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Piper, William T. ... pitchblende

Piper, William T.: American manufacturer of small aircraft, best known for the Piper Cub, a two-seater that became the most popular family aircraft. He earned the sobriquet "the Henry Ford of Aviation" for ...
Piperaceae: the pepper family in the order Piperales, commercially important because of Piper nigrum, the source of black and white pepper. The family comprises about 14 genera, of which two-Piper (about ...
Piperales: order of flowering plants comprising about 15 genera and approximately 2,000 species in three families. It belongs to the class that is known as Magnoliopsida (dicotyledons; characterized by two seed ...
piperazine: anthelmintic drug used in the treatment of intestinal roundworm infection in humans and domestic animals (including poultry) and against pinworm infection in humans. It is administered orally, in repeated doses, ...
piperine: an organic compound classed either with the lipid family (a group consisting of fats and fatlike substances) or with the alkaloids, a family of nitrogenous compounds with marked physiological properties. ...
Pipestone: city, seat of Pipestone county, southwestern Minnesota, U.S. It lies on the Coteau des Prairies, near the South Dakota state line, about 40 miles (65 km) northeast of Sioux Falls, ...
Pipiolo and Pelucon: (Spanish: "novice," or "greenhorn," and "bigwig," respectively), members of the two political partisan groups active in Chilean politics for about a century after national independence was achieved in the 1820s. ...
pipistrelle: any of about 68 species belonging to the vesper bat family (Vespertilionidae). Pipistrelles are found in almost all parts of the world. They are grayish, brown, reddish, or black bats ...
pipit: any of about 50 species of small, slender-bodied ground birds of the family Motacillidae (order Passeriformes, suborder Passeres [songbirds]), especially the genus Anthus, found worldwide except in polar regions and ...
Pippin: king of Italy (781-810) and second son of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne.
Pippin I: councillor of the Merovingian king Chlotar II and mayor of the palace in Austrasia.
Pippin I: Carolingian king of Aquitaine, the second son of the emperor Louis I the Pious.
Pippin II: ruler of the Franks (687-714), the first of the great Carolingian mayors of the palace.
Pippin II: Carolingian king of Aquitaine.
Pippin III: the first king of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty and the father of Charlemagne. A son of Charles Martel, Pippin became sole de facto ruler of the Franks in 747 and ...
Pippin, Horace: American folk painter known for his depictions of African American life and of the horrors of war.
pipsissewa: any of certain evergreen, herbaceous plants of the genus Chimaphila, of the wintergreen family (Pyrolaceae), especially C. umbellata and C. maculata. The former, sometimes also called prince's pine, love-in-winter, and ...
Piqua: city, Miami county, western Ohio, U.S., on the Great Miami River, 28 miles (45 km) north of Dayton. The original Indian village of Piqua (the name of a Shawnee tribal ...
pique work: decorative technique, usually employed on tortoiseshell, in which inlaid designs are created by means of small gold or silver pins. The art reached its highest point in 17th- and 18th-century ...
piquet: card game, known since the 15th century in France.
Pir Panjal Range: part of the western Punjab Himalayas, lying in northwestern India and northern Pakistan and extending southeastward for more than 200 mi (320 km) from the Kishanganga to the upper Beas ...
Piracicaba: city, in the highlands of east-central Sao Paulo state, southeastern Brazil. It lies at 1,772 feet (540 metres) above sea level on the Tiete River. Formerly called Santo Antonio de ...
piracy: any robbery or other violent action, for private ends and without authorization by public authority, committed on the seas or in the air outside the normal jurisdiction of any state. ...
Piraeus: city that is the port of Athens, Greece. Piraeus lies on Phaleron Bay, about 6 miles (10 km) southwest of Athens by highway. The main harbour, Kantharos (ancient Cantharus), is ...
Pirandello, Luigi: Italian playwright, novelist, and short-story writer, winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize for Literature. With his invention of the "theatre within the theatre" in the play Sei personaggi in cerca ...
Piranesi, Giovanni Battista: Italian draftsman, printmaker, architect, and art theorist. His large prints depicting the buildings of classical and postclassical Rome and its vicinity contributed considerably to Rome's fame and to the growth ...
piranha: razor-toothed, carnivorous fish of South American rivers and lakes, with a somewhat exaggerated reputation for ferocity.
pirarucu: ancient, air-breathing, giant fish of Amazonian rivers and lakes. One of the largest freshwater fishes in the world, the pirarucu attains a length of nearly 3 metres (10 feet) and ...
pirate perch: (Aphredoderus sayanus), freshwater fish that is the sole member of the family Aphredoderidae. The pirate perch is found in weedy or muddy creeks, rivers, and lakes of eastern North America. ...
pirate spider: any member of the family Mimetidae (order Araneida), noted for its habit of eating other spiders. The approximately 100 species are distributed worldwide. They are characterized by a row of ...
Piratininga: city, Sao Paulo estado ("state"), southeastern Brazil. It lies just southwest of Bauru. Formerly called Patrimonio dos Inocentes, it was founded by the Portuguese explorer Martim Afonso de Sousa in ...
Pire, Dominique: Belgian cleric and educator who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1958 for his aid to displaced persons in Europe after World War II.
Pirelli Family: an Italian family of industrialists who contributed to the development of production and commerce in rubber goods, electric wire, and electric cable.
Pirelli SpA: international holding company and major Italian manufacturer of tires and other rubber products. It is headquartered in Milan.
Pirenne, Henri: Belgian educator and scholar, one of the most eminent scholars of the Middle Ages and of Belgian national development.
Pirithous: in Greek mythology, the companion and helper of the hero Theseus in his many adventures, including the descent into Hades to carry off Persephone, the daughter of the goddess Demeter. ...
Pirmasens: city, Rhineland-Palatinate Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies near the French border. Named for St. Pirmin, who was supposed to have preached Christianity there in the 8th century, it originally ...
Pirmez, Octave: one of the outstanding Belgian men of letters of the period immediately before the literary revival of the 1880s. His works consist primarily of collections of essays, letters, and literary ...
pirogue: in its simplest form, a dugout made from one log, but also a number of more elaborately fashioned boats, including various native canoes, the structure and appearance of which generally ...
Piron, Alexis: French dramatist and wit who became famous for his epigrams and for his comedy La Metromanie (1738; "The Poetry Craze").
pirouette: (French: "to whirl about"), ballet turn in place on one leg. The pirouette is often done in spectacular series, which women usually perform on toe (pointe) and men on the ...
Pirquet, Clemens, Freiherr von: Austrian physician who originated a tuberculin skin test that bears his name.
Pirrie, William James Pirrie, Viscount: Irish shipbuilder who controlled the largest ship-construction firm in the world and built the liner Titanic (see ).
Pisa: capital of the provincia of Pisa, central Italy, in the regione of Tuscany (Toscana). The city lies on the alluvial plain of the Arno River, about 6 miles (10 km) ...
Pisa, Council of: in Roman Catholic church history, a council convened in 1409 with the intention of ending the Western (or Great) Schism, during which rival popes, each with his own Curia (bureaucracy), ...
Pisanello, Il: Italian medalist and painter, a major exponent of the International Gothic style. His early work suggests that he was the pupil of Stefano da Zevio, a Veronese artist. (He was ...
Pisani, Niccolo: Venetian admiral, renowned for his victories in the third war between the feuding republics of Venice and Genoa (1350-55).
Pisani, Vettore: Venetian admiral, victor in a decisive battle in the fourth war between the maritime republics of Venice and Genoa.
Pisano, Andrea: one of the most important Italian sculptors of the 14th century whose chief works were executed in Florence, where he came under the influence of Giotto. Andrea is recorded as ...
Pisano, Giovanni: sculptor, sometimes called the only true Gothic sculptor in Italy. He began his career under the classicist influence of his father, Nicola, and carried on this tradition after his father's ...
Pisano, Nicola: sculptor whose work, along with that of his son Giovanni and other artists employed in their workshops, created a new sculptural style for the late 13th and the 14th centuries ...
Piscataquis: county, central Maine, U.S. It comprises a largely mountainous region drained by the Piscataquis, Pleasant, and Penobscot (west branch) rivers. Moosehead Lake (120 square miles [310 square km]), one of ...
Piscator, Erwin: theatrical producer and director famed for his ingenious Expressionistic staging techniques. He was the originator of the epic theatre style later developed by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht.
Pisces: (Latin: Fishes), in astronomy, zodiacal constellation lying between Aries and Aquarius, at about 1 hour right ascension (the coordinate on the celestial sphere analogous to longitude on the Earth) and ...
piscina: in Roman times, an artificial reservoir used for swimming or as a fish pond. During the Middle Ages a piscina was a pool or tank in which fish were stored ...
Pisco: city, Ica department, southwestern Peru, Pacific port at the mouth of the Rio Pisco. Founded in 1640 by Pedro Toledo y Leiva, it was devastated by an earthquake in 1682 ...
Pisemsky, Aleksey Feofilaktovich: novelist and playwright whom many critics rank with the great masters of Russian Realism, though his Realism borders on Naturalism and he lacks the philanthropic conscience that informs the work ...
Pishin: town, Balochistan province, Pakistan. The present town, founded by the British as a military and civil station in 1883, is a market centre and has a noteworthy rest house with ...
Pisidia: ancient region of southern Asia Minor, located north of Pamphylia and west of Isauria and Cilicia. Most of the district was composed of the abrupt, north-south-trending limestone ranges of the ...
pisolite: spheroidal crystalline particle larger than 2 millimetres in diameter (see oolite).
Pissarro, Camille: painter and printmaker who was a key figure in the history of Impressionism. Pissarro was the only artist to show his work in all eight Impressionist group exhibitions; throughout his ...
Pissevache Fall: waterfall on the Salanfe River, a tributary of the Rhone, in Valais canton, Switzerland, a short distance north of the village of Vernayaz. It attains its maximum flow in spring ...
Pistacia: genus of flowering plants, of the cashew family (Anacardiaceae), comprising nine species of aromatic trees and shrubs native to Eurasia, with one species in southwestern North America and another in ...
pistil: the female reproductive part of a flower. The pistil, centrally located, typically consists of a swollen base, the ovary, which contains the potential seeds, or ovules; a stalk, or style, ...
Pistoia: city and capital of Pistoia province, in the Tuscany (Toscana) regione, north-central Italy. Pistoia city lies in the valley of the Ombrone River, with a semicircle of pleasant hills (part ...
Pistoia, Synod of: a diocesan meeting held in 1786 that was important in the history of Jansenism, a nonorthodox, pessimistic, and rigoristic movement in the Roman Catholic church. The synod, presided over by ...
pistol: small firearm designed for one-hand use. According to one theory, pistols owe their name to the city of Pistoia, Italy, where handguns were made as early as the 15th century. ...
piston and cylinder: in mechanical engineering, sliding cylinder with a closed head (the piston) that is moved reciprocally in a slightly larger cylindrical chamber (the cylinder) by or against pressure of a fluid, ...
Piston, Walter: composer noted for his symphonic and chamber music and his influence in the development of the 20th-century Neoclassical style in the United States.
pit bull terrier: fighting dog developed in 19th-century England out of the bulldog and a terrier. See Staffordshire terrier.
Pitcairn Island: isolated, volcanic formation in the south-central Pacific Ocean, 1,350 miles (2,170 km) southeast of Tahiti. It is the only inhabited island of the British colony of Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and ...
pitch: in speech, the relative highness or lowness of a tone as perceived by the ear, which depends on the number of vibrations per second produced by the vocal cords. Pitch ...
pitch: in music, position of a single sound in the complete range of sound. Sounds are higher or lower in pitch according to the frequency of vibration of the sound waves ...
pitch: in the chemical-process industries, the black or dark brown residue obtained by distilling coal tar, wood tar, fats, fatty acids, or fatty oils.
pitch lake: large surface deposit of natural asphalt, a mixture of heavy oils that is left after the lighter, more volatile components of a crude-oil seepage have evaporated. An example is Guanoco ...
pitchblende: amorphous, black, pitchy form of the crystalline uranium oxide mineral uraninite (q.v.); it is one of the primary mineral ores of uranium, containing 50-80 percent of that element. Three chemical ...