loquat \To-,kwat\ Subtropical evergreen tree (Eriobotrya japonica) of the rose family, related to the apple and other well-known fruit trees of the temperate zone. Usually less than 33 ft (10 m) tall, it is common in parks and gardens, often trained to ornamental flattened shapes by espalier. Dense, fragrant, white flow¬ ers grow beyond clusters of leaves with serrated edges. The small yellow-orange fruits have a pleasant, mildly acid taste; they are eaten fresh, stewed, or as jelly or liqueur.
The loquat is grown commercially (usually on a small scale) in many subtropical regions.
loran abbreviation of long- range navigation A land-based system of radio navigation in common use over the continental United States and in its coastal waters. It was developed during World War II for
the U.S. military. A civilian version, Loran-C, was developed in the 1950s. Loran-C can be used to determine position within about 30 ft (10 m) by comparing signals from multiple stations. Loran-like systems operate in many coastal waters around the world. However, the availability of the global positioning system (GPS), with a typical accuracy of 3 ft (1 m), has begun to relegate loran to backup status.
Lorca, Federico Garcia See Federico Garcia Lorca lord See FEUDALISM
Lord Chamberlain's Men See Chamberlain's Men
lord chancellor British official who heads the judiciary and presides over the House of Lords. Until the 14th century the chancellor served as royal chaplain and king’s secretary. The office acquired a more judicial character in the reign of Edward III (1327-77). Most of the office’s power, exemplified in the administrations of St. Thomas Becket (died 1170) and Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey (died 1530), ceased to exist centuries ago. The judicial work of contemporary chancellors is confined to the House of Lords and the Privy Council. As speaker of the House of Lords, the chan¬ cellor states the question and takes part in debates.
Lord Dunmore's War (1774) Attack by Virginia militia on the Shaw¬ nee in Kentucky. The militiamen seized Fort Pitt on the western border, renaming it after their royal governor, Lord Dunmore, who had ordered attacks against the Shawnee, seen as a threat to white settlers then spread¬ ing into the Indian hunting grounds. Defeated at the Battle of Point Pleas¬ ant, the Shawnee signed a treaty giving up their hunting grounds. The war was probably started to divert Virginians from disagreements with royal administrators; as such, it has been called the first battle of the American Revolution.
Lorde Vlord\, Audre (Geraldine) (b. Feb. 18, 1934, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Nov. 17, 1992, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands) U.S. poet and essayist. Bom to West Indian parents, she worked as a librarian until 1968, when she began to write full-time. She is best known for her passionate writings on lesbian feminism and racial issues, including Cables to Rage (1970), New York Head Shop and Museum (1974), and The Black Uni¬ corn (1978), often called her finest work. Her battle with cancer inspired The Cancer Journals (1980) and A Burst of Light (1988, National Book Award).
Lords, House of Upper house of Britain’s bicameral Parliament. From the 13th and 14th centuries it was the house of the aristocracy. Until 1999 its membership included clergy, hereditary peers, life peers (peers appointed by the prime minister since 1958), and the judges of the Supreme Court of Judicature (Britain’s final court of appeal). Though it predates the House of Commons and dominated it for centuries, its power has gradually diminished. Its power to affect revenue bills was constrained by the Parliament Act of 1911, and in 1949 its power to delay by more than a year the enactment of any bill passed by the Commons was revoked. In 1999 the hereditary peers lost their right to sit in the House of Lords, though an interim reform retains their voice in a more limited fashion. The body’s chief value has been to provide additional consider¬ ation to bills that may be not be well formulated.
Lord's Prayer Prayer taught by Jesus to his disciples and used by all Christians as the basic prayer in common worship. It appears in two forms in the New Testament: a shorter version in Luke 11:2—4, and a longer version, part of the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6:9-13. In both contexts it is offered as a model of how to pray. It is sometimes called the Pater Noster (Latin: “Our Father”) for its first two words.
Lorelei \T6r-3-,lI\ Rock on the bank of the Rhine River near Sankt Goars- hausen in Germany. It produces an echo and is associated with the leg¬ end of a beautiful maiden who drowned herself over a faithless lover. She was transformed into a siren who lured fishermen to their death. Clemens Brentano claimed to have invented the essentials of the legend. Heinrich Heine’s poem on the Lorelei has been set to music by more than 25 com¬ posers.
Loren \lo-'ren\, Sophia orig. Sofia Villani Scicolone (b. Sept. 20, 1934, Rome, Italy) Italian film actress. After a poverty-stricken childhood in war-torn Naples, she became a model and movie extra in Rome. Coached by the producer Carlo Ponti (later her husband), she acted in Italian movies from 1950, including The Gold of Naples (1954). Her later films, in which she became noted for her statuesque beauty and earthy femininity, include The Black Orchid (1959), El Cid (1961), Two Women
Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica)
G.R. ROBERTS
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Lorentz ► Lorre I 1137
(1961, Academy Award), Boccaccio ’70 (1962), Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1964), Marriage Italian Style (1964), and A Special Day
(1977).
Lorentz Vlor-.entsV Hendrik Antoon (b. July 18, 1853, Arnhem,
Neth.—d. Feb. 4, 1928, Haarlem)
Dutch physicist. He taught at the University of Leiden (1878-1912) and later directed Haarlem’s Teyler Institute. In 1875 he refined James Clerk Maxwell’s theory of electro¬ magnetic radiation so that it explained the reflection and refrac¬ tion of light. Aiming to devise a single theory to explain the relation¬ ship of electricity, magnetism, and light, he later suggested that atoms might consist of charged particles that oscillate and produce light. In 1896 his student Pieter Zeeman (1865-1943) demonstrated this phenom¬ enon (see Zeeman effect), and in 1902 the two men were awarded the sec¬ ond Nobel Prize for Physics. In 1904 Lorentz developed the Lorentz transformations (including the so-called Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction), mathematical formulas that relate space and time measurements of one observer to those of a second observer moving relative to the first. These formed the basis of Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity.
Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction or space contraction In rela¬ tivity physics, the shortening of an object along the direction of its motion relative to an observer. Dimensions in other directions are not contracted. This concept was proposed by the Irish physicist George F. FitzGerald (1851-1901) in 1889 and later independently developed by Hendrik Antoon Lorentz. Significant at speeds approaching that of light, the con¬ traction results from the properties of space and time, not from compres¬ sion, cooling, or any similar physical disturbance. See also time dilation.
Lorentz transformations Set of equations in relativity physics that relate the space and time coordinates of two systems moving at a constant speed relative to each other, developed in 1904 by Hendrik Antoon Lorentz. Required to describe phenomena approaching the speed of light, these transformations express the concepts that space and time are not absolute; that length, time, and mass depend on the observer’s relative motion; and that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant and indepen¬ dent of the motion of the observer or the source.
Lorenz, Edward (Norton) (b. May 23, 1917, West Hartford, Conn., U.S.) U.S. meteorologist. Following degrees from Dartmouth College and Harvard University in mathematics, he turned to weather forecasting in 1942 with the U.S. Army Air Corps. After World War II he joined MIT as a researcher, earned a doctorate in meteorology (1948), and stayed on as a professor. In the early 1960s, he discovered that the weather exhibits a nonlinear phenomenon known as sensitive dependence on initial con¬ ditions (see chaos theory). He explained this phenomenon, which makes long-range weather forecasting impossible, to the public as the “butterfly effect”: in China a butterfly flaps its wings, leading to unpredictable changes in U.S. weather a few days later.