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Tabernacle
Tabernacle , in the Bible, the portable holy place of the Hebrews during their desert wanderings. It was a tent, like the portable tent-shrines used by ancient Semites, set up in each camp; eventually it housed the Ark of the Covenant. In the Book of Numbers, the Tabernacle is referred to as the "...
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Merovingian art and architecture
Merovingian art and architecture . This period is named for Merovech, the founder of the first Germanic-Frankish dynasty (c.AD 500-AD 751). The Merovingian period was marked by the gradual decline of the classical tradition and by the absorption of a radically new element into the artistic mainstrea...
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fire escape
fire escape in architecture, device, either fixed or movable, to facilitate escape from a burning building. In the United States the term usually is applied to the common iron balconies and stairways or ladders that give exterior egress from each floor to the ground. In England the term refers to a...
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Edmund Gunter
Edmund Gunter 1581-1626, English mathematician and astronomer, educated at Westminster School, London, and Christ Church, Oxford. He invented (1618) a small portable quadrant and discovered (1622) the variation of the magnetic compass. His Gunter's chain is a surveyor's chain graduated on the decim...
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Louis Jean Lumière
Louis Jean Lumière , 1864-1948, and Auguste Lumière , 1862-1954, French inventors, brothers. They invented the Cinématographe, which was patented and demonstrated in 1895. This mechanism was the first to photograph, print, and project moving pictures onto a screen where they ...
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pillbox
pillbox small, low fortification that houses machine guns and antitank weapons. Similar to a blockhouse, it is usually made of concrete, steel, logs, or filled sandbags. Pillboxes came into use during the early 20th cent. in the Belgian and French fortresses that were built before World War I. They...
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broadcasting
broadcasting transmission of sound or images to a large number of receivers by radio or television. In the United States the first regularly scheduled radio broadcasts began in 1920 at 8XK (later KDKA) in Pittsburgh. The sale of advertising was started in 1922, establishing commercial broadcastin...
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barrel organ
barrel organ mechanical musical instrument requiring nothing but the regular rotary motion of a handle to keep it going. It probably originated at the beginning of the 18th cent., and was once used extensively in English churches. A revolving cylinder is fitted with pegs that open valves, permittin...
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Johannes Wilhelm Geiger
Johannes Wilhelm Geiger (Hans Geiger) , 1882-1945, German physicist. Geiger received a doctorate in physics at Erlangen in 1906, then went to Manchester, where he assisted British chemist Ernest Rutherford . They devised an alpha-particle counter that permitted great strides in research on radioa...
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propane
propane CH 3 CH 2 CH 3 , colorless, gaseous alkane . It is readily liquefied by compression and cooling. It melts at -189.9°C and boils at -42.2°C. Propane occurs in nature in natural gas and (in dissolved form) in crude oil; it is also a byproduct of petroleum refining. It is used chiefly...
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