Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Bathurst ... Batu Pahat

Bathurst: city, east-central New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the south bank of the Macquarie River, west of the Blue Mountains. Founded in 1815 and named after the 3rd Earl Bathurst, then secretary for war and the colonies, it is ...
Bathurst Island: island in the Timor Sea, Northern Territory, Australia, separated from Melville Island to the east by Apsley Strait. Densely wooded, it is triangular and has an area of about 1,000 square miles (2,600 square km). The island was explored in ...
Bathurst Island: one of the Parry Islands in the Baffin region, Nunavut territory, northern Canada, between the islands of Cornwallis (east) and Melville (west) and north of Parry Channel. Bathurst Island is 160 miles (260 km) long and 50-100 miles (80-160 km) ...
Bathurst, Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl, Baron Bathurst Of Battlesden: British statesman and Tory politician.
Bathurst, Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl, Baron Bathurst of Battlesden, Lord Apsley, Baron of Apsley: statesman, eldest surviving son of the 1st Earl Bathurst, whose title he inherited in 1775.
Bathurst, Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl, Baron Bathurst Of Battlesden, Lord Apsley, Baron Of Apsley: British statesman, elder son of the 2nd Earl Bathurst, who was a prominent Tory in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
bathyal zone: marine ecologic realm extending down from the edge of the continental shelf to the depth at which the water temperature is 4° C (39° F). Both of these limits are variable, but the bathyal zone is generally described as lying ...
Bathycles: ancient Greek sculptor whose only known work was a marble altar built around an ancient statue of Apollo at Amyclae. This work was commissioned by the Spartans and was described by the 2nd-century-AD Greek chronicler Pausanias as being adorned with ...
bathymetry: measurement of ocean depth. The earliest technique involved lowering a heavy rope or cable of known length over the side of a ship, then measuring the amount needed to reach the bottom. Tedious and frequently inaccurate, this method yielded the ...
bathyscaphe: navigable diving vessel developed by the Swiss educator and scientist Auguste Piccard (with assistance in later years from his son Jacques), designed to reach great depths in the ocean.
bathysphere: spherical steel vessel for use in undersea observation, provided with portholes and suspended by a cable from a boat. Built by the American zoologist William Beebe and the American engineer Otis Barton, the bathysphere made its first dives in 1930. ...
bathythermograph: any of various oceanographic devices containing temperature- and pressure-sensitive elements and producing a continuous record of underwater temperature and pressure. Recoverable bathythermographs, lowered from a ship at rest or in motion, produce this record on a coated glass slide. Expendable ...
Bathyuriscus: genus of trilobites (extinct arthropods) that provide a useful index fossil for the Middle Cambrian epoch of North America (520 to 512 million years ago). In Bathyuriscus the head segment is well developed, and marginal spines are present. The tail ...
batik: method of dyeing in which patterned areas are covered with wax so they will not receive the colour. The method is used mainly on cottons and in the traditional colours of blue, brown, and red. Multicoloured and blended effects are ...
Batinah, Al-: narrow, well-populated coastal plain, northeastern Oman, fronting the Gulf of Oman for about 150 miles (240 km) and extending from Oman's border with the United Arab Emirates near Shinas southeast to As-Sib. The coastal plain varies in width between 10 ...
Batiniyah: Muslim sects-the Ismailis (Arabic: Isma'iliyah), in particular-that interpreted religious texts exclusively on the basis of their hidden, or inner, meanings (Arabic: batin) rather than their literal meanings (zahir). This type of interpretation gained currency about the 8th century among certain ...
Batista, Fulgencio: soldier and dictator who twice ruled Cuba-first in 1933-44, when he gave the nation a strong, efficient government, and again in 1952-59 as a dictator, jailing his opponents, using terrorist methods, and making fortunes for himself and his associates.
Batlle Berres, Luis: Uruguayan journalist who became active in politics and served as president of his country from 1947 to 1951 and chief executive officer in 1953-54.
Batlle y Ordonez, Jose: statesman who, as president of Uruguay (1903-07 and 1911-15), is generally credited with transforming his country into a stable democratic welfare state.
Batman: town, southeastern Turkey, in the centre of the nation's oil-producing region. It is located about 5 miles (8 km) west of the town of Siirt and lies in a region of broad plateaus. A government-owned refinery is located at Batman, ...
Batna: city, northeastern Algeria. It lies along the Wadi Tilatou and is situated on a well-watered plain that is bounded on the south by the Aures Massif and on the north by the Batna Mountains. To the west, the cedar-forested Mount ...
Batoche: unincorporated place, central Saskatchewan, Canada. It lies on the east bank of the South Saskatchewan River, 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Prince Albert. The site was settled about 1870 by colonists from the Red River Settlement (founded in 1811-12 ...
Baton Rouge: city, capital of Louisiana, U.S., and seat (1811) of East Baton Rouge parish. Baton Rouge is a port situated at the head of deepwater navigation on the Mississippi River, in the southeast-central part of the state. The French-Canadian explorer Pierre ...
Batoni, Pompeo Girolamo: Italian painter, who in his own time was ranked with Anton Raphael Mengs as a painter of historical subjects. Probably his portraits are now better known, as he invented the type of "grand tourist" portrait, very popular among the English, ...
Batrachospermum: genus of freshwater red algae ranging in colour from violet to blue-green. The alga's long, branched, threadlike filaments bear dense whorls of branchlets, the whorls themselves resembling beads on a string. Spores are formed in clusters around the base of ...
Batsanyi, Janos: Hungary's leading political poet during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods in Europe.
battalion: a tactical military organization composed basically of a headquarters and two or more companies, batteries, or similar organizations and usually commanded by a field-grade officer. The term has been used in nearly every Western army for centuries and has had ...
Battani, al-: Arab astronomer and mathematician who refined existing values for the length of the year and of the seasons, for the annual precession of the equinoxes, and for the inclination of the ecliptic. He showed that the position of the Sun's ...
battement: (French: "beating"), in ballet, an extension of the leg to the front, side, or back, either repeatedly or as a single movement. Among representative types are battement tendu ("stretched beating"), in which one leg is extended until the point of ...
Batten, Jean: aviator who made record-breaking flights from 1933 to 1937 and was perhaps the most famous New Zealander of the 1930s.
Battenberg Family: a family that rose to international prominence in the 19th and 20th centuries, the name being a revival of a medieval title.
batter: mixture of flour and liquid with other ingredients, such as leavening agents, shortening, sugar, salt, eggs, and various flavouring materials, used to make baked products.
battering ram: medieval weapon consisting of a heavy timber with a metal knob or point at the front. Such devices were used to batter down the gates or walls of a besieged city or castle. The ram itself, usually suspended by ropes ...
Battersea: area on the south bank of the River Thames in the London borough of Wandsworth. It is known for its riverside park and its (now defunct) power station; in the mid-18th century it was the production site of Battersea enamelware.
Battersea enamelware: type of painted enamelware considered the finest of its kind to be produced in England during the mid-18th century. It is especially noted for the high quality of its transfer printing. Battersea ware was made at York House in Battersea, ...
battery: in electricity and electrochemistry, any of a class of devices that convert chemical energy directly into electrical energy. Although the term battery, in strict usage, designates an assembly of two or more galvanic cells capable of such energy conversion, it ...
Batthyany, Lajos, Count: statesman who during the revolution of 1848 was premier of the first Hungarian parliamentary government and a martyr for Magyar independence.
Batticaloa: town, eastern Sri Lanka. Lying on an island off the eastern coast, it is linked to the mainland by causeway, bridge, and ferry and by road and railway connections. Batticaloa is the trading centre for rice and coconuts from nearby ...
Battishill, Jonathan: English composer of church music and popular songs.
Battle: town (parish), Rother district, administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England, just inland from Hastings. A ridge to the southeast, called Senlac, was the site of the famous battle in which William I the Conqueror defeated the ...
Battle Creek: city, Calhoun county, south-central Michigan, U.S. It lies at the juncture of Battle Creek with the Kalamazoo River, 23 miles (37 km) east of Kalamazoo and 49 miles (79 km) southwest of Lansing. Settled in 1831 and named in 1833 ...
Battle of Brunanburh, The: Old English poem of 73 lines included in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 937. It relates the victory of the Saxon king Athelstan over the allied Norse, Scots, and Strathclyde Briton invaders under the leadership of Olaf Guthfrithson, king ...
Battle of Maldon, The: Old English heroic poem describing a historical skirmish between East Saxons and Viking (mainly Norwegian) raiders in 991. It is incomplete, its beginning and ending both lost. The poem is remarkable for its vivid, dramatic combat scenes and for its ...
Battle, Kathleen: American opera singer, among the finest coloratura sopranos of her time.
battledore and shuttlecock: children's game played by two persons using small rackets called battledores, which are made of parchment, plastic, or rows of gut or nylon stretched across wooden frames, and shuttlecocks, made of a base of some light material, such as cork, ...
Battleford: town, western Saskatchewan, Canada. It lies at the confluence of the Battle and North Saskatchewan rivers, opposite North Battleford. Established in 1876 as Fort Battleford, an outpost of the North West Mounted Police, the settlement served as capital of the ...
battlement: the parapet of a wall consisting of alternating low portions known as crenels, or crenelles (hence crenellated walls with battlements), and high portions called merlons. Battlements were devised in order that warriors might be protected by the merlons and yet ...
battleship: capital ship of the world's navies from about 1860, when it began to supplant the wooden-hulled, sail-driven ship of the line, to World War II, when its preeminent position was taken over by the aircraft carrier. Battleships combined large size, ...
Batu: grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of the Khanate of Kipchak, or the Golden Horde.
Batu Islands: group of three major islands and 48 islets, part of the Nias kabupaten (regency) of Sumatera Utara provinsi (province), Indonesia, west of Sumatra. The three largest islands are Pini, Tanahmasa, and Tanahbala; the total ...
Batu Pahat: port, West Malaysia (Malaya), on the Strait of Malacca at the mouth of the Batu Pahat River. It is a fishing town and a distribution centre; and, until the completion of a bridge in 1968, it was a ferry point ...