|
watch
watch small, portable timepiece usually designed to be worn on the person. Other kinds of timepieces are generally referred to as clocks . At one time it was generally believed that the first watches were made in Nuremburg, Germany, c.1500. However, there is now evidence that watches may have appe...
Read more
|
|
Black Watch
Black Watch or Royal Highland Regiment, Scottish infantry regiment. The first companies were raised in 1725 to watch the rebellious Scottish highlands and keep the peace, and the regiment was formed 1739-40. It became known as the Black Watch because of the dark colors of the regimental tartan....
Read more
|
|
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke , 1635-1703, English physicist, mathematician, and inventor. He became curator of experiments for the Royal Society (1662), professor of geometry at Gresham College (1665), and city surveyor of London after the great 1666 fire. Considered the greatest mechanic of his age, he made many i...
Read more
|
|
|
Anthony Comstock
Anthony Comstock , 1844-1915, American morals crusader, b. New Canaan, Conn. He served with the Union army in the Civil War and was later active as an antiabortionist and in advocating the suppression of obscene literature. He was the author of the comprehensive New York state statute (1868) forbidd...
Read more
|
|
|
vigil
vigil [Lat.,=watch], in Christian calendars, eve of a feast, a day of penitential preparation. In ancient times worshipers gathered for vespers before a great feast and then waited outside the church until dawn for the liturgy (Mass). Traces of this practice survive in the East, but the Western Chu...
Read more
|
|
|
Sault Sainte Marie
Sault Sainte Marie city (1990 pop. 14,689), seat of Chippewa co., N Mich., Upper Peninsula, a port of entry on the St. Marys River opposite Sault Ste Marie, Ont.; inc. as a city 1887. A variety of light manufactured goods are produced, but the city's economy is principally based on tourism and lake...
Read more
|
|
Samuel Houston
Samuel Houston 1793-1863, American frontier hero and statesman of Texas, b. near Lexington, Va.
Early Life
He moved (c.1806) with his family to Tennessee and lived much of his youth with the Cherokee , by whom he was adopted. Serving (1814) in the Creek campaign under Andrew Jackson, he ...
Read more
|
|
clock
clock instrument for measuring and indicating time. Predecessors of the clock were the sundial , the hourglass , and the clepsydra . See also watch .
The Evolution of Mechanical Clocks
The operation of a clock depends on a stable mechanical oscillator, such as a swinging pendulum or a...
Read more
|
|
|
Waltham
Waltham , city (1990 pop. 57,878), Middlesex co., E Mass., a suburb of Boston , on the Charles River; settled c.1634, set off from Watertown 1738, inc. as a city 1884. It is an important high-technology and computer center. Electronic equipment and parts, precision instruments, medical diagnostic...
Read more
|
|
|
coast guard
coast guard special naval force assigned to seaboard duties. Its primary responsibilities usually consist in suppressing contraband trade and aiding vessels in distress. The British coast guard was established just after the Napoleonic Wars for the purpose of preventing smuggling. When the Coast Gu...
Read more
|
