Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) water beetle, name for aquatic beetles of several families. They should not be confused with water bugs, which are true bugs (order Hemiptera). The predaceous diving beetles (family Dytiscidae) are a ...

(Encyclopedia) Saarinen, Eero āˈrō säˈrĭnĕn [key], 1910–61, Finnish-American architect, grad. Yale (B.A., 1934), became an American citizen in 1940; son of Eliel Saarinen. Saarinen's reputation was establis...

(Encyclopedia) tar and pitch, viscous, dark-brown to black substances obtained by the destructive distillation of coal, wood, petroleum, peat, and certain other organic materials. The heating or partial burning of w...

(Encyclopedia) terbium tûrˈbēəm [key] [from Ytterby, a village in Sweden], metallic chemical element; symbol Tb; at. no. 65; at. wt. 158.92535; m.p. 1,356℃; b.p. 3,123℃; sp. gr. about 8.25; valence +3 or +4....

(Encyclopedia) Rabe, David rāb [key], 1940–, American playwright, b. Dubuque, Iowa; grad. Loras College (B.A., 1962), Villanova Univ. (M.A., 1968). Rabe served in Vietnam (1965–67) and his experiences and obser...

(Encyclopedia) Rachmaninoff, Sergei Vasilyevich syĭrgāˈ vəsēˈlyĭvĭch räkhmäˈnēnôf [key], 1873–1943, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor. He became known as one of the greatest pianists of his gen...

(Encyclopedia) Gothic romance, type of novel that flourished in the late 18th and early 19th cent. in England. Gothic romances were mysteries, often involving the supernatural and heavily tinged with horror, and the...

(Encyclopedia) Guadalupe Hidalgo gwäᵺälo͞oˈpā ēdälˈgō, wä– [key], shrine, central Mexico, in the Federal District. The basilica of Guadalupe containing the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe (feast: Dec. ...

(Encyclopedia) Davis, Bette bĕtˈē [key], 1908–89, American film actress, b. Lowell, Mass., as Ruth Elizabeth Davis. One of the most durable stars of the American screen, she made her debut in 1931. With a strik...

(Encyclopedia) photographic processing, set of procedures by which the latent, or invisible, image produced when a photographic film is exposed to light is made into a permanent visible image. The negative may b...