fied as hardwood or softwood (see wood). The term often refers specifi¬ cally to the products derived from logs in a sawmill. Conversion of logs to sawed lumber involves debarking, sawing into boards or slabs, resaw¬ ing into thinner boards of varying sizes, edging, crosscutting to square the ends and remove defects, grading according to strength and appearance, and drying in the open air or in kilns. Drying below the fiber-saturation point results in shrinkage and generally greater strength, stiffness, and density and better prepares the wood for finishing. Preservatives are often applied to protect the wood from deterioration and decay.
Lumet \Tu-mot\, Sidney (b. June 25, 1924, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) U.S. television and film director. He worked as a child actor in the Yid¬ dish theatre and on Broadway. After serving in World War II, he directed plays and taught acting. He directed more than 200 television dramas for CBS (1951-57), including Playhouse 90 and Studio One productions, before making his debut as a movie director with the acclaimed Twelve Angry Men (1957). He went on to direct commercially successful psy¬ chological dramas such as The Fugitive Kind (1960), Fail Safe (1964), Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976), The Verdict (1982), and Night Falls on Manhattan (1997).
Lumiere \ltE-'myer\, Auguste and Louis (respectively b. Oct. 19, 1862, Besangon, France—d. April 10, 1954, Lyon; b. Oct. 5, 1864,
Besangon, France—d. June 6, 1948,
Bandol) French inventors. In 1882 Louis developed a method of mak¬ ing photographic plates, and by 1894 the brothers’ factory was producing 15 million plates a year. They worked on improving Thomas Alva Edison’s Kinetoscope and patented their combination movie camera and projector, the Cinematographe, in 1895. Their film La Sortie des ouvri- ers de I’usine Lumiere (“Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory”), which they showed to a paying audi¬ ence in Paris in 1895, is considered the first motion picture. In 1896 the brothers, led by Louis, made more than 40 films recording everyday French life. They made the first news¬ reels, sending crews all over the world to shoot new material and show their films. In addition to the films he directed, Louis served as producer for some 2,000 films. The brothers also made basic innovations in colour photography.
luminaire or light fixture Complete lighting unit, consisting of one or more lamps (bulbs or tubes that emit light), along with the socket and other parts that hold the lamp in place and protect it, wiring that connects the lamp to a power source, and a reflector that helps direct and distrib¬ ute the light. Fluorescent fixtures usually have lenses or louvers to shield the lamp (thus reducing glare) and redirect the light emitted. Luminaires include both portable and ceiling- or wall-mounted fixtures.
luminescence Process by which an excited material emits light in a process not caused solely by a rise in temperature. The excitation is usu¬ ally achieved with ultraviolet radiation, X rays, electrons, alpha particles, electric fields, or chemical energy. The colour, or wavelength, of the light emitted is determined by the material, while the intensity depends on both the material and the input energy. Examples of luminescence include light emissions from neon lamps, luminescent watch dials, television and com¬ puter screens, fluorescent lamps, and fireflies. See also bioluminescence; fluorescence; phosphorescence.
luminism Painting style that emphasizes a particular clarity of light. It is characteristic of the works of a group of U.S. painters of the late 19th century, influenced by the Hudson River school. Typically landscapes or seascapes, with sky occupying nearly half the composition, luminist works are distinguished by cool, clear colours and meticulously detailed objects modeled by light. The most prominent luminist painters were John Frederick Kensett, Martin Johnson Heade, and Fitz Hugh Lane.
Lumumba Uo-'mum-boV, Patrice (Hemery) (b. July 2, 1925, Onalua, Belgian Congo—d. January 1961, Katanga province, Republic of the Congo) African nationalist leader, first prime minister of the Demo¬ cratic Republic of the Congo (June-September 1960). Lumumba worked as a trade-union organizer before founding the Mouvement National Con-
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Luna ► lupine I 1149
golais, Congo’s first nationwide political party, in 1958. That same year his militant nationalism at a major Pan-African conference in Accra, Ghana, brought him to promi¬ nence. During negotiations in Bel¬ gium in 1960, he was asked to form the first independent Congolese gov¬ ernment. His rival Moise Tshombe immediately announced the seces¬ sion of Katanga province. When Bel¬ gian troops arrived to sustain the secession, Lumumba appealed first to the UN and then to the Soviet Union. He was dismissed by Pres.
Joseph Kasavubu and, a short time later, assassinated by Tshombe loy¬ alists. His death caused a scandal throughout Africa, where he was looked on as a leader of Pan-Africanism.
Luna Any of a series of unmanned Soviet lunar probes, launched between 1959 and 1976, responsible for various lunar “firsts.” Luna 2 (1959) was the first spacecraft to strike the Moon; Luna 3 (1959) was the first to circle the Moon and took the first photographs of its far side. Luna 9 (1966) made the first successful lunar soft landing. Luna 16 (1970) was the first unmanned spacecraft to carry lunar soil samples back to Earth. Luna 17 (1970) soft-landed a robot vehicle for exploration; it also con¬ tained television equipment and sent live pictures of several miles of the Moon’s surface. See also Pioneer; Ranger; Surveyor.
Luna See Selene
luna moth Species (Actias luna ) of saturniid moth of eastern North America. Lunas are pale green and have a wingspread of 4 in. (10 cm). The wings have a thin brown border, and each hind wing has a long tail¬ like projection. The larvae feed on the leaves of many kinds of trees and shrubs. See also moth.
Lunacharsky, Anatoly (Vasilyevich) (b. Nov. 23, 1875, Poltava, Ukraine, Russian Empire—d. Dec. 26, 1933, Menton, France) Russian politician and writer. Deported in 1898 for his revolutionary activities, he joined the Bolsheviks in 1904 and disseminated propaganda to Russian students and political refugees in foreign countries. He joined Vladimir Ilich Lenin in Russia in 1917 and was appointed commissar for education, a role in which he did much to ensure the preservation of works of art dur¬ ing the Russian Civil War. He encouraged innovation in the theatre and in education, and he published plays of his own.
Lunceford Vlons-fordV Jimmie orig. James Melvin Lunceford
(b. June 6, 1902, Fulton, Miss., U.S.—d. July 12, 1947, Seaside, Ore.) U.S. jazz musician and bandleader. Lunceford was a well-schooled musi¬ cian who played saxophone and taught music before forming a band in 1929. Trumpeter and arranger Sy Oliver (1910-88) joined in 1933, bring¬ ing a crisp ensemble sound to the two-beat rhythmic approach of the band. Lunceford’s band gained national attention after he succeeded Cab Cal¬ loway at Harlem’s Cotton Club in 1934, and it was thereafter counted among the finest big bands of the swing era, rivaling those of Duke Elling¬ ton and Count Basie in popularity.
Lunda empire See Luba-Lunda states
Lundy, Benjamin (b. January 4, 1789, Sussex county, N.J., U.S.—d. Aug. 22, 1839, Lowell, Ill.) U.S. abolitionist and publisher. He worked in Virginia and Ohio, where he organized the Union Humane Society (1815), one of the first antislavery societies. In 1821 he founded a news¬ paper, the Genius of Universal Emancipation, which he edited in various places until 1835, when he began publishing another paper, the National Enquirer (later the Pennsylvania Freeman), in Philadelphia. He traveled in search of places for former slaves to settle, including Canada and Haiti.
lung Either of two light, spongy, elastic organs in the chest, used for breathing. Each is enclosed in a membrane (pleura). Contraction of the diaphragm and the muscles between the ribs draw air into the lungs through the trachea, which splits into two primary bronchi, one per lung. Each bronchus branches into secondary bronchi (one per lobe of lung), tertiary bronchi (one per segment of lung), and many bronchioles leading to the pulmonary alveoli. There oxygen in the inspired gas is exchanged for car¬ bon dioxide from the blood in the surrounding capillaries. Adequate tissue