Boyle, Richard, 1st earl of Cork, 1566–1643, English settler in Ireland. He first went to Ireland in 1588 and in 1602 purchased for a small sum Sir Walter Raleigh's large landholdings in Cork,...

Childers, Robert Erskine, 1870–1922, Irish politician and author. Born into a Protestant family, he was a clerk in the House of Commons (1895–1910). Gradually becoming convinced of the need fo...

Lismore, town (1991 pop. 715), Co. Waterford, S Republic of Ireland, on the Blackwater River. It is a market town with a salmon fishing industry. In the 7th cent., St. Carthagh founded a monas...

Atomism, philosophic concept of the nature of the universe, holding that the universe is composed of invisible, indestructible material particles. The theory was first advanced in the 5th cent...

Papin, Denis, 1647–1712?, French physicist and inventor. He was an assistant of Christian Huygens and of Robert Boyle and was professor of mathematics at the Univ. of Marburg (1687–96). He inv...

Tin, metallic chemical element; symbol Sn [Lat. stannum]; at. no. 50; at. wt. 118.69; m.p. 231.9681°C; b.p. 2,270°C; sp. gr. 5.75 (gray), 7.3 (white); valence +2 or +4. Tin exhibits allotropy;...

Gas laws, physical laws describing the behavior of a gas under various conditions of pressure, volume, and temperature. Experimental results indicate that all real gases behave in approximatel...

Chemistry, branch of science concerned with the properties, composition, and structure of substances and the changes they undergo when they combine or react under specified conditions. Chemist...

United Mine Workers of America (UMW), international labor union formed (1890) by the amalgamation of the National Progressive Union (organized 1888) and the mine locals under the Knights of La...

Element, in chemistry, a substance that cannot be decomposed into simpler substances by chemical means. A substance such as a compound can be decomposed into its constituent elements by means ...