Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Kelly, Ellsworth, 1923–2015, American painter, b. Newburgh, N.Y. He moved to New York City in 1941, studying at Pratt Institute, and later attended the Boston Museum Arts School. In Paris during the...

(Encyclopedia) vase, vessel of pottery, glass, metal, stone, wood, or synthetic material. The pottery vase was anciently employed as a container for water (a hydria), wine and other products (an amphora), or oil (a ...

(Encyclopedia) Bourignon, Antoinette äNtwänĕtˈ bo͞orēnyôNˈ [key], 1616–80, Flemish Christian mystic, adherent of quietism. In 1636 she fled from home to avoid a marriage urged by her father, spent a short ...

(Encyclopedia) Broca, Paul pōl brôkäˈ [key], 1824–80, French pathologist, anthropologist, and pioneer in neurosurgery. A professor in Paris at the Faculty of Medicine and at the Anthropological Institute, he w...

(Encyclopedia) canvas, strong, coarse cloth of cotton, flax, hemp, or other fibers, early used as sailcloth. Left in its natural color, bleached, or dyed, it has a wide variety of uses, as for game, duffel, sport, m...

(Encyclopedia) indium ĭnˈdēəm [key], a metallic chemical element; symbol In; at. no. 49; at. wt. 114.818; m.p. 156.6℃; b.p. about 2,080℃; sp. gr. 7.31 at 20℃; valence +1, +2, or +3. Indium is a soft, malle...

(Encyclopedia) copaiba kōpāˈbə, –pīˈ– [key], oleoresin (see resin) obtained from several species of tropical South American trees of the genus Copaifera. The thick, transparent exudate varies in color from...

(Encyclopedia) Mariotte, Edme ĕdˈmə märyôtˈ [key], 1620?–1684, French physicist. His De la nature de l'air (1676) includes a statement of Boyle's law (see gas laws), which he discovered independently and whi...

(Encyclopedia) Perkin, Sir William Henry, 1838–1907, English chemist. In 1856 he discovered the first aniline dye (aniline purple, known as mauve and mauveine); by founding a factory to make it, Perkin established...

(Encyclopedia) cinnabar sĭnˈəbär [key], mineral, the sulfide of mercury, HgS. Deep red in color, it is used as a pigment (see vermilion), but principally it is a source of the metal mercury. It is mined in Spain...