Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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safety engineering ... Sahibdin

safety engineering: study of the causes and the prevention of accidental deaths and injuries. The field of safety engineering has not developed as a unified, specific discipline, and its practitioners have operated under a wide variety of position titles, job descriptions, responsibilities, ...
safety glass: type of glass that, when struck, bulges or breaks into tiny, relatively harmless fragments rather than shattering into large, jagged pieces. Safety glass may be made in either of two ways. It may be constructed by laminating two sheets of ...
safety lamp: lighting device used in places, such as mines, in which there is danger from the explosion of flammable gas or dust. In the late 18th century a demand arose in England for a miner's lamp that would not ignite the ...
Safeway Inc.: leading U.S. supermarket chain, with stores in the United States and abroad. Its headquarters are in Pleasanton, California.
Saffarid Dynasty: Iranian dynasty of lower class origins that ruled a large area in eastern Iran. The dynasty's founder, Ya'qub ebn Leys as-Saffar ("the coppersmith"), took control of his native province, Seistan, around 866. By 869 he had extended his control into ...
safflower: flowering annual plant, Carthamus tinctorius, of the Asteraceae (or Compositae) family; native to parts of Asia and Africa, from central India through the Middle East to the upper reaches of the Nile River and into Ethiopia. The safflower plant grows ...
Safford, Mary Jane: American physician whose extensive nursing experience during the Civil War determined her on a medical career.
saffron: purple-flowered saffron crocus, Crocus sativus, a bulbous perennial of the iris family (Iridaceae) treasured for its golden-coloured, pungent stigmas, which are dried and used to flavour and colour foods and as a dye. Saffron is named among the sweet-smelling herbs ...
Saffron Walden: town ("parish"), Uttlesford district, in the northwest corner of the administrative and historic county of Essex, England. The settlement grew around a Norman castle and abbey in a district that was important for domestic weaving. In the mid-14th century the ...
Safi: Atlantic port city, provincial capital, and province, Tensift region, western Morocco. Originally settled by the Canaanites, Safi city was, in turn, inhabited by Carthaginians (who named it Asfi), Romans, Jews, Goths, and finally by the Muslims in the 11th century. ...
Safi od-Din: mystic and founder of the Safavid order of mystics.
Safid Mountain Range: mountain range forming a natural frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan, extending westward for 100 miles (160 km) from the Vale of Peshawar (Pakistan) to the Lowrah Valley (Afghanistan). The boundary between the two countries runs along the summit of the ...
Safid River: longest river of northern Iran, rising 920 feet (280 m) in elevation and breaking through the Elburz Mountains in an impressive gorge 23 miles (37 km) long to emerge on the plain of Gilan, where it forms a delta and ...
Safiye Sultan: the favourite consort of the Ottoman sultan Murad III (reigned 1574-95) and the mother of his son Mehmed III (reigned 1595-1603); she exercised a strong influence on Ottoman affairs during the reigns of both sultans.
Sag Harbor: resort village, Suffolk county, southeastern New York, U.S. It is situated in Southampton and East Hampton towns (townships), at the east end of Long Island on Gardiners Bay. Located on the site of a Montauk Indian village (Wegwagonock), it was ...
Saga: city and ken (prefecture), northern Kyushu, Japan. Saga was the castle town of the lord (daimyo) Nabeshima Kanso. Traces of feudal days remain in the town's thatched roofs and the lotus-covered castle moats. Saga, the prefectural capital, is now an ...
saga: in medieval Icelandic literature, any type of story or history in prose, irrespective of the kind or nature of the narrative or the purposes for which it was written. Used in this general sense, the term applies to a wide ...
Sagadahoc: county, southwestern Maine, U.S. It has the smallest land area of any county in the state, consisting of a coastal region bounded to the southwest by the Androscoggin and New Meadows rivers, to the south by the Atlantic Ocean, to ...
Sagaing: town, central upper Myanmar (Burma), on the Irrawaddy River. It lies opposite the historical site of Ava and 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Mandalay. Once the capital of Myanmar (1760-64), it occupies the southern end of a north-south ridge ...
Sagamihara: city, Kanagawa ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Sagamihara Plateau. In the late 1930s a Japanese army camp in the surrounding sericultural region helped to unite neighbouring towns into Sagamihara, contributing to the city's growth. Among industries developed since 1955 ...
Sagan, Carl: American astronomer and science writer.
Sagan, Francoise: French novelist and dramatist who wrote her first and best-known novel, the international best-seller Bonjour Tristesse (1954), when she was 19 years old.
Sagar: city, central Madhya Pradesh state, central India. Sagar was founded by Udan Singh in 1660 and was constituted a municipality in 1867. It is situated around a lake (Hindi: sagar). A major road and agricultural-trade centre, it has industries such ...
Sagar Island: westernmost island of the Ganges delta, West Bengal state, northeastern India. It lies at the mouth of the Hooghly (Hugli) River (q.v.), an arm of which separates it from the mainland to the east. Situated at a point where the ...
Sagasta, Praxedes Mateo: seven-time prime minister of Spain (1871-72, 1874, 1881-83, 1885-90, 1892-95, 1897-99, 1901-02).
sage: (Salvia officinalis), aromatic perennial herb of the family Lamiaceae (Labiatae) native to the Mediterranean region, cultivated for its leaves, which are used fresh or dried as a flavouring in many foods, particularly in stuffings for poultry and pork and in ...
Sage, Margaret Olivia Slocum: American philanthropist whose exceptional generosity in her lifetime, especially to numerous educational and social causes, is continued by the Russell Sage Foundation, which she established.
Sage, Russell: American financier who played a part in organizing his country's railroad and telegraph systems.
sagebrush: any of various shrubby species of the genus Artemisia of the composite family (Asteraceae). They are native to semiarid plains and mountain slopes of western North America. The common sagebrush (A. tridentata) is a many-branched shrub, usually 1 to 2 ...
Sager, Ruth: American geneticist chiefly noted for recognizing the importance of nonchromosomal genes.
Saginaw: city, seat (1835) of Saginaw county, east-central Michigan, U.S. It lies at the head of navigation on the Saginaw River (leading to Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron), 96 miles (154 km) northwest of Detroit. Saginaw, an Ojibwa (Chippewa) Indian word ...
Saginaw Bay: southwestern arm of Lake Huron in eastern Michigan, U.S. It extends southwest for 51 miles (82 km) from its entrance between Au Sable Point (northwest) and Pointe Aux Barques (southeast) to the Saginaw River at the head of the bay. ...
Sagittarius: (Latin: "Archer"), in astronomy, zodiacal constellation lying between Capricornus and Scorpius, at about 19 hours right ascension (the coordinate on the celestial sphere analogous to longitude on the Earth) and 25° south declination (angular distance south of the celestial equator). ...
Sagittarius A: strongest source of cosmic radio waves from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. The source has been identified as the nucleus of the Milky Way Galaxy. Most of the radio radiation is from a synchrotron mechanism, indicating the presence of ...
sago: food starch prepared from carbohydrate material stored in the trunks of several palms, the main sources being Metroxylon rumphii and M. sagu, sago palms native to the Indonesian archipelago.
Sagua la Grande: city, north-central Villa Clara provincia, north-central Cuba. Lying on the Sagua la Grande River, 15 miles (24 km) from its mouth, the city is a major port and regional manufacturing and commercial centre. The area is known primarily for its ...
saguaro: (Cereus giganteus), large cactus, family Cactaceae, native to Mexico and Arizona and California in the United States. By authorities who split the genus Cereus into smaller genera, the name is Carnegiea gigantea.
Saguaro National Park: mountain and desert region in southern Arizona, U.S. The park-consisting of two districts, Saguaro West and Saguaro East, separated by the city of Tucson-embraces forests of saguaro: a giant candelabra-shaped cactus that may reach 50 feet (15 metres) in height ...
Saguenay River: river in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, south central Quebec province, Canada, draining Lac-Saint-Jean into the St. Lawrence River at Tadoussac, about 120 mi (190 km) northeast of Quebec city. Flowing east-southeast, the Saguenay, in the first third of its 105-mi length, descends ...
Saguia el Hamra: northern region of the Western Sahara, West Africa. Stretching between Cabo (cape) Bojador and the de jure Moroccan border, its area is 31,660 sq mi (82,310 sq km). After Spain withdrew from the country in 1976, the region was under ...
Sagunto: town, Valencia province, in the autonomous community (region) of Valencia, eastern Spain, at the foot of the Penas de Pajarito, on the western bank of the Rio Palancia, just north-northeast of Valencia city. Of Iberian origin, the town is the ...
Saha, Meghnad N.: Indian astrophysicist noted for his development in 1920 of the thermal ionization equation, which, in the form perfected by the British astrophysicist Edward A. Milne, has remained fundamental in all work on stellar atmospheres. This equation has been widely applied ...
Sahaptin: group of North American Indian tribes inhabiting what is now southeastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, and west-central Idaho, in the basin of the Columbia River and its tributaries, and speaking related Sahaptian languages of Penutian stock. Major groups included the Cayuse, ...
Sahara: largest desert in the world. Filling nearly all of northern Africa, it measures approximately 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometres) from east to west and between 800 and 1,200 miles from north to south and has a total area of some 3,320,000 ...
Saharan Atlas: part of the chain of Atlas Mountains, extending across northern Africa from Algeria into Tunisia. The principal ranges from west to east are the Ksour, Amour, Ouled-Nail, Zab, Aures, and Tebessa (Tabassah). Mount Chelia (7,638 feet [2,328 m]) is the ...
Saharan languages: group of languages that constitutes one of the major divisions of Nilo-Saharan languages. Saharan languages are spoken mainly around Lake Chad-which is located at the conjunction of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger-but also in Libya and The Sudan. Subdivided into ...
Saharanpur: town, northwestern Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, situated at the junction of several roads and rail lines. Saharanpur was founded about 1340 and is named for Shah Haran Chishti, a Muslim saint. The town's industries include railway workshops, cotton and ...
Saharsa: town, northeastern Bihar state, northeastern India. The town is a major rail and road hub and has an electric power station. It was constituted a municipality in 1961.
Sahel: semiarid region of western and north-central Africa extending from Senegal eastward to The Sudan. It forms a transitional zone between the arid Sahara (desert) to the north and the belt of humid savannas to the south. The Sahel stretches from ...
Sahgal, Nayantara: Indian journalist and novelist whose fiction presents the personal crises of India's elite amid settings of political upheaval.
Sahibdin: an outstanding Indian artist of the Mewar school of Rajasthani painting (see Mewar painting). He is one of the few Rajasthani artists whose name is known, and his work dominated the Mewar school during the first half of the 17th ...