Monday, January 31, 2005

Producer Gas

Mixture of flammable gases (principally carbon monoxide and hydrogen) and nonflammable gases (mainly nitrogen and carbon dioxide) made by the partial combustion of carbonaceous substances, usually coal, in an atmosphere of air and steam. Producer gas has lower heating value than other gaseous fuels, but it can be manufactured with relatively simple equipment;

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Claremont

City, Sullivan county, western New Hampshire, U.S., on the Sugar River near its junction with the Connecticut River. Settled in 1762, Claremont was organized as a town in 1764 and was probably named for the duke of Newcastle's country estate in England. Waterpower for early industry was provided by the Sugar River, and completion of the Concord and Claremont Railroad (1871 - 72) gave impetus

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Mind Reading

A magician's trick involving various silent or verbal signals that cue a conjurer to answer a question as though with second sight. Philip Breslaw, the first magician of note to feature mind reading, played in 1781 at the Haymarket Theatre in London to appreciative audiences. In 1784 the Pinettis, a husband-and-wife team, advertised Mrs. Pinetti as able to guess the thoughts of

Friday, January 28, 2005

Carinus

With the title of Caesar, he was sent by his father, the emperor Carus, to the army of the Rhine in 282. On his father's death in the summer of 283, Carinus became emperor in the West, his brother Numerian becoming emperor in the East. After a campaign on the Rhine, Carinus returned to Rome where,

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Waring, Laura Wheeler

The daughter of upper-class parents, Laura Wheeler graduated from Hartford (Connecticut) High School (with honours) during a time when few African American women attended school. In 1908 she entered the Pennsylvania Academy

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Apuleius, Lucius

Apuleius, who was educated at Carthage and Athens,

Monday, January 24, 2005

Rommel, Erwin

Less than a year later, in February 1941, Rommel was appointed commander of the German troops dispatched to aid the all but defeated Italian army in Libya. The deserts of North Africa became the scene of his greatest successes - and of his defeat at the hands of a vastly superior enemy. In the North African theatre of war, the �Desert Fox,� as he came to be called by both friend and

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Rommel, Erwin

Less than a year later, in February 1941, Rommel was appointed commander of the German troops dispatched to aid the all but defeated Italian army in Libya. The deserts of North Africa became the scene of his greatest successes - and of his defeat at the hands of a vastly superior enemy. In the North African theatre of war, the �Desert Fox,� as he came to be called by both friend and

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Mandel, Georges

A member of a prosperous Jewish family, though not related to the Rothschild banking dynasty, Mandel served on the personal staff of Premier Georges Clemenceau from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 to 1920. He also served as a deputy in the National Assembly from 1919 to 1924 and from 1928 to

Friday, January 21, 2005

Craigavon

District and borough, Northern Ireland, established in 1973 from portions of Counties Antrim, Down, and Armagh. It is situated south of Lough (lake) Neagh and is bordered by the districts of Dungannon to the west, Armagh to the southwest, Banbridge to the southeast, and Lisburn to the east. Its administrative seat is Craigavon new town. In the northern part of Craigavon district,

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Little Theatre

Movement in U.S. theatre to free dramatic forms and methods of production from the limitations of the large commercial theatres by establishing small experimental centres of drama. The movement was initiated at the beginning of the 20th century by young dramatists, stage designers, and actors who were influenced by the vital European theatre of the late 19th century;

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Aeroflot

The Soviet state airline was founded in 1928 under the name Dobroflot and was reorganized under the name Aeroflot in 1932. Dobroflot, or Dobrovolny Flot, grew out of two former airlines: Dobrolyot, founded in 1923, and Ukvozdukhput, or Ukrainian Airways, founded in 1925. These airlines together connected such

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

United Kingdom, The reconquest of the Danelaw

When Alfred died in 899, his son Edward succeeded him. A large-scale incursion by the Danes of Northumbria ended in their crushing defeat at Tettenhall in 910. Edward completed his father's plan of building a ring of fortresses around Wessex, and his sister Aethelflaed took similar measures in Mercia. In 912 Edward was ready to begin the series of campaigns by which he relentlessly

Monday, January 17, 2005

United Kingdom, The reconquest of the Danelaw

When Alfred died in 899, his son Edward succeeded him. A large-scale incursion by the Danes of Northumbria ended in their crushing defeat at Tettenhall in 910. Edward completed his father's plan of building a ring of fortresses around Wessex, and his sister Aethelflaed took similar measures in Mercia. In 912 Edward was ready to begin the series of campaigns by which he relentlessly

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Bottom Water

Dense, lowermost layer of ocean water that can be distinguished clearly from overlying waters by its characteristic temperature, salinity, and oxygen content. Most bottom waters of the South Pacific, southern Indian Ocean, South Atlantic, and portions of the North Atlantic are formed near Antarctica during the southern winter. The partial freezing of seawater

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Porbeagle

Species of mackerel shark (q.v.).

Friday, January 14, 2005

Beyer, Jinny

Beyer received a B.A. in speech and French from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, and an

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Pemphigus

The most common and most severe of these diseases is pemphigus vulgaris, in which large, flaccid blisters erupt

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Beach, Alfred Ely

While Beach was attending

Monday, January 10, 2005

Aegilops

Genus of grasses (order Cyperales) that has become an agricultural contaminant. Members of the genus grow with wheat, mature at the same time, and, unless care is taken, are harvested along with it. One Aegilops species was an ancestor of bread wheat. Its origin was in southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and western Iran.

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Paulownia Sun, Order Of The

The badge, suspended from a green

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Port Antonio

Chief town of the Parish of Portland, on the northeastern coast of Jamaica, 60 mi (97 km) northeast of Kingston. The island's third largest port, it is a shipping point for bananas, coconuts, and cacao and is one of Jamaica's oldest and least commercialized tourist resorts. It lies on a bay divided by a promontory into East and West Harbours; the latter is sheltered by the small Navy

Friday, January 07, 2005

9to5, National Association Of Working Women

The group had its origins in 9to5 News, a newsletter that was first published in December 1972. About a year later, the newsletter's publishers announced the formation of Boston 9to5, a grassroots collective for women office

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Media And Publishing, Amateur Radio.

In 1998 the amateur radio (ham) community in the U.S. was grappling with the most sweeping restructuring of amateur radio licensing since 1989. In July the American Radio Relay League proposed reducing the number of classes of licenses from six to four and streamlining the examinations needed to obtain the licenses. Instead of six license classes, there would be four: technician,

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Zinc Processing, Casting alloys

The major consumption of cast-zinc alloys is in products formed by pressure die-casting. This is a highly automated process in which molten alloy is injected under pressure into a steel die, where rapid solidification takes place. High production rates can be achieved, and the resulting components have good dimensional stability and surface quality. Also, they

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Silane

Also called �Silicon Hydride, � any of a series of covalently bonded compounds containing only the elements silicon and hydrogen, having the general formula SinH2n 2, in which n equals 1, 2, 3, and so on. The silanes are structural analogues of the saturated hydrocarbons but are much less stable. The term silane is extended to include compounds in which any or all of the hydrogen atoms have been replaced by

Monday, January 03, 2005

Korea, History Of, Chinese intervention

The Chinese, who had moved troops along the Yalu after the Inch'on landing, entered Korea in November in overwhelming numbers. By the end of 1952, 1,200,000 Chinese were engaged in the war under the command of Peng Dehuai (P'eng Te-huai). They forced the UN forces to retreat in disorder, and Seoul was reevacuated on Jan. 4, 1951. But the Chinese were halted around P'yongt'aek (about 30 miles south of Seoul),

Sunday, January 02, 2005

Aniconism

The biblical Second Commandment (part of the First Commandment to Roman Catholics and Lutherans), �You shall not make yourself a graven image, or any likeness

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Capital Levy

Strictly defined, a direct tax assessed simultaneously on the capital resources of all persons possessing taxable wealth in excess of a minimum value and paid at least partly out of capital resources. This definition excludes death duties because in any given year their application is necessarily limited to the estates of deceased persons. Various taxes have