Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Beard, Charles A ... Beaufort Sea

Beard, Charles A: American historian, best-known for his iconoclastic studies of the development of U.S. political institutions. His emphasis on the dynamics of socioeconomic conflict and change and his analysis of motivational factors in the founding of institutions made him one of the ...
bearded seal: (Erignathus barbatus), nonmigratory seal of the family Phocidae, distinguished by the bushy, bristly whiskers for which it is named; it is also known as "squareflipper" after the rectangular shape of the foreflipper. Highly valued by Eskimos for its hide, meat, ...
Bearden, Romare: American painter, whose collages of photographs and painted paper on canvas depict aspects of American black culture in a style derived from Cubism. He is considered one of the most important African American artists of the 20th century.
beardfish: any of the five species of fishes in the genus Polymixia constituting the family Polymixiidae (order Beryciformes). Beardfishes are restricted primarily to deep-sea marine habitats in tropical and temperate regions of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They generally are found ...
Beardmore Glacier: glacier in central Antarctica, descending about 7,200 ft (2,200 m) from the South Polar Plateau to Ross Ice Shelf, dividing the Transantarctic Mountains of Queen Maud and Queen Alexandra. One of the world's largest known valley glaciers, it is 125 ...
Beardsley, Aubrey: the leading English illustrator of the 1890s and, after Oscar Wilde, the outstanding figure in the Aestheticism movement.
beardworm: any of a group of marine invertebrates constituting the phylum Pogonophora. Pogonophorans live a sedentary life in long, protective tubes on seafloors throughout the world. The common name beardworm refers to the beardlike mass of pinnate (feather-like) tentacles borne at ...
bearing: in machine construction, a connector (usually a support) that permits the connected members to rotate or to move in a straight line relative to one another. Often one of the members is fixed, and the bearing acts as a support ...
Bearn: historic and cultural region encompassing mountainous regions of the southwestern French departement of Pyrenees-Atlantiques and coextensive with the former province of Bearn.
Beartooth Range: segment of the northern Rocky Mountains in the United States, extending east-southeastward for 50 miles (80 km) from the Stillwater River, in southern Montana, to the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River, in northwestern Wyoming. Many peaks rise to more ...
Beas River: river in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab states, northwestern India. It is one of the five rivers that give the Punjab ("Five Rivers") its name. It rises at an elevation of 14,308 feet (4,361 m) in the Rohtang Pass in the ...
beast epic: popular genre in various literatures, consisting of a lengthy cycle of animal tales that provides a satiric commentary on human society. Although individual episodes may be drawn from fables, the beast epic differs from the fable not only in length ...
beast fable: a prose or verse fable or short story that usually has a moral. In beast fables animal characters are represented as acting with human feelings and motives. Among the best-known examples in Western literature are those attributed to the legendary ...
beast tale: a prose or verse narrative similar to the beast fable in that it portrays animal characters acting as humans but unlike the fable in that it usually lacks a moral. Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings ...
Beastie Boys, the: American hip-hop and rock group, the first white rap performers to gain a substantial following; as such, they were largely responsible for the growth of rap's mainstream audience. The principal members were MCA (byname of Adam Yauch; b. August 5, ...
beat: in physics, the pulsation caused by the combination of two waves of slightly different frequencies. The principle of beats for sound waves can be demonstrated on a piano by striking a white key and an adjacent black key at the ...
beat: in music, the basic rhythmic unit of a measure, or bar, not to be confused with rhythm as such; nor is the beat necessarily identical with the underlying pulse of a given piece of music, which may extend over more ...
Beat movement: American social and literary movement originating in the 1950s and centred in the bohemian artist communities of San Francisco's North Beach, Los Angeles' Venice West, and New York City's Greenwich Village. Its adherents, self-styled as "beat" (originally meaning "weary," but ...
Beata Ridge: submarine ridge of the southern Caribbean Sea floor. The Beata Ridge trends south-southwest from Beata Cape on the island of Hispaniola and divides this part of the sea into two distinct areas, the Colombian and the Venezuelan abyssal plains. The ...
beatification: in the Roman Catholic church, second stage in the process of canonization (q.v.).
Beatitude: any of the blessings said by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount as told in the biblical New Testament in Matthew 5:3-12 and in the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6:20-23. Named from the initial words (beati sunt, ...
Beatles, the: British musical quartet and a global cynosure for the hopes and dreams of a generation that came of age in the 1960s. The principal members were Paul McCartney (in full Sir James Paul McCartney; b. June 18, 1942, Liverpool, Merseyside, ...
Beaton, David: Scottish cardinal and statesman who promoted a close alliance between Scotland and France and who was an implacable opponent of the Scottish Reformation.
Beaton, James: primate of Scotland from 1522 and chancellor from 1513 to 1526.
Beaton, James: last Roman Catholic archbishop of Glasgow.
Beaton, Sir Cecil: photographer known primarily for his portraits of celebrated persons, who also worked as an illustrator, a diarist, and an Academy Award-winning costume and set designer.
Beatrice: the woman to whom the great Italian poet Dante dedicated most of his poetry and almost all of his life, from his first sight of her at the age of nine ("from that time forward, Love quite governed my soul") ...
Beatrice: city, seat of Gage county, in the Big Blue River valley, southeastern Nebraska, U.S. Established in 1857, it was named for the daughter of one of its founders, Judge John Kinney. Beatrice is the seat of the Martin Luther Home ...
Beatrijs: lyric narrative containing a noted medieval European Mary legend. The oldest extant Beatrijs manuscript dates from 1374, although it is thought to be taken from an earlier collection, Dialogue miraculorum (c. 1200) by Caesarius of Heisterbach. An anonymous text written ...
Beatrix: queen of The Netherlands from 1980.
Beattie, Ann: American writer of short stories and novels whose characters, having come of age in the 1960s, often have difficulties adjusting to the cultural values of later generations.
Beattie, James: Scottish poet and essayist, whose once-popular poem The Minstrel was one of the earliest works of the Romantic movement.
Beatty, Clyde: American trainer of wild animals, known for his "fighting act," designed to show his courage and mastery of the ferocious animals under his control. In one of the most daring acts in circus history, he mixed 40 lions and tigers ...
Beatty, David, 1st Earl Beatty, Viscount Borodale Of Wexford, Baron Beatty Of The North Sea And Of Brooksby: British admiral of the fleet, who commanded Britain's battle cruisers in the Battle of Jutland (1916).
Beatty, Sir Chester: naturalized British mining engineer and company director who played an important role in the development of copper deposits in central Africa.
Beatty, Warren: talented and handsome American leading man who has also produced, directed, and written screenplays. He is best known for his politically charged portrayals of somewhat outcast but charming heroes.
Beatus Rhenanus: German humanist, writer, and advocate of Christian reform whose editorial work helped to preserve a wealth of classical literature.
Beau Bassin-Rose Hill: town, the second largest settlement on the island of Mauritius, in the western Indian Ocean. It lies on the western slope of the island, just south of Port Louis, the capital. The town was originally two separate communities, Beau Bassin ...
Beau de Rochas, Alphonse: French engineer who originated the principle of the four-stroke internal-combustion engine. His achievement lay partly in his emphasizing the previously unappreciated importance of compressing the fuel-air mixture before ignition.
Beaucaire: town, Gard departement, Languedoc-Roussillon region, southeastern France. It lies along the Rhone River, opposite Tarascon, to which it is linked by several bridges. Called Ugernum by the Romans, Beaucaire derived its modern name from ...
Beauce: region, northwestern France. It stretches southwest of Paris toward the Foret d'Orleans. One of the great traditional granaries of France, Beauce is a flat, fertile, treeless limestone plain that was once planted mainly with wheat and sugar beets. Maize (corn) ...
Beauchamp, Alphonse de: French historian whose many works were of popular interest; though they were based upon authentic documents, they were largely compilations and not wholly trustworthy.
Beauchamp, Pierre: French ballet dancer and teacher whose contributions to the development of ballet include the definition of the five basic positions of the feet.
Beauchemin, Neree: French-Canadian poet and physician who is regarded as the leading poet of Le Terroir (French: "The Soil") school of Quebec regionalist poetry.
Beaudesert: town, southeastern Queensland, eastern Australia, on the Logan River. A livestock station was established there in 1842 and named after Beaudesert, Staffordshire, Eng. In 1863 the state's first cotton plantation was begun nearby, using Kanakas (South Sea islanders) as labourers. ...
Beaufort: city, seat of Beaufort county, southern South Carolina, U.S. It is situated on Port Royal, one of the Sea Islands, and on the Intracoastal Waterway. Its harbour was first visited by Spaniards in 1521. Early settlement attempts in the area ...
Beaufort: county, extreme southern South Carolina, U.S. It consists of a coastal region bordered to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean. The New and Coosawhatchie rivers define portions of its western boundaries, and the Combahee River constitutes its eastern boundary. The ...
Beaufort: colonial seaport town, seat of Carteret county, southeastern North Carolina, U.S. It lies opposite Morehead City on Beaufort Harbor (there bridged) and is linked to the Atlantic Ocean by Beaufort Inlet, which there, between Bogue and Shackleford banks, receives the ...
Beaufort Family: English family comprising the descendants of Edward III's son John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by his liaison with Catherine Swynford; the name derived from a lordship that Gaunt had held in France, the modern Montmorency-Beaufort near Bar-sur-Aube. The four ...
Beaufort scale: scale devised in 1805 by Comdr. (later Admiral and Knight Commander of the Bath) Francis Beaufort of the British Navy for observing and classifying wind force at sea. Originally based on the effect of the wind on a full-rigged man-of-war, ...
Beaufort Sea: outlying sea of the Arctic Ocean situated north of Canada and Alaska. It extends northeastward from Point Barrow, Alaska, toward Lands End on Prince Patrick Island, and westward from Banks Island to the Chukchi Sea. Its surface area is about ...