|
jet engine
jet engine Form of gas turbine engine that derives forward motion by reaction to the rapid discharge of a jet of gas in the opposite direction. In a jet engine, fuel burns in oxygen from the air to produce a fast-moving stream of exhaust gases. These are ejected from the back of the jet engine and ...
Read more
|
|
chancel
chancel primarily that part of the church close to the altar and used by the officiating clergy. In the early churches it was separated from the nave by a low parapet or open railing ( cancellus ), its name being thus derived. San Clemente at Rome has one of the few preserved examples. With the dev...
Read more
|
|
weather vane
weather vane or wind vane, instrument used to indicate wind direction. It consists of an asymmetrically shaped object, e.g., an arrow or a rooster, mounted at its center of gravity so it can move freely about a vertical axis. Regardless of the design, the portion of the object with greater surf...
Read more
|
|
|
production
production in economics, all those activities that have to do with the creation of commodities, by imparting to raw materials utility, added value, or the ability to satisfy human wants. The farmer who grows wheat, the miller who grinds the wheat into flour, and the baker who transforms flour into ...
Read more
|
|
|
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer , 1904-91, American novelist and short-story writer in the Yiddish language, younger brother of I. J. Singer , b. Leoncin, Poland (then in Russia). The son of a provincial Hasidic rabbi (see Hasidism ), he moved to Warsaw in the early 1920s and became associated with the city...
Read more
|
|
paramecium
paramecium , unicellular organism of the genus Paramecium, of the ciliate phylum Ciliophora found in freshwater throughout the world. Like other protozoans , paramecia, previously considered one-celled animals, are now customarily placed in kingdom Protista . The paramecium has a stiff outer c...
Read more
|
|
squid
squid carnivorous marine cephalopod mollusk. The squid is one of the most highly developed invertebrates, well adapted to its active, predatory life. The characteristic molluscan shell is reduced to a horny plate shaped like a quill pen and buried under the mantle.
The mantle, the chief swim...
Read more
|
|
vertical takeoff and landing aircraft
vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (VTOL), craft capable of rising and descending vertically from and to the ground, thus requiring no runway. While a balloon or an airship has obvious VTOL capability, both are very inefficient at moving parallel to the earth's surface. The autogiro and th...
Read more
|
|
|
Great Leap Forward
Great Leap Forward 1957-60, Chinese economic plan aimed at revitalizing all sectors of the economy. Initiated by Mao Zedong , the plan emphasized decentralized, labor-intensive industrialization, typified by the construction of thousands of backyard steel furnaces in place of large steel mills. Wi...
Read more
|
|
|
Ignace Jan Paderewski
Ignace Jan Paderewski , 1860-1941, Polish pianist, composer, and statesman; studied at the Warsaw Conservatory and later with Theodor Leschetizky. Following debuts in Vienna (1887) and Paris (1888), his brilliant, sensitive playing won him worldwide popularity exceeding that of any performer since F...
Read more
|
