Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Gjirokaster ... Glass, Philip

Gjirokaster: city, southern Albania. Lying southeast of the Adriatic port of Vlore, Gjirokaster overlooks the Drin River valley from the eastern slope of the long ridge of the Gjere mountains. Picturesque, latticed houses sprawl upon the spurs of the mountain, nestling ...
Glaber, Radulfus: medieval monk and chronicler whose works, though lacking critical sense and order, are useful as historical documents. He read extensively, traveled considerably, and observed and recorded major events.
Glace Bay: town, Cape Breton county, northeastern Nova Scotia, Canada. It lies on the eastern shore of Cape Breton Island, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, just east of Sydney. An important coal-mining town (into the 1980s) and port, it developed (along with the ...
glacial landform: any product of flowing ice and meltwater. Such landforms are being produced today in glaciated areas, such as Greenland, Antarctica, and many of the world's higher mountain ranges. In addition, large expansions of present-day glaciers have recurred during the course ...
glacial stage: in geology, a cold episode during an ice age, or glacial period. An ice age (q.v.) is a portion of geologic time during which a much larger part of the Earth's surface was covered by glaciers than at present. The ...
glacial valley: stream valley that has been glaciated, usually to a typical U-shaped cross section. U-shaped valleys occur in many parts of the world and are characteristic features of mountain glaciation. These glacial troughs may be several thousand feet deep and tens ...
glacier: any large mass of perennial ice that originates on land by the recrystallization of snow or other forms of solid precipitation and that shows evidence of past or present flow. A glacier occupying an extensive tract of relatively level land ...
Glacier Bay: scenic indentation, about 50 miles (80 km) long, on the coast of southeastern Alaska, U.S., about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Juneau. It contains a spectacular display of 16 active glaciers that descend from the lofty ice-draped St. Elias ...
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve: national park and preserve in southeastern Alaska, U.S., on the Gulf of Alaska. It was proclaimed a national monument in 1925, established as a national park and preserve in 1980, and designated a World Heritage site in 1992. The park ...
Glacier National Park: park in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, lying in the heart of the Selkirk Mountains, within the great northern bend of the Columbia River, east of Revelstoke. Established in 1886, it occupies an area of 521 square miles (1,349 square km). ...
Glacier National Park: national park set in a scenic Rocky Mountain wilderness in northwestern Montana, U.S., adjoining the Canadian border and Canada's Waterton Lakes National Park. The two parks together compose the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, dedicated in 1932. Glacier National Park was ...
glaciology: scientific discipline concerned with all aspects of ice on landmasses. It deals with the structure and properties of glacier ice, its formation and distribution, the dynamics of ice flow, and the interactions of ice accumulation with climate. Glaciological research is ...
Glackens, William J.: American artist whose paintings of street scenes and middle-class urban life rejected the dictates of 19th-century academic art and introduced a matter-of-fact realism into the art of the United States.
Gladbeck: city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), western Germany. It lies in the Ruhr industrial region. First documented in 1019, Gladbeck was a small rural village until the first coal mine was opened in 1873. Thereafter it developed rapidly, ...
Gladden, Washington: American Congregational minister, crusading journalist, author, and prominent early advocate of the Social Gospel movement.
gladiator: professional combatant in ancient Rome. The gladiators originally performed at Etruscan funerals, no doubt with intent to give the dead man armed attendants in the next world; hence the fights were usually to the death. At shows in Rome these ...
Gladiolus: genus of about 300 species of flowering plants of the iris family (Iridaceae) native to Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean area and widely cultivated for cut flowers. The flowering spike, which springs from a bulblike structure, the corm, reaches 60-90 ...
Gladkov, Fyodor Vasilyevich: Russian writer best known for Tsement (1925; Cement, 1929), the first postrevolutionary novel to dramatize Soviet industrial development. Although crudely written, this story of a Red Army fighter who returns to find his hometown in ruins and dedicates himself to ...
Gladstone: city, eastern Queensland, eastern Australia, on Port Curtis, an inlet of the Coral Sea. Originally settled in 1847 as a colony by the New South Wales government, it was abandoned in 1848 but was resettled by squatters in 1853. It ...
Gladstone, Herbert John Gladstone, 1st Viscount: English statesman, son of William Ewart Gladstone; he was the first governor general and high commissioner of the Union of South Africa.
Gladstone, William Ewart: statesman and four-time prime minister of Great Britain (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94).
Gladys Porter Zoo: zoological park in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., which has one of the world's finest reptile collections. Opened in 1971, the 31-acre (12.5-hectare) park is owned by the city and operated by a local zoological society. It was named for one of ...
Glagolitic alphabet: script introduced into the Slavic-speaking Balkan communities in the late 9th century AD, together with the Slavonic liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. Glagolitic script was used by Roman Catholic Slavs, while the Cyrillic alphabet was used by Eastern Orthodox ...
glam rock: musical movement that began in Britain in the early 1970s and celebrated the spectacle of the rock star and concert. Often dappled with glitter, male musicians took the stage in women's makeup and clothing, adopted theatrical personas, and mounted glamorous ...
Glamis: castle and village in the council area and historic county of Angus, eastern Scotland. The present castle, a fine example of Scottish Baronial architecture, dates from the late 17th century, though the site is believed to have been occupied since ...
Glamorgan: historic county, southern Wales, extending inland from the Bristol Channel coast between the Rivers Loughor and Rhymney. In the north it comprises a barren upland moor dissected by narrow river valleys. Glamorgan's southern coastal section centres on an undulating plain ...
gland: cell or tissue that removes specific substances from the blood, alters or concentrates them, and then either releases them for further use or eliminates them. Typically, a gland consists of either cuboidal or columnar epithelium resting on a basement membrane ...
glanders: specific infectious and contagious disease of solipeds (the horse, ass, and mule); secondarily, humans may become infected through contact with diseased animals or by inoculation while handling diseased tissues and making laboratory cultures of the causal bacillus. In 1882 the ...
Glans: genus of small pelecypods (clams) especially characteristic of the Miocene Epoch (between 23.7 and 5.3 million years ago). The ornamentation of the shell includes prominent ribbing that extends from the apex to the broadly expanding margin. The ribs are broken ...
Glanvill, Joseph: English self-styled Skeptic and apologist for the Royal Society who defended the reality of witchcraft and ghosts and the preexistence of the soul. Thereby, according to some, he initiated psychical research.
Glanville, Ranulf de: justiciar or chief minister of England (1180-89) under King Henry II who was the reputed author of the first authoritative text on the common law, Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Angliae (c. 1188; "Treatise on the Laws and Customs ...
Glareanus, Henricus: Swiss Humanist, poet, and music theorist known especially for his publication Dodecachordon (Basel, 1547).
Glarus: town, capital of Glarus canton, eastern Switzerland, on the left bank of the Linth River, at the northeastern foot of the Glarnisch Massif (with four peaks, rising above 8,900 feet [2,700 metres]), east of Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstatter See). In 1861 ...
Glarus: canton, east-central Switzerland, comprising the deep, level upper valley of the Linth River, which rises in the southwest in the glaciers of the Todi (11,857 feet [3,614 metres]), highest of the Glarus Alps, and flows north and northeast to the ...
Glarus Alps: segment of the Central Alps lying north of the Vorderrhein River mainly in Glarus canton of east central Switzerland. The mountains extend east to the Rhine River and north to the Wallensee (lake) and Klausen Pass. Many of the peaks ...
Glas, John: Scottish Presbyterian clergyman denounced by his church for opposing the concept of a national religious establishment. He was founder of the Glasites (Sandemanians, q.v.).
Glaser, Donald A.: American physicist and recipient of the 1960 Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention and development of the bubble chamber, a research instrument used to observe the behaviour of subatomic particles.
Glaser, Milton: American graphic designer, illustrator, and cofounder of the revolutionary Pushpin Studio.
Glasgow: city, west-central Scotland, along both banks of the River Clyde 20 miles (32 km) from that river's mouth on the western, or Atlantic, coast. Glasgow is Scotland's largest city. It forms an independent council area, which lies entirely within the ...
Glasgow, Ellen: American novelist whose realistic depictions of life in her native Virginia helped direct Southern literature away from sentimentality and nostalgia.
Glasgow, University of: state-supported university in Glasgow, Scot. The university was founded in 1451 by a bull of Pope Nicholas V on the petition of King James II of Scotland. From 1460, lands granted by Lord Hamilton on High Street formed the site ...
Glashow, Sheldon Lee: American theoretical physicist who, with Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979 for their complementary efforts in formulating the electroweak theory, which explains the unity of electromagnetism and the weak force.
Glaspell, Susan: American dramatist and novelist who, with her husband, George Cram Cook, founded the influential Provincetown Players in 1915.
glass: an inorganic solid material that is usually transparent or translucent as well as hard, brittle, and impervious to the natural elements. Glass has been made into practical and decorative objects since ancient times, and it is still very important in ...
glass fibre: see fibreglass.
glass harmonica: musical instrument consisting of a set of graduated, tuned glass bowls sounded by the friction of wetted fingers on their rims. It was invented by Benjamin Franklin and was derived from the verillon (musical glasses), a set of glasses, holding ...
Glass House Mountains: group of 11 principal peaks, the highest of which is Beerwah (1,824 feet [556 m]), in southeastern Queensland, Australia, 45 miles (70 km) north of Brisbane. Composed of volcanic trachyte, they rise abruptly from the coastal plain, and each of ...
glass snake: any lizard of the genus Ophisaurus in the family Anguidae, so named because the tail is easily broken off. The Eastern glass lizard, Ophisaurus ventralis, occurs in southeastern North America and grows to about 105 cm (41 inches). It has ...
glass sponge: any of a class (Hexactinellida, also called Hyalospongiae, or Triaxonia) of sponges characterized by a skeleton that consists of silica spicules (needlelike structures) often united into a delicate geometric network-e.g., that of Venus's flower basket (q.v.). Glass sponges occur mainly ...
Glass, Carter: American politician who became a principal foe in the Senate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s.
Glass, Philip: American composer of innovative instrumental, vocal, and operatic music.