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  • Rattlesnake (ship)
    To repay his debts, he entered the navy and served (1846–50) as assistant surgeon on HMS Rattlesnake surveying Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and New Guinea. With his microscope lashed to a table in the chart room, he studied the structure and growth of sea anemones, hydras, jellyfish, and sea nettles such as the Portuguese man-of-war, which decomposed too quickly to be studie...
  • rattlesnake
    any of 33 species of venomous New World vipers characterized by a segmented rattle at the tip of the tail that produces a buzzing sound when vibrated. Rattlesnakes are found from southern Canada to central Argentina but are most abundant and diverse in the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Adults usually vary in length from 0.5 to 2 metres (1.6 to 6....
  • rattletop (herb)
    any of about 15 species of tall perennial herb constituting the genus Cimicifuga of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) native to North Temperate woodlands. They are said to put bugs to flight by the rustling of their dried seed heads....
  • Rattone, Giorgio (Italian scientist)
    ...the surgeon who perfected the operation for inguinal hernia (Bassini’s operation); Carlo Forlanini, who introduced therapeutic pneumothorax in treating pulmonary tuberculosis; and Antonio Carle and Giorgio Rattone, who demonstrated the transmissibility of tetanus....
  • Rattus (rodent genus)
    the term generally and indiscriminately applied to numerous members of several rodent families having bodies longer than about 12 cm, or 5 inches. (Smaller thin-tailed rodents are just as often indiscriminately referred to as mice.) In scientific usage, rat applies to any of 56 thin-tailed, medium-sized rodent species in the genus Rattus nativ...
  • Rattus argentiventer (rodent)
    ...rat, eat only fruit and the seeds within, but some, such as the Philippine forest rat (R. everetti), also eat insects and worms. Other tropical species, such as the rice-field rat (R. argentiventer) and Malayan field rat (R. tiomanicus), primarily consume the insects, snails, slugs, and other......
  • Rattus everetti (rodent)
    ...pheasant, pigeons, poultry, rabbits, and carrion. Many rainforest species, including the Sulawesian white-tailed rat and Hoffman’s rat, eat only fruit and the seeds within, but some, such as the Philippine forest rat (R. everetti), also eat insects and worms. Other tropical species, such as the rice-field rat (R. argentiventer) an...
  • Rattus exulans (rodent)
    ...human structures. In addition to the house rat, the distributions of four other species (R. argentiventer, R. nitidus, R. exulans, and R. tanezumi) extend outside continental Southeast Asia, from the Sunda Shelf to New Guinea and beyond to some Pacific islands, and most likely......
  • Rattus hoffmanni (rodent)
    ...these hairs become longer toward the tip, which gives the tail a slightly tufted appearance. As with any large group of rodents, body size varies within the genus. Most species are about the size of Hoffman’s rat (R. hoffmanni), native to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and weighing 95 to 240 grams (3.4 to 8.5 ounces), with a body length of 17 to 21 cm (6.7...
  • Rattus hoogerwerfi (rodent)
    ...R. nitidus) and the Turkestan rat (R. turkestanicus), or brown all around the basal third to half of the tail with the rest uniformly white, as in Hoogerwerf’s rat (R. hoogerwerfi) and the white-tailed rat of Sulawesi....
  • Rattus lugens (rodent)
    ...Himalayan field rat (R. nitidus) has a brown back, gray underparts, and feet of pearly white. Others have very dark fur, such as the Mentawai rat (R. lugens) native to islands off the west coast of Sumatra. It has brownish black upperparts and a grayish black belly. Although the tail is uniformly gray to dark brown in most rats......
  • Rattus nitidus (rodent)
    ...to dark gray, sometimes suffused with buff tones. Tail, ears, and feet are dark brown. As with fur texture, colour is variable. The Sikkim rat has brownish upperparts and a pure white underside; the Himalayan field rat (R. nitidus) has a brown back, gray underparts, and feet of pearly white. Others have very dark fur, such as the Mentawai rat (R...
  • Rattus norvegicus (rodent)
    ...continental Asia and the adjacent islands of Southeast Asia eastward to the Australia-New Guinea region. A few species have spread far beyond their native range in close association with people. The brown rat, Rattus norvegicus (also called the Norway rat), and the house rat, R. rattus (also called the black rat, ship rat, or roof rat),....
  • Rattus osgoodi (rodent)
    ...to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and weighing 95 to 240 grams (3.4 to 8.5 ounces), with a body length of 17 to 21 cm (6.7 to 8.3 inches) and a tail about as long. One of the smaller species is Osgood’s rat (R. osgoodi) of southern Vietnam, with a body 12 to 17 cm long and a somewhat shorter tail. At the larger extreme is the Sulawesian white-tailed rat (....
  • Rattus rattus (rodent)
    ...region. A few species have spread far beyond their native range in close association with people. The brown rat, Rattus norvegicus (also called the Norway rat), and the house rat, R. rattus (also called the black rat, ship rat, or roof rat), live virtually everywhere that human populations have settled; the house rat is predominant in......
  • Rattus remotus (rodent)
    ...and dense coat. In some species the coat may be thicker and longer, somewhat woolly, or long and coarse; in others, such as the Sulawesian white-tailed rat and the Sikkim rat (R. remotus) of India, long and slender guard hairs resembling whiskers extend 4 to 6 cm beyond the coat on the back and rump. Very few Rattus species have spiny......
  • Rattus tanezumi (rodent)
    ...the distributions of four other species (R. argentiventer, R. nitidus, R. exulans, and R. tanezumi) extend outside continental Southeast Asia, from the Sunda Shelf to New Guinea and beyond to some Pacific islands, and most likely represent introductions facilitated by human......
  • Rattus tiomanicus (rodent)
    ...Philippine forest rat (R. everetti), also eat insects and worms. Other tropical species, such as the rice-field rat (R. argentiventer) and Malayan field rat (R. tiomanicus), primarily consume the insects, snails, slugs, and other invertebrates found in habitats of forest patches, secondary growth, scrubby......
  • Rattus turkestanicus (rodent)
    ...tail’s entire upper surface with a paler tone or pure white on the undersurface, as in the Himalayan field rat (R. nitidus) and the Turkestan rat (R. turkestanicus), or brown all around the basal third to half of the tail with the rest uniformly white, as in Hoogerwerf’s rat (R. hoogerwerfi) and...
  • Rattus xanthurus (rodent)
    ...long. One of the smaller species is Osgood’s rat (R. osgoodi) of southern Vietnam, with a body 12 to 17 cm long and a somewhat shorter tail. At the larger extreme is the Sulawesian white-tailed rat (R. xanthurus), measuring 19 to 27 cm long with a tail of 26 to 34 cm....
  • Ratufa (rodent)
    Variation in body size is considerable. Largest are the four species of Oriental giant squirrels (genus Ratufa) native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. Weighing 1.5 to 3 kg (3 to almost 7 pounds), it has a body length of 25 to 46 cm (about 10 to 18 inches) and a tail about as long. Two species of pygmy squirrels are the smallest: the neotropical pygmy......
  • Ratushinskaya, Irina Georgiyevna (Russian poet, essayist and dissident)
    Russian lyric poet, essayist, and political dissident....
  • Ratzel, Friedrich (German geographer)
    German geographer and ethnographer and a principal influence in the modern development of both disciplines. He originated the concept of Lebensraum, or “living space,” which relates human groups to the spatial units where they develop. Though Ratzel pointed out the propensity of a state to expand or contract its boundaries according to rational capabilities,...
  • Ratzenhofer, Gustav (Austrian general and sociologist)
    Austrian soldier, military jurist, and sociologist, a Social Darwinist who conceived of society as a universe of conflicting ethnic groups, and who thought that sociology could guide the human species into higher forms of association....
  • Ratzinger, Joseph Alois (pope)
    the bishop of Rome and the head of the Roman Catholic Church from 2005. Prior to his election as pope, Benedict led a distinguished career as a theologian and as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. His papacy faced several challenges, including a decline in vocations and church attendance, divisive debates concerning the direction of the church, and the lingering effects of ...
  • Rau, Gretchen (American set decorator)
    ...Screenplay: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana for Brokeback MountainCinematography: Dion Beebe for Memoirs of a GeishaArt Direction: John Myhre (art direction) and Gretchen Rau (set decoration) for Memoirs of a GeishaOriginal Score: Gustavo Santaolalla for Brokeback Mountain Original Song: “It’s Hard Out Here for a......
  • Rau, Johannes (president of Germany)
    German politician (b. Jan. 16, 1931, Wuppertal, Ger.—d. Jan. 27, 2006, Berlin, Ger.), as Germany’s president (1999–2004), promoted closer ties with Israel and greater acceptance of foreign immigrants. Rau, the son of a preacher, worked as a journalist and in a Protestant publishing house. In 1952 he joined the new All-German People’s Party, a left-wing Christian pacifis...
  • Rau, Sir Benegal Narsing (Indian jurist)
    one of the foremost Indian jurists of his time. He helped to draft the constitutions of Burma (Myanmar) in 1947 and India in 1950. As India’s representative on the United Nations Security Council (1950–52), he was serving as president of the council when it recommended armed assistance to South Korea (June 1950). Later he was a member of the Korean War cease-fire commission....
  • Raub (Malaysia)
    town, central Peninsular (West) Malaysia, about 50 miles (80 km) north-northeast of Kuala Lumpur. Situated in the eastern foothills of the Main Range, it began in the 1880s as a gold-mining settlement. Raub is the Malay word meaning “scoop with one’s hands,” and at one time the ore was reputedly so abundant that this was a common method of working. The Australian Gold Mining C...
  • “Räuber, Die” (drama by Schiller)
    ...cello and theory with the local chapelmaster, whom he succeeded as director of the Stuttgart Opera in 1792. Although he composed eight operas, 21 church cantatas, choruses to Schiller’s play Die Räuber, and instrumental music, he is remembered chiefly for his 20 ballads for solo voice and piano. He exerted a strong influence on the youthful Schubert, whose early long narrat...
  • “Räuberbande, Die” (work by Frank)
    ...artist, Frank turned to literature. In 1914 his open opposition to World War I forced him to flee to Switzerland. The same year he published his first book, Die Räuberbande (1914; The Robber Band). The story of rebellious young boys who seek to create the ideal society but end up as “good citizens,” it embodies the main theme of his writings—the humorou...
  • Rauch, Christian Daniel (German sculptor)
    ...Johann Gottfried Schadow, who was also a painter but is better known as a sculptor; his pupil, the sculptor Christian Friedrich Tieck; the painter and sculptor Martin von Wagner; and the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch....
  • Rauch, John (American architect)
    ...Stonorov (Philadelphia), Eero Saarinen (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), and Louis I. Kahn (Philadelphia). After holding partnerships in several firms, he opened a longer-lasting architectural firm with John Rauch in 1964. Venturi’s wife, Denise Scott Brown, became a partner in the firm in 1967. From 1957 to 1965 Venturi was a member of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of......
  • Rauchmiller, Matthias (German sculptor)
    Painting and sculpture recovered slowly from the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War, and some of the earliest reflections of the high Baroque of Bernini are to be found in the sculpture of Matthias Rauchmiller at Trier (1675) and Legnica (Liegnitz) in Silesia (1677)....
  • Raudales, Región de los (rapids, South America)
    Downstream from San Fernando de Atabapo, the river flows northward and forms part of the border between Venezuela and Colombia. It passes through a transitional zone, the Region of the Rapids (Región de los Raudales), where the Orinoco forces its way through a series of narrow passages among enormous granite boulders. The waters fall in a succession of rapids, ending with the Atures......
  • Raúl Leoni, Embalse (dam, Venezuela)
    hydroelectric project and reservoir on the Caroní River, Bolívar State, eastern Venezuela, on the site of the former village of Guri (submerged by the reservoir), near the former mouth of the Guri River. The first stage of the facility was completed in 1969 as a 348-foot- (106-metre-) high earth and rockfill dam with a crest length of 2,264 feet (690 m) and an installed electrical ca...
  • Raum, Zeit, Materie (book by Weyl)
    The outgrowth of a course of lectures on relativity, Weyl’s Raum, Zeit, Materie (1918; “Space, Time, Matter”) reveals his keen interest in philosophy and embodies the bulk of his findings on relativity. He produced the first unified field theory for which Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetic fields and the gravitational field appear as geometr...
  • Rauma (Finland)
    city, southwestern Finland. It lies along the Gulf of Bothnia north-northwest of Turku. Rauma was first noted in official records in 1442. In 1550, King Gustav I Vasa of Sweden (which then governed Finland) ordered the inhabitants to move to newly founded Helsinki, and Rauma was virtually abandoned for a number of years. In 1855, during the ...
  • Raumo (Finland)
    city, southwestern Finland. It lies along the Gulf of Bothnia north-northwest of Turku. Rauma was first noted in official records in 1442. In 1550, King Gustav I Vasa of Sweden (which then governed Finland) ordered the inhabitants to move to newly founded Helsinki, and Rauma was virtually abandoned for a number of years. In 1855, during the ...
  • Rausa (Croatia)
    port of Dalmatia, southeastern Croatia. Situated on the southern Adriatic coast, it is usually regarded as the most picturesque city on the Dalmatian coast and is referred to as the “Pearl of the Adriatic.” Dubrovnik (derived from dubrava in Croatian, meaning “grove”)...
  • Rauschenberg, Milton (American artist)
    American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement....
  • Rauschenberg, Robert (American artist)
    American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement....
  • Rauschenbusch, Walter (American minister)
    clergyman and theology professor who led the Social Gospel movement in the United States....
  • Rauscher, Joseph Othmar von (Austrian cardinal)
    cardinal and the influential tutor of the Habsburg emperor Francis Joseph; he was the primary engineer of the Austro-papal concordat of 1855....
  • Rausing, Gad Anders (Swedish industrialist)
    Swedish industrialist (b. May 19, 1922, Bromma, near Stockholm, Swed.—d. Jan. 28, 2000, Lausanne, Switz.), was the son of the developer of a sealed, laminated paperboard beverage box that did not require refrigeration and thus revolutionized the milk and juice industries. Rausing (with his younger brother, Hans) built the family business, Tetra Pak (later Tetra Laval Group), from a small Sc...
  • Rautanen, Martii (Finnish missionary)
    ...first Christian (Finnish Lutheran) mission in Owambo. The mission introduced Western health and educational institutions and trained the local populace in crafts such as bricklaying and carpentry. Martii Rautanen, an early missionary living in Ondangwa, created a system for writing a local Owambo language. Formerly the residence of the Owambo commissioner general (more recently relocated at......
  • Rautatie (work by Aho)
    Aho’s early realistic stories and novels humorously describe life in the Finnish backwoods he knew so well. His novel Rautatie (1884; “The Railway”), the story of an elderly couple’s first railway trip, is a Finnish classic. Influenced by contemporary Norwegian and French writers—Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson, Guy de Maupassan...
  • Rauvolfia (plant genus)
    genus of plants in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), with 110 species of shrubs and trees native to tropical areas of the world. The flowers are small and usually white or greenish white in colour....
  • Rauvolfia serpentina (plant)
    The roots of many species contain an alkaloid called reserpine, first found in the Indian species R. serpentina and used in the treatment of high blood pressure and as a tranquilizer. Some are grown as ornamentals....
  • Rauwolfia (plant genus)
    genus of plants in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), with 110 species of shrubs and trees native to tropical areas of the world. The flowers are small and usually white or greenish white in colour....
  • Rauzat-us-Safa; or, Garden of Purity, The (work by Mīrkhwānd)
    ...his patron, he began about 1474 his general history, Rowzat oṣ-ṣafāʾ (Eng. trans. begun as History of the Early Kings of Persia, 1832; continued as The Rauzat-us-Safa; or, Garden of Purity, 1891–94). The work is composed of seven large volumes and a geographic appendix, sometimes considered an eighth volume. The history begins with the age...
  • Rav (Babylonian rabbi)
    Babylonian amora (scholar), head of the important Jewish academy at Nehardea. His teachings, along with those of Rav (Abba Arika, head of the academy at Sura), figure prominently in the Babylonian Talmud....
  • Ravaillac, François (French assassin)
    ...from Jülich, but whether he would have gone on to risk a new general war against the Habsburgs is unknown. He was assassinated in Paris on May 14, 1610, by a fanatical Roman Catholic named François Ravaillac....
  • Ravaisson-Mollien, Jean-Gaspard-Félix Lacher (French philosopher)
    French philosopher whose writings had an extensive influence in the Roman Catholic world during the 19th century. He was appointed inspector general of public libraries (1839–46, 1846–53) and later served as inspector general of higher education, a post he held until 1880. His major philosophical works are: Essai sur la métaphysique d’Aristote, 2 vol. (1837...
  • Ravalomanana, Marc (president of Madagascar)
    Throughout 2002 the African island nation of Madagascar continued to reel from the disputed presidential elections of December 2001. A court-ordered recount was required for decision to be reached on the close contest between challenger Marc Ravalomanana, mayor of the capital city of Antananarivo, and Didier Ratsiraka, the sitting president for more than two decades. In the first round of voting, ...
  • Rāvaṇa (Hindu mythology)
    in Hindu mythology, the 10-headed king of the demons (rākṣasas). His abduction of Sītā and eventual defeat by her husband Rāma are the central incidents of the popular epic the Rāmāyaṇa (“Romance of Rāma”). Rāva...
  • Ravardière, La (French Guiana)
    capital and Atlantic Ocean port of French Guiana. It is located at the northwestern end of Cayenne Island, which is formed by the estuaries of the Cayenne and Mahury rivers. Founded in 1643 by the French as La Ravardière, it was reoccupied in 1664 after destruction by the Indians and was declared a city and renamed Cayenne in 1777. After the emancipation of slaves in 1848, it became a centr...
  • rave (music)
    Britain’s rave culture and the sound that powered it were the product of a cornucopia of influences that came together in the late 1980s: the pulse of Chicago house music and the garage music of New York City, the semiconductor technology of northern California and the drug technology of southern California, the early electronic music of Munich and Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and the surge ...
  • Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (recording by Prince)
    ...his work on the Internet and through private arrangements with retail chains as a means of circumventing the control of large record companies. In 1999, however, he released Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic under the Arista label; a collaboration with Sheryl Crow, Chuck D, Ani DiFranco, and others, the album received mixed reviews and failed to find a large audience.......
  • Ravel, Joseph-Maurice (French composer)
    French composer of Swiss-Basque descent, noted for his musical craftsmanship and perfection of form and style in such works as Boléro (1928), Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899; Pavane for a Dead Princess), Rapsodie espagnole (1907), the ballet Daphnis et Chloé (first performed 1912), and the opera L’Enfant et les sortilèg...
  • Ravel, Maurice (French composer)
    French composer of Swiss-Basque descent, noted for his musical craftsmanship and perfection of form and style in such works as Boléro (1928), Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899; Pavane for a Dead Princess), Rapsodie espagnole (1907), the ballet Daphnis et Chloé (first performed 1912), and the opera L’Enfant et les sortilèg...
  • Raven (Mithraism)
    The initiates were organized in seven grades: corax, Raven; nymphus, Bridegroom; miles, Soldier; leo, Lion; Perses, Persian; heliodromus, Courier of (and to) the Sun;......
  • raven (bird)
    any of several species of heavy-billed, dark birds, larger than crows. Closely related, both ravens and crows are species of the genus Corvus. The raven has a heavier bill and shaggier plumage than the crow, especially around the throat. The raven’s lustrous feathers also have a blue or purplish iridescence....
  • Raven (Native American religious figure)
    ...the planning and organizing of creation but qualities of goodness, wisdom, and perfection that are reminiscent of the Christian deity. By contrast, the Koyukon universe is notably decentralized. Raven, whom Koyukon narratives credit with the creation of human beings, is only one among many powerful entities in the Koyukon world. He exhibits human weaknesses such as lust and pride, is neither......
  • Raven cycle (collection of folktales)
    collection of trickster-transformer tales originating among the Native Americans of the Northwest Pacific Coast from Alaska to British Columbia. These traditional stories feature Raven as a culture hero, an alternately clever and stupid bird-human whose voracious hunger, greed, and erotic appetite give rise to violent and amorous adventures that explain how the world of humans c...
  • Raven, Simon (English writer)
    English novelist, playwright, and journalist, known particularly for his satiric portrayal of the hedonism of the mid-20th-century upper classes of English society....
  • Raven, Simon Arthur Noël (English writer)
    English novelist, playwright, and journalist, known particularly for his satiric portrayal of the hedonism of the mid-20th-century upper classes of English society....
  • Raven, The (work by Poe)
    ...In the New York Mirror of January 29, 1845, appeared, from advance sheets of the American Review, his most famous poem, The Raven, which gave him national fame at once. Poe then became editor of the Broadway Journal, a short-lived weekly, in which he republished most of his short...
  • Ravenala (plant genus)
    family of flowering plants in the ginger order (Zingiberales) that range in size from perennial herbs to trees. The family includes three genera (Ravenala, Phenakospermum, and Strelitzia) and seven species....
  • Ravenala madagascariensis (plant)
    (species Ravenala madagascariensis), plant of the family Strelitziaceae, so named because the water it accumulates in its leaf bases has been used in emergencies for drinking. This, the only Ravenala species, is native in Madagascar and cultivated around the world. The trunk resembles that of a palm tree and attains a height of more than 8 m (26 feet). At the top of the tree are bana...
  • Ravenna (Ohio, United States)
    (species Ravenala madagascariensis), plant of the family Strelitziaceae, so named because the water it accumulates in its leaf bases has been used in emergencies for drinking. This, the only Ravenala species, is native in Madagascar and cultivated around the world. The trunk resembles that of a palm tree and attains a height of more than 8 m (26 feet). At the top of the tree are bana...
  • Ravenna (Italy)
    city, Emilia-Romagna regione, northeastern Italy. The city is on a low-lying plain near the confluence of the Ronco and Montone rivers, 6 miles (10 km) inland from the Adriatic Sea, with which it is connected by a canal. Ravenna was important in history as the capital of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century ad and later (6th–8th century) of Ost...
  • Ravenna Cosmography (Roman map)
    ...lists of several thousand geographic names of the entire empire, with estimates of the intervening distances. It has provided the basis for reconstructing the system of Roman roads. The “Ravenna Cosmography,” probably of the 7th century, itemizes islands of the Atlantic and places and rivers of Asia, Africa, and Europe....
  • Ravenna, Exarchate of (ancient province, Italy)
    Byzantine Italy was nominally a single unit, but it too in reality fell into several separate pieces. Its political centre was Ravenna, which was ruled by a military leader appointed from Constantinople and called exarch from about 590. Exarchs were changed quite frequently, probably because military figures far from the centre of the empire who developed a local following might revolt (as......
  • Ravenna grass (plant)
    ...to warm regions of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Plume grasses are tall, reedlike perennials with dense, cylindrical, plumelike panicles. Most species are 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 feet) tall, but Ravenna grass (E. ravennae), native to southern Europe, grows to 4 m (13 feet). It is cultivated as an ornamental for its long (0.6 m [2 feet]) panicle....
  • Ravenna, San Romualdo di (Roman Catholic ascetic)
    Christian ascetic who founded the Camaldolese Benedictines (Hermits)....
  • Ravensbrück (concentration camp, Germany)
    Nazi German concentration camp for women (Frauenlager) located in a swamp near the village of Ravensbrück, 50 miles (80 km) north of Berlin. Ravensbrück served as a training base for some 3,500 female SS (Nazi paramilitary corps) supervisors who staffed it and other concentration camps. Th...
  • Ravensburg (Germany)
    city, Baden-Württemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies along the Schussen River, just north of Lake Constance (Bodensee), northeast of Konstanz. Founded and chartered in the 12th century near the Guelfs’s ancestral castle (where Henry III ...
  • Ravensburg Trading Company (German company)
    ...salt, and metals; but the southern German merchants, in their capacity as middlemen between Italy and the rest of Europe, had taken the lead by 1500. They combined trade and industry in the great Ravensburg Trading Company (1380–1530), which produced and exported Swabian linen and laid the foundation of the fortunes of the Höchstetter, Herwart, Adler, Tucher, and Imhof families......
  • Ravenscroft, George (English glassmaker)
    English glassmaker, developer of flint glass, a heavy, blown type (shaped by blowing when in a plastic state) characterized by both brilliance and dark shadow....
  • Ravenscroft, Thomas (English composer)
    composer remembered for his social songs and his collection of psalm settings....
  • Ravensdale, Lord (British author)
    British novelist whose work, often philosophical and Christian in theology, won critical but not popular praise for its originality and seriousness of purpose....
  • Ravereau, André (French architect)
    ...and imaginative, such as the government buildings of Dhākā, Bangladesh (designed by the late Louis Kahn of the United States), or in the numerous buildings designed by the Frenchman André Ravereau in Mali or Algeria. Furthermore, within the Muslim world emerged several schools of architects that adopted modes of an international language to suit local conditions. The......
  • Rāvi River (river, Asia)
    in northwestern India and northeastern Pakistan, one of the rivers that give the Punjab (meaning “five rivers”) its name. It rises in the Himalayas in Himāchal Pradesh state, India, and flows west-northwest past Chamba, turning southwest at the boundary of Jammu and Kashmir. The river then flows to the Pakistani border and along it for more than 50 miles (80 km) before enteri...
  • Ravidas (Indian mystic and poet)
    mystic and poet who was one of the most renowned of the saints of the North Indian bhakti movement....
  • Ravikiraṇ Maṇḍal (group of Marāṭhī poets)
    ...Marathi poetry and started a school, lasting until 1920, that emphasized home and nature, the glorious past, and pure lyricism. After that, the period was dominated by a group of poets called the Ravikiraṇ Maṇḍal, who proclaimed that poetry was not for the erudite and sensitive but was instead a part of everyday life. Contemporary poetry, after 1945, seeks to explore......
  • ravine (geological feature)
    Valley initiation on the Hawaiian volcanoes thus depends on rainfall and infiltration capacity. When runoff valleys are initiated, their streams incise to form V-shaped ravines. The ravine systems eventually become sufficiently deep to expose deeper layers where groundwater activity and spring sapping become more important. The deepest incision produces U-shaped, theatre-headed valleys. Because......
  • Ravinia Park (music centre, Illinois, United States)
    one of the oldest outdoor summer music and cultural centres in the United States, located in Highland Park, Illinois, about 20 miles (30 km) north of downtown Chicago. It was established in 1904 on land purchased by the A.C. Frost Company, a subsidiary of the Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad. Originally an amusement centre designed to stimulate railroad...
  • Ravitch, Jessie Shirley (American sociologist)
    American sociologist who provided insights into women, sex, marriage, and the interaction of the family and community....
  • Ravnen (work by Goldschmidt)
    Goldschmidt’s finest descriptions of Jewish life are to be found in his short stories, notably in Fortællinger (1846; “Tales”). In Ravnen (1867; “The Raven”), one of the outstanding Danish novels of the 19th century, he depicts Jews with an unusual blend of sympathy and irony. Goldschmidt is an exquisite st...
  • RAW (Indian government agency)
    ...Naval Intelligence, and Air Intelligence, and the Joint Cipher Bureau provides interservice cryptology and signals intelligence. India’s most important intelligence agency is a civilian service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). The RAW’s operations are for the most part confined to the Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. The RAW also has direct...
  • Raw and the Cooked, The (work by Lévi-Strauss)
    ...connection exists between myth and music has been argued by Claude Lévi-Strauss. In an analysis of the myths of certain South American Indians (Le Cru et le cuit, 1964; The Raw and the Cooked) he explains that his procedure is “to treat the sequences of each myth, and the myths themselves in respect of their reciprocal interrelations, like the......
  • raw coal
    ROM coal is crushed to below a maximum size; undesirable constituents such as tramp iron, timber, and perhaps strong rocks are removed; the product is commonly called raw coal....
  • raw material (industry)
    ...or financial intermediaries, typically enter into longer-term commitments with the producer and make up what is known as the marketing channel, or the channel of distribution. Manufacturers use raw materials to produce finished products, which in turn may be sent directly to the retailer, or, less often, to the consumer. However, as a general rule, finished goods flow from the manufacturer......
  • raw milk (liquid)
    Raw milk is a potentially dangerous food that must be processed and protected to assure its safety for humans. While most bovine diseases, such as brucellosis and tuberculosis, have been eliminated, many potential human pathogens inhabit the dairy farm environment. Therefore, it is essential that all milk be either pasteurized or (in the case of cheese) held for at least 60 days if made from......
  • raw silk (textile)
    Silk containing sericin is called raw silk. The gummy substance, affording protection during processing, is usually retained until the yarn or fabric stage and is removed by boiling the silk in soap and water, leaving it soft and lustrous, with weight reduced by as much as 30 percent. Spun silk is made from short lengths obtained from damaged cocoons or broken off during processing, twisted......
  • raw sugar
    ...dries and cools on the belts as it moves to bulk storage. At this point it is pale brown to golden yellow, with a sucrose content of 97–99 percent and a moisture content of 0.5 percent. This raw sugar, the sugar of commerce, is stored in bags in countries where labour is abundant and cheap. Generally, however, it is stored in bulk and shipped loose, like grain, in dry-bulk ships to areas...
  • Raw Youth, A (work by Dostoyevsky)
    ...column entitled Dnevnik pisatelya (“The Diary of a Writer”). He left Grazhdanin to write Podrostok (1875; A Raw Youth, also known as The Adolescent), a relatively unsuccessful and diffuse novel describing a young man’s relations with his natural father....
  • rawaketa (Greek history)
    ...in the 14th and 13th centuries was densely populated with towns and villages, and cemeteries confirm the numbers. The state was organized under a king, wanax, with a military leader, rawaketa, and troops with chariot officers attached for patrolling the borders; there also were naval detachments. The people had certain powers and a council. The towns were organized......
  • Rawaki (atoll, Pacific Ocean)
    group of coral atolls, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean, 1,650 miles (2,650 km) southwest of Hawaii. The group comprises Rawaki (Phoenix), Manra (Sydney), McKean, Nikumaroro (Gardner), Birnie, Orona (Hull), Kanton (Canton), and Enderbury atolls. They have a total land area of approximately 11 square miles (29 square km). All are low, sandy atolls that were discovered in the......
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