Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Arkwright, Sir Richard, 1732–92, English inventor. His construction of a machine for spinning, the water frame, patented in 1769, was an early step in the Industrial Revolution. His machines and his...

(Encyclopedia) Filmer, Sir Robert, d. 1653, English royalist political writer, author of Patriarcha; or, The Natural Power of Kings (pub. posthumously in 1680), a defense of the divine right of monarchs by an exposi...

(Encyclopedia) Wilkie, Sir David, 1785–1841, Scottish genre painter. He studied in Edinburgh and at the Royal Academy and won early popularity with his admirable little scenes of everyday life. Anecdotal painting ...

(Encyclopedia) Schuster, Sir Arthur, 1851–1934, English physicist, b. Germany. At Owens College, Manchester Univ., he was professor of applied mathematics (1881–88) and professor of physics (1888–1907). He is ...

(Encyclopedia) Gravelot, Hubert übĕrˈ grävlōˈ [key], 1699–1772, French engraver. Gravelot was instrumental in introducing the French rococo pictorial tradition to England. The books he illustrated include th...

(Encyclopedia) Chambers, Sir Edmund Kerchever, 1866–1954, English literary critic and Shakespearean scholar. He wrote The Mediaeval Stage (1903), The Elizabethan Stage (1923), Arthur of Britain (1927), William Sha...

(Encyclopedia) Cornforth, Sir John Warcup wôrˈkəp côrnˈfərth [key], 1917–2013, Australian chemist, Ph.D. Oxford, 1941. Although Cornforth suffered a hearing loss from childhood and was deaf by the time he gr...

(Encyclopedia) Wilkins, Sir George Hubert, 1888–1958, British explorer, b. Australia. He made a number of trips to Antarctica and to the Arctic. Valuable experience gained when he accompanied Vilhjalmur Stefansson...

(Encyclopedia) Evans, Sir Arthur John, 1851–1941, English archaeologist. He was (1884–1908) keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. From 1900 to 1935 he conducted excavations on the Greek island of Crete, prin...

(Encyclopedia) Sturdee, Sir Frederick Charles Doveton stûrˈdē [key], 1859–1925, British admiral. He entered the navy in 1871 and rose to become (1914) chief of war staff at the admiralty on the outbreak of Worl...