Springfield Armory Weapons factory established at Springfield, Mass., by the U.S. Congress in 1794. It grew out of an arsenal established in Springfield by the Revolutionary government in 1777, the site being chosen partly for its inaccessibility to British forces. The armoury pio¬ neered mass-production manufacturing techniques and produced weap¬ ons ranging from smoothbore muskets in its earliest days to the Springfield rifle and the M1 rifle of World War II, designed by John Garand. It closed in 1968 and is now a national historic site. See also armoury practice; Tho¬ mas Blanchard.
Springfield rifle Any of several rifles that were standard infantry weap¬ ons of the U.S. Army from 1873 to 1936, all taking their name from the Springfield Armory. The most famous began as the Model 1903 Spring- field, an adaptation of the German Mauser. After modifications to accom¬ modate Model 1906 ammunition, it entered history as the Springfield .30- 06, one of the most reliable and accurate military firearms ever. The principal U.S. infantry weapon until 1936, it was replaced by the Garand (Ml) rifle of World War II, also designed at the Springfield Armory. When the Springfield .30-06 was retired, it was widely modified into a sporting rifle that is still prized for its accuracy. See also Ml 6 rifle.
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1806 I Springsteen ► squash
Springsteen, Bruce (Frederick Joseph) (b. Sept. 23, 1949, Free¬ hold, N.J., U.S.) U.S. singer and songwriter. He played guitar in several bar bands on the Jersey Shore before forming the E Street Band in the early 1970s. His third album, Born to Run (1975), was a huge success and landed “the Boss” on the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines. Even more successful was his Born in the USA (1984). Springsteen’s sensitive lyrics, often voicing his working-class sympathies, and marathon concerts won him a devoted following. He addressed Americans’ concerns over the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in The Rising (2002).
spruce Any of about 40 species of evergreen ornamental and timber trees that make up the genus Picea (pine family), native to temperate and cold regions of the Northern Hemi¬ sphere. These pyramid-shaped trees have whorled branches and thin, scaly bark. The needlelike, spirally arranged leaves connect to their stems via a peglike woody base, which remains on the twig when the leaf falls. Tough, finely grained, resonant, and pliable, spruce wood is used for sounding boards in pianos and bodies of violins, as well as in construction, for boats and barrels, and as pulpwood. Common species throughout most of northern North America are black spruce (P. mari- ana), a source of spruce GUM, and white spruce ( P. glauca ), a source of good timber. Blue, or Colorado spruce ( P. pungens ) is used as an ornamental because of its bluish leaves and symmetrical growth habit.
spruce budworm Larva of a leaf roller moth (Choristoneura fumifer- ana ), one of the most destructive North American pests. It attacks ever¬ greens, feeding on needles and pollen, and can completely defoliate spruce and related trees, causing much loss for the lumber industry and damaging landscapes.
sprung rhythm Poetic rhythm designed to approximate the natural rhythm of speech. It is characterized by the frequent juxtaposition of single accented syllables and by the occurrence of feet with varying num¬ bers of syllables whose sequence is interrupted by unstressed syllables that are not counted in the scansion. Because stressed syllables often occur sequentially, the rhythm is said to be “sprung.” This system of prosody was developed by Gerard Manley Hopkins, who saw it as the basis of such early English poems as William Langland’s Piers Plowman.
spurge One of the largest flowering-plant genera ( Euphorbia ), with more than 1,600 species. It takes its com¬ mon name from a group of annual herbs used as purgatives, or spurges.
Many spurges are important as orna¬ mentals or as sources of drugs; many others are weeds. One of the best- known is the poinsettia. Euphorbia is part of the family Euphorbiaceae, which contains about 7,500 species of flowering annual and perennial herbs and woody shrubs or trees in 275 genera; most are found in tem¬ perate and tropical regions. Flowers usually lack petals; those of Euphor¬ bia are borne in cup-shaped clusters.
The fruit is a capsule. Leaves are usu¬ ally simple. The stems of many spe¬ cies contain a milky latex. In addition to Euphorbia, economically impor¬ tant family members include the CASTOR-OIL PLANT, CROTON, CASSAVA, and RUBBER TREE.
Sputnik \'sput-nik\ Any of a series of Earth-orbiting spacecraft whose launching by the Soviet Union inaugurated the space age. Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite (October 1957), remained in orbit until early 1958, when it reentered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up. Sputnik 2 car¬
ried a dog, Laika, the first living creature to orbit Earth; since Sputnik 2 was not designed to sustain life, Laika did not survive the flight. Eight more missions with similar satellites carried out experiments on various animals to test life-support systems and reentry procedures and to furnish data on space temperatures, pressures, particles, radiation, and magnetic fields.
Spyri Vshpe-re\, Johanna orig. Johanna Heusser (b. June 12, 1829, Hirzel, Switz.—d. July 7, 1901, Zurich) Swiss writer. Living in Zurich with her lawyer husband, Spyri wrote books, many widely trans¬ lated, that are imbued with her love of her homeland, feeling for nature, unobtrusive piety, and cheerful wisdom. She is best remembered for her popular novel Heidi (1880-81), a classic of children’s literature about an orphan sent to live with her grandfather in the Swiss mountains.
SQL in full Structured Query Language. Computer programming language used for retrieving records or parts of records in databases and performing various calculations before displaying the results. SQL is par¬ ticularly suitable for searching relational databases. It has a formal, pow¬ erful syntax and is able to accommodate logical operators. Its sentence¬ like structure resembles natural language except that its syntax is limited and fixed.
Squanto (d. November 1622, Chatham Harbor, Plymouth Colony) Paw- tuxet Indian interpreter and guide. Squanto learned English after escap¬ ing an attempt to sell him into slavery and joining the Newfoundland Company. In Plymouth colony he was made Gov. William Bradford’s Indian emissary. He also served as interpreter for Edward Winslow, the Pilgrim representative, during his negotiations with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag.
square In measurement, a device consisting of two straightedges set at a right angle. It is used by carpenters and machinists to check the cor¬ rectness of right angles, as a guide when drawing lines on materials before cutting, or for locating holes. In mechanical drawing or drafting, a T-shaped instrument known as a T square is used to establish a horizon¬ tal reference on the drafting board.
square dance Dance for sets of four couples standing in square for¬ mation. The most popular type of U.S. folk dance, it derived from the quadrille and was originally called a square dance to distinguish it from the contra, or longways, dance (for a double line of couples) and the round dance (for a circle of couples). The U.S. square dance progresses through specific patterns called or sung out to the dancers by a caller and accom¬ panied by lively music played on instruments such as fiddle, banjo, accor¬ dion, guitar, and piano.
Square Deal Term used by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt to describe his approach to social problems. It embraced his idealistic view of labour, citizenship, parenthood, and Christian ethics. He first used the term after the settlement of a mining strike in 1902 to describe the ideal of peaceful coexistence between big business and labour unions. The concept became part of the Bull Moose Party platform when Roosevelt became its candi¬ date in 1912.