Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) pyroclastic flow, turbulent, fluidized mixture of rock, volcanic ash, and hot gas that moves like an avalanche away from a volcanic eruption. A pyroclastic flow may contain a mix of rock fragments ran...

(Encyclopedia) Beeckman, Isaac bākˈmən [key], 1588–1637, Dutch physicist. An early proponent of mathematical reasoning and experimental verification in natural philosophy, he contributed to the modern conceptio...

(Encyclopedia) Vienne, town (1990 pop. 30,386), Isère dept., SE France, on the Rhône River. It is a farm trade center with textile, metallurgical, and footwear industries. The capital of the Allobroges, Vienne (th...

(Encyclopedia) Beauvais bōvāˈ [key], town, capital of Oise dept., N France. Tractors, ceramic tiles, text...

(Encyclopedia) Balthus bôlˈthəs, bălˈ– [key], 1908–2001, Polish-French painter, b. Paris as Count Balthasar Klossowski de Rola. Balthus is sometimes regarded as one of the most important figurative painters...

(Encyclopedia) San Francisco Symphony, orchestra founded 1911. It has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall since 1980. Henry Hadley, the original music director, was followed by Alfred Hertz (1915–30), ...

(Encyclopedia) Parti Québécois pärtē kēbĕkwäˈ [key] (PQ), provincial political party committed to the independence of Quebec. Founded in 1968, it soon became a force in provincial elections. In 1976, led by ...

(Encyclopedia) lithography lĭthŏgˈrəfē [key], type of planographic or surface printing. It is distinguished from letterpress (relief) printing and from intaglio printing (in which the design is cut or etched in...

(Encyclopedia) impressionism, in painting, late-19th-century French school that was generally characterized by the attempt to depict transitory visual impressions, often painted directly from nature, and by the use ...

(Encyclopedia) Percier, Charles shärl pĕrsyāˈ [key], 1764–1838, French architect. He won (1786) the Grand Prix de Rome, and in 1794 he became associated with Pierre François Léonard Fontaine. Napoleon appoin...