Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) fireball, very bright meteor leaving a trail in the sky that can remain visible for several minutes; often a distinct sound, perhaps caused by very low frequency radio waves, is associated with it. A ...

(Encyclopedia) Thayer, Sylvanus, 1785–1872, American soldier and educator, b. Braintree, Mass., grad. Dartmouth, 1807, and West Point, 1808. During the War of 1812 he served as an engineer, and afterward he was se...

(Encyclopedia) Guilford gĭlˈfərd [key], town (2020 pop. 22,073), New Haven co., S Conn., on Long Island S...

(Encyclopedia) digital art, contemporary art in which computer technology is used in a wide variety of ways to make distinctive works. Digital art was pioneered in the 1970s but only came into its own as a viable ar...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Harp harp, stringed musical instrument of ancient origin, the strings of which are plucked with the fingers. Harps were found in paintings from the 13th cent. b.c. at Thebes. In different form...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Hand telephone telephone, device for communicating sound, especially speech, usually by means of wires in an electric circuit. The telephones now in general use evolved from the device invente...

(Encyclopedia) New Rochelle rōshĕlˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 67,625), Westchester co., SE N.Y., on Long Island Sound; settled by Huguenots 1688, inc. as a village 1858, as a city 1899. Although mainly a residential...

(Encyclopedia) Old Lyme līm [key], residential and resort town (1990 pop. 6,535), New London co., SE Conn., on Long Island Sound, at the mouth of the Connecticut River; settled c.1655, inc. 1855. Its noteworthy old...

(Encyclopedia) Oyster Bay, uninc. area (1990 pop. 6,687) of the Town of Oyster Bay, Nassau co., SE N.Y., on N Long Island, on Long Island Sound; settled 1653. It is chiefly residential. Nearby is Theodore Roosevelt'...

(Encyclopedia) Mariotte, Edme ĕdˈmə märyôtˈ [key], 1620?–1684, French physicist. His De la nature de l'air (1676) includes a statement of Boyle's law (see gas laws), which he discovered independently and whi...