Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Irish terrier ... Irwin, Elisabeth Antoinette

Irish terrier: dog developed in Ireland, one of the oldest breeds of terriers. Nicknamed the "daredevil," it has earned the reputation of being adaptable, loyal, spirited, and recklessly courageous. It served as a messenger and sentinel dog in World War I, and ...
Irish wolfhound: tallest of all dog breeds, a keen-sighted hound used in Ireland for many years to hunt wolves and other game. An ancient breed, first mentioned about the 2nd century AD, it is similar in build to the greyhound but far ...
Irish yew: ornamental evergreen of the yew family. See English yew.
Irkutsk: oblast (province), east-central Russia, occupying an area of 296,500 square miles (767,900 square km) west and north of Lake Baikal. It consists mostly of the hills and broad valleys of the Central Siberian Plateau and of its ...
Irkutsk: city and administrative centre of Irkutsk oblast (province), east-central Russia. The city lies along the Angara River at its confluence with the Irkut River. It was founded as a wintering camp in 1652, during the first Russian ...
Irminger Current: branch of the warm North Atlantic Current, flowing generally westward along the south coast of Iceland. It divides into two currents west of Iceland. One proceeds northward and then eastward around Iceland, and the other flows westward and then southwestward, ...
Irnerius: one of the scholars who revived Roman legal studies in Italy and the first of a long series of noted legal glossators and teachers of law (late 11th-middle 13th century) at the University of Bologna.
iroko wood: wood of the iroko tree (Chlorophora excelsa), native to the west coast of Africa. It is sometimes called African, or Nigerian, teak, but the iroko is unrelated to the teak family. The wood is tough, dense, and very durable. It ...
iron: chemical element, metal of Group VIII of the periodic table, the most used and cheapest metal.
Iron Act: (1750), in U.S. colonial history, one of the British Trade and Navigation acts; it was intended to stem the development of colonial manufacturing in competition with home industry by restricting the growth of the American iron industry to the supply ...
Iron Age: final technological and cultural stage in the Stone-Bronze-Iron-Age sequence. The date of the full Iron Age, in which this metal for the most part replaced bronze in implements and weapons, varied geographically, beginning in the Middle East and southeastern Europe ...
Iron Cross: Prussian military decoration instituted in 1813 by Frederick William III for distinguished service in the Prussian War of Liberation. Use of the decoration was revived by William I for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, recreated in 1914 for World War ...
Iron Crown of Lombardy: originally an armlet or perhaps a votive crown, as suggested by its small size, that was presented to the Cathedral of Monza, where it is preserved as a holy relic. No firm record exists of its use for coronations before ...
Iron Curtain: the political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependent eastern European allies from open contact with the West and other noncommunist areas. The term Iron Curtain had ...
Iron Gate: the last gorge of the Ðerdap gorge system on the Danube River, dividing the Carpathian and Balkan mountains and forming part of the boundary between Serbia and Montenegro and Romania. It is about 2 miles (3 km) long and 530 ...
Iron Guard: Romanian fascist organization that constituted a major social and political force between 1930 and 1941. In 1927 Corneliu Zelea Codreanu founded the Legion of the Archangel Michael, which later became known as the Legion or Legionary Movement; it was committed ...
Iron Knob: town, northeastern Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, 247 miles (397 km) northwest of Adelaide by rail. It is the centre for one of the richest deposits of iron ore in the Southern Hemisphere. Mining rights were acquired in 1897, and in ...
iron mask, the man in the: political prisoner famous in French history and legend who died in the Bastille in 1703 during the reign of Louis XIV. There is no historical evidence that the mask was made of anything but black velvet (velours), and only afterward ...
iron meteorite: any meteorite consisting mainly of iron, usually combined with small amounts of nickel. When such meteorites, called irons, fall through the atmosphere, a thin, black crust of iron oxide may form that quickly weathers to rust. Though irons constitute only ...
Iron Mountain: city, seat (1891) of Dickinson county, southwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S., 52 miles (84 km) west of Escanaba. Settled in 1879 and incorporated in 1889, it was named for its proximity to a bluff heavily stratified with iron ore. ...
iron processing: use of a smelting process to turn the ore into a form from which products can be fashioned. Included in this article also is a discussion of the mining of iron and of its preparation for smelting.
iron-deficiency anemia: most frequent type of anemia, which may develop when the body's iron loss is high and its iron stores are depleted (e.g., during periods of rapid growth, pregnancy, or menstruation or other sources of chronic blood loss) or when a ...
Ironbridge: structure that is generally considered the first cast-iron bridge, spanning the River Severn at Ironbridge, near Coalbrookdale, in Shropshire, England. It is now a British national monument. The bridge's semicircular arch spans 100.5 feet (30.6 m) and has five arch ...
ironclad: type of warship developed in Europe and the United States in the mid-19th century, characterized by the iron casemates that protected the hull. In the Crimean War (1853-56) the French and British successfully attacked Russian fortifications with "floating batteries," ironclad ...
ironstone china: type of stoneware introduced in England early in the 19th century by Staffordshire potters who sought to develop a porcelain substitute that could be mass-produced. The result of their experiments was a dense, hard, durable stoneware that came to be ...
ironweed: any of about 500 species of perennial plants constituting the genus Vernonia of the family Asteraceae. Small herbaceous species are distributed throughout the world, while shrubs and trees are native primarily to tropical regions.
Ironwood: city, Gogebic county, western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S. Ironwood lies along the Montreal River at the Wisconsin border, 90 miles (145 km) east of Duluth, Minn. It is the retail centre of a bistate urban complex in the Gogebic ...
ironwork: architectural features of buildings, artwork, utensils, and weapons made of iron.
irony: language device, either in spoken or written form (verbal irony), in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the literal meanings of the words, or in a theatrical situation (dramatic irony), in which there is an incongruity between ...
Iroquois: any member of the Iroquois Confederacy or, more broadly, of the North American Indian tribes speaking a language of the Iroquoian family-notably the Cayuga, Cherokee, Huron, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. The Iroquoian linguistic groups occupied a continuous territory ...
Iroquois Confederacy: confederation of five (later six) Indian tribes across upper New York state that during the 17th and 18th centuries played a strategic role in the struggle between the French and British for mastery of North America. The five Iroquois nations, ...
Iroquois Falls: town, Cochrane district, east-central Ontario, Canada. It lies along the Abitibi River, just west of Lake Abitibi, 190 miles (300 km) north-northwest of North Bay. The town was named for the falls on the river, where, according to Indian legend, ...
irrational number: any real number that cannot be expressed as the quotient of two integers. For example, there is no number among integers and fractions that solves the problem of finding the square root of two. A counterpart problem in measurement would ...
irrationalism: a 19th- and early 20th-century philosophical trend that claimed to enrich man's apprehension of life by expanding it beyond the rational to its fuller dimensions. Rooted either in metaphysics or in an awareness of the uniqueness of human experience, irrationalism ...
Irrawaddy River: principal river of Myanmar (formerly Burma), running through the centre of the country. Myanmar's most important commercial waterway, it is about 1,350 miles (2,170 km) long. Its name is believed to derive from the Sanskrit term airavati, ...
Irredentist: any of the Italian patriots prominent in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early 20th century who sought to deliver Italian lands from foreign rule. Their name was derived from the words Italia irredenta ("unredeemed Italy"), and ...
irregular ode: a rhymed ode that employs neither the three-part form of the Pindaric ode nor the two- or four-line stanza that typifies the Horatian ode. It is also characterized by irregularity of verse and stanzaic structure and by lack of correspondence ...
irrigation and drainage: artificial application of water to land and artificial removal of excess water from land, respectively. Some land requires irrigation or drainage before it is possible to use it for any agricultural production; other land profits from either practice to increase ...
irritable bowel syndrome: relatively common disorder of the intestines characterized by abdominal pain, intestinal gas, and altered bowel habits, including diarrhea, constipation, or both. Other symptoms may include abdominal pain that is relieved after defecation, mucus in the stools, or a sensation of ...
Irtysh River: river rising from the glaciers on the southwestern slopes of the Altai Mountains in Sinkiang, China. It flows west across the Chinese border through Lake Zaysan, and then northwest across Kazakstan to join the Ob River near Khanty-Mansiysk in Russian ...
Iruma: city, Saitama ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Iruma River. The city is located on the Musashino uplands and the southern part of the Kaji hills. Iruma is renowned for the cultivation of Sayama green tea. It is the site ...
Irun: city, Guipuzcoa provincia, in the Basque Country comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community"), northern Spain. It is situated on the left bank of the Bidasoa River. At Irun the river is bridged to Hendaye, Fr. Irun is the northern terminus of the ...
Irvine: royal burgh (town), North Ayrshire council area, historic county of Ayrshire, southwestern Scotland, on the Firth of Clyde. The last of Scotland's five "new towns," Irvine was designated in 1966 in an attempt to rehouse population from Glasgow and provide ...
Irvine: city, Orange county, southern California, U.S. Adjacent to the city of Santa Ana (northwest), Irvine lies about 40 miles (60 km) southeast of Los Angeles. Originally inhabited by Tongva (or Gabrielino) Indians, the area was explored by Gaspar de Portola ...
Irving, Edward: Church of Scotland minister whose teachings became the basis of the religious movement known as Irvingism, later called the Catholic Apostolic Church.
Irving, John: American novelist and short-story writer who established his reputation with the novel The World According to Garp (1978; filmed 1982). Characteristic of his other works, it is noted for its engaging story line, colourful characterizations, macabre humour, ...
Irving, Kenneth Colin: Canadian industrialist whose vast business empire dominated the province of New Brunswick, where he employed 1 out of every 12 workers.
Irving, Sir Henry: one of the most famous of English actors, the first of his profession to be knighted (1895) for services to the stage. He was also a celebrated theatre manager and the professional partner of the actress Ellen Terry for 24 ...
Irving, Washington: writer called the "first American man of letters." He is best known for the short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle."
Irvington: township (town), Essex county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S., bordering Newark to the east. Settled in 1666 as part of a land grant from Sir George Carteret, proprietor of New Jersey, it was known as Camptown until 1852, when it separated ...
Irwin, Elisabeth Antoinette: American educator, psychologist, and one of the leaders of the progressive education movement.