Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) flame test, test used in the identification of certain metals. It is based on the observation that light emitted by any element gives a unique spectrum when passed through a spectroscope. When a salt ...

(Encyclopedia) Fort Myers, city (2020 pop. 86,395), seat of Lee co., SW Fla., on the Caloosahatchee River, near the Gulf of Mexico; founded 1850, inc. 1905. It has a t...

(Encyclopedia) Hertz, Heinrich Rudolf hĕrts [key], 1857–94, German physicist. He confirmed J. C. Maxwell's electromagnetic theory and in the course of experiments (1886–89) produced and studied electromagnetic...

(Encyclopedia) virtual telescope, a computerized interferometer (see interference) that merges the images from two or more telescopes to obtain a single, large, enhanced image. The image in each telescope is made fr...

(Encyclopedia) Brown, Margaret Wise, 1910–52, American children's book author, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., B.A Hollins College, 1932. Continuing her education at the Bureau of Educational Experiments (now the Bank Street C...

(Encyclopedia) gneiss nīs [key], coarse-grained, imperfectly foliated, or layered, metamorphic rock. Gneiss is characterized by alternating light and dark bands differing in mineral composition and having coarser g...

(Encyclopedia) Gabor, Dennis, 1900–1979, Hungarian-born British physicist, Ph.D. Berlin Institute of Technology 1927. Gabor was a researcher with the Thomson-Houston Company, England, from 1934 to 1949 and a profe...

(Encyclopedia) League City, city (1990 pop. 30,159), Galveston co., SE Tex.; inc. 1961. The aeronautics industry is of prime importance; NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is nearby. There is also diversified lig...

(Encyclopedia) Brooklyn Center, city (2020 pop. 33,782), Hennepin co., SE Minn., a residential suburb of Minneapolis; inc. 1911. It has light industry and has been mar...

(Encyclopedia) Wakefield, town (1990 pop. 24,825), Middlesex co., NE Mass., a suburb N of Boston; settled 1639, inc. 1812. Chiefly residential, the town has some light industry, such as the production of plastics an...