Collier's New Encyclopedia

A complete general encyclopedia of 1921 — the world as it was understood just after the Great War, from Aachen to Zwingli, across twelve volumes and six thousand pages.

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Aplanatic – Apricot

Aplanatic

in optics, a term specifically applied to reflectors, lenses, and combinations of them, capable of transmitting light without spherical aberration. An aplanatic lens is a lens constructed of different media to correct the effects of the unequal refrangibility of the different rays.

Apodal Fishes

the name applied to such malacopterous fishes as want ventral fins. They constitute a small natural family, of which the common eel is an example.

Apogee

that point in the orbit of the moon or a planet where it is at its APOLLINARIS WATER greatest distance from the earth; prop- erly this particular part of the moon's orbit.

Apollinaris Water

a natural aërated water, belonging to the class of acidulated soda waters, and derived from the Apollinarisbrunnen, a spring in the valley of the Ahr, near the Rhine, in Rhenish Prussia.

Apollodorus

a Greek writer who ous works he wrote on various subjects, the only one extant is his "Bibliotheca," which contains a concise account of the mythology of Greece down to the heroic age.

Apollonius of Rhodes

a Greek poet, born in Egypt, but long residing at Rhodes, where he founded a school of rhetoric. He afterward became keeper of the famous library of Alexandria, B. c. 149. He wrote a poem called "Argonautica," which is still extant.

Apoplexy

a serious malady, coming on so suddenly and so violently that anciently anyone affected by it was said to be attonitus (thunderstruck), or sideratus (planet-struck). The disease now described is properly called cerebral apoplexy, the cerebrum or brain being the part chiefly affected.

Appian Way

the great Roman from Rome to Capua, and afterward exhighway constructed by Appius Claudius, tended to Brundusium, and finished B. c. 312.

Appoggiatura

in music, a small additional note of embellishment in preceding the note to which it is attached, and taking away from the principal note a portion of its time.

Appold

JOHN GEORGE, an English mechanician and inventor of automatic machinery, born in 1800. He invented a centrifugal pump and a brake which was used in laying the Atlantic cable. He died Aug. 31, 1865.

Appomattox Court House

a village in Appomattox co., Va., 20 miles E. of Lynchburg. Here, on April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered to General Grant, and thus virtually concluded the Civil War.

APPORTIONMENT BILL

Apricot

a fruit, that of the prunus take care of his property, and promote grows. It is wild in Africa and in the Caucasus, and also in China and some other countries. It is esteemed only second to the peach.

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