Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) typewriter, instrument for producing by manual operation characters similar to those of printing. Corresponding to each key on the instrument's keyboard is a steel type. Activated through a series of ...

(Encyclopedia) will, in law, document expressing the wishes of a person (known as a testator) concerning the disposition of her property after her death. If a person dies intestate, i.e., without a valid will, statu...

(Encyclopedia) Poison Affair, in French history, scandal implicating a number of prominent persons at the court of King Louis XIV. It began with the trial of Marie Madeleine d'Aubray, marquise de Brinvilliers (c.163...

(Encyclopedia) series, in mathematics, indicated sum of a sequence of terms. A series may be finite or infinite. A finite series contains a definite number of terms whose sum can be found by various methods. An infi...

(Encyclopedia) Sharif, Nawaz näwäzˈ shärēfˈ [key], 1949–, Pakistani politician; grad. Government College, Lahore; Punjab Univ. Law College. Born into a prominent Lahore business family, he was by 1980 direct...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Types of gears gear, toothed wheel, cylinder, or cone that transmits motion from one part of a machine to another; it is one of the oldest means of transmitting motion. When the teeth of two g...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 German Confederation (1815) German Confederation, 1815–66, union of German states provided for at the Congress of Vienna to replace the old Holy Roman Empire, which had been destroyed during...

(Encyclopedia) Granger movement, American agrarian movement taking its name from the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, an organization founded in 1867 by Oliver H. Kelley and six associates. Its local uni...

(Encyclopedia) executive order, in the United States, official document initiated and signed by the president containing directives concerning how the executive branch shall carry out its responsibilities under the ...

(Encyclopedia) executors and administrators. An executor is the person designated in the will of a deceased person to carry out the provisions of the will. An administrator is the person appointed by a probate court...