Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Bacon, Nathaniel, 1647–76, leader of Bacon's Rebellion in colonial Virginia. An aristocrat (he was kin to Francis Bacon, had been educated at Cambridge and Gray's Inn, and was a member of the govern...

(Encyclopedia) jackrabbit, popular name for several hares of W North America, characterized by very long legs and ears. Jackrabbits are powerful jumpers and fast runners. In normal progress leaps are alternated with...

(Encyclopedia) Bruce, Edward, d. 1318, Scottish king of Ireland, brother of Robert I of Scotland. He aided his brother in the war for independence from England and in 1315 was declared heir to Robert's throne. With ...

(Encyclopedia) Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2d earl of, 1770–1828, English statesman. He was elected to Parliament as a Tory in 1790 and succeeded his father to the peerage in 1808. He served as foreign secr...

(Encyclopedia) bluestone, common name for the blue, crystalline heptahydrate of cupric sulfate called chalcanthite, a minor ore of copper. It also refers to a fine-grained, light to dark colored blue-gray sandstone....

(Encyclopedia) flycatcher, common name for various members of the Old World family Muscicapidae, insectivorous songbirds including the kingbirds, phoebes, and pewees. Flycatchers vary in color from drab to brilliant...

(Encyclopedia) Stephenson, George, 1781–1848, British engineer, noted as a locomotive builder. He learned to read and write in night school at the age of 18, while working in a colliery. He constructed (1814) a tr...

(Encyclopedia) Dwight, Henry Otis, 1843–1917, American missionary in Turkey, b. Constantinople, studied at Ohio Wesleyan Univ.; son of Harrison Gray Otis Dwight. In 1867 he returned to Constantinople as secular ag...

(Encyclopedia) siderite kălˈĭbīt [key], a mineral, varying in color from brown, green, or gray to black and occurring in nature in massive and crystalline form. A carbonate of iron, FeCO3, it serves as an iron o...

(Encyclopedia) Southdown sheep, mutton breed of sheep originated on the South Downs of Sussex, England, and now raised throughout the world. It is a small sheep, the most thickset of all breeds, and it is valued for...