Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) American Philosophical Society, first scientific society in America, founded (1743) in Philadelphia. It was an outgrowth of the Junto formed (1727) by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was the first secreta...

(Encyclopedia) Koszalin kôshäˈlēn [key], Ger. Köslin, city (1994 est. pop. 110,200), Zachodniopomorskie prov., NW Poland, near the Baltic Sea. Its economy depends on farm products from the surrounding fields, v...

(Encyclopedia) Yumen yü-mŭn [key], city, NW Gansu prov., China. It was long one of China's leading petroleum centers, with oil fields and refineries, but output has steadily declined since the 1960s. Yumen, on the...

(Encyclopedia) Stokes, Sir George Gabriel, 1819–1903, British mathematician and physicist, b. Ireland, studied at Cambridge. From 1849 he was a professor of mathematics at Cambridge; he served as secretary (1854�...

(Encyclopedia) Baldwin, James Mark, 1861–1934, American psychologist, b. Columbia, S.C., grad. Princeton (B.A., 1884; Ph.D., 1889). He taught philosophy at the Univ. of Toronto (1889–93), psychology at Princeton...

(Encyclopedia) Purdue University pərdyo͞oˈ, –do͞oˈ [key], main campus at West Lafayette, Ind.; land-grant with state support; coeducational; chartered 1865, opened 1874. It maintains campuses at Hammond (Calu...

(Encyclopedia) Qaidam tsīˈdäm, chī-däm [key], arid basin, c.350 mi (560 km) long and c.100 mi (160 km) wide, between two branches of the Kunlun range, central Qinghai prov., W China. A salt marsh occupies most ...

(Encyclopedia) Russell, Lillian, 1861–1922, American singer and actress, b. Clinton, Iowa. Her original name was Helen Louise Leonard. She first appeared in light opera in 1879. In the early 1880s her introduction...

(Encyclopedia) Rand Corporation, research institution in Santa Monica, Calif.; founded 1948 and supported by federal, state, and local governments, as well as by foundations and corporations. Its principal fields of...

(Encyclopedia) Guiyang or Kweiyang both: gwā-yäng [key], city (1994 est. pop. 1,131,200), capital of Guizhou prov., SW China. On the main road from Kunming to Chongqing, it is also a rail (since 1959) and industri...