in a frame to hold them in position before the eyes. Th...

(Encyclopedia) Charles VI (Charles the Mad or Charles the Well Beloved), 1368–1422, king of France (1380–1422), son and successor of King Charles V. During his minority he was under the tutelage of his uncles (p...

(Encyclopedia) Antiochus III (Antiochus the Great), d. 187 b.c., king of Syria (223–187 b.c.), son of Seleucus II and younger brother of Seleucus III, whom he succeeded. At his accession the Seleucid empire was in...

(Encyclopedia) Weyburn wāˈbərn [key], city (1991 pop. 9,673), SE Sask., Canada, SE of Regina. A trade center for a wheat-growing and oil-producing region, it has grain elevators and a feed mill. Power-line and tr...

(Encyclopedia) Jeannette jənĕtˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 11,221), Westmoreland co., SW Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh; laid out 1888, inc. as a city 1937. Located in a coal and natural gas area, Jeannette produces mac...

(Encyclopedia) Köniz köˈnĭts [key], town (1990 pop. 37,309), Bern canton, W central Switzerland. It is a suburb of Bern. The Romanesque-Gothic church, founded in the 10th cent. by Rudolph II of Burgundy, has not...

(Encyclopedia) Stolberg shtôlˈbĕrkhˌ [key], city (1994 pop. 58,028), North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany; chartered 1856. It is a center of the German brass industry, which was started (c.1600) there by Protesta...

(Encyclopedia) Queenborough-in-Sheppey, town (1991 pop. 33,362), on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, SE England, at the confluence of the Medway and Thames rivers. Radios, furniture, glass, rubber products, and clothing a...

(Encyclopedia) Verviers vĕrvyāˈ [key], commune (1991 pop. 53,482), Liège prov., E Belgium, on the Vesdre River and at the foot of the Ardennes. Manufactures of this industrial center include textiles, glass, and...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Lenses lens, device for forming an image of an object by the refraction of light. In its simplest form it is a disk of transparent substance, commonly glass, with its two surfaces curved or wi...