tuba Deep-pitched valved brass instrument with a widely expanding coni¬ cal bore. Tubas vary in size and pitch. The tubing is coiled in an oblong shape, and the bell points upward or forward. Patented in Berlin in 1835, the tuba displaced the ophicleide to become the foundation of the brass section in the orchestra and in military and brass bands. See also eupho¬ nium, SOUSAPHONE.
Tubb, Ernest (Dale) (b. Feb. 9, 1914, Crisp, Texas, U.S.—d. Sept. 6, 1984, Nashville, Tenn.) U.S. country music singer and songwriter. His first musical influence was the yodeling of Jimmie Rodgers. He became one of the earliest exponents of honky-tonk with hits such as “I’m Walking the Floor over You” (1941). He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1942, and he became one of the first musicians to record in Nashville. He was a pio¬ neer of the electric guitar in the early 1950s. His Nashville radio program, Midnight Jamboree (from 1947), helped launch many stars, including the Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley. In 1947 he starred in the first country music show at Carnegie Hall.
tube worm Any of numerous species of sedentary, solitary or colonial, marine worms that spend their entire life in a tube made from special secretions or from sand grains glued together. Found worldwide, tube worms range from less than an inch (25 mm) to more than 20 ft (6 m) long. The bottom of the tube is attached to the seafloor; the mouth and tentacles are at the upper, open end. The worm breathes through gills, the tentacles, or the body wall. The tentacles, variously arranged, are used to filter-feed aquatic plants and animals. Tube worms occur in the annelid class Polychaeta and in the phyla Phoronida and Pogonophora. Many, mostly unnamed, forms live in deep-ocean vent communities.
tuber Short, thickened, mostly underground stem that constitutes the resting stage of certain seed plants. It is often an organ of food storage, reproduction, or both. It bears minute scale leaves, each with a bud that has the potential for developing into a new plant. The common potato is a typical tuber; the much-reduced leaves and associated buds form its “eyes.” The term is also used imprecisely but widely for fleshy roots or rhizomes that resemble tubers (e.g., the “tuber” of the dahlia, actually a tuberous root).
tuberculosis Uu-.bor-kyo-'lo-sosV (TB ) formerly consumption Bac¬ terial disease caused by some species of mycobacterium (tubercle bacillus). Mentioned in ancient Egyptian records and by Hippocrates, it has occurred throughout history worldwide. In the 18th—19th centuries it reached near¬ epidemic proportions in the rapidly industrializing and urbanizing West¬ ern world, where it was the leading cause of death until the early 20th century. TB resurged in the 1980s, spreading from AIDS patients to oth¬ ers, especially in prisons, homeless shelters, and hospitals, since enclosed settings promote spread. It occurs worldwide and is still a major cause of death in many countries. The body isolates the bacilli by forming tiny tubercles (nodules) around them. This often arrests TB’s progress and no symptoms occur, but if the disease is not treated, it may become active— and contagious—later in life, most often when the immunity of the infected individual is suppressed (e.g., AIDS, after organ transplant). The original tubercle breaks down, releasing still viable bacilli into the blood¬ stream to cause a new infection, which starts with loss of energy and weight and persistent cough. Health deteriorates, with increasing cough and possibly pleurisy (see thoracic cavity) and spitting up blood. Grow¬ ing tubercle masses may destroy so much lung tissue that respiration can¬ not supply the body with enough oxygen. Other organs can be affected, with complications including meningitis. A vaccine with weakened bacte¬ ria has helped control infection, but preventing exposure by recognizing and treating active TB early is more effective. Because many strains are resistant to drugs, treatment requires at least two drugs to which the patient’s strain is sensitive and at least six months; inadequate treatment lets resistant bacilli multiply. The acute disease caused by multidrug- resistant strains is very hard to cure and usually fatal.
Tubman, Harriet orig. Arminta Ross (b. c. 1820, Dorchester county, Md., U.S.—d. March 10, 1913, Auburn, N.Y.) U.S. abolitionist. Born into slavery, she escaped to the North by the Underground Railroad in 1849. She made frequent trips into the South to lead over 300 slaves to freedom, despite large rewards offered for her arrest. Known as the “Moses of her people,” she was admired by abolitionists such as John
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1946 I Tubman ► Tukhachevsky
Brown, who called her General Tubman. In the American Civil War, she served as a nurse, laundress, and spy for Union forces in South Carolina. She later settled in Auburn, N.Y., and was eventually granted a federal pension for her war work.
Tubman, William V(acanarat) S(hadrach) (b. Nov. 29, 1895, Harper, Liberia—d. July 23, 1971, London, Eng.) President of Liberia (1944-71). Tubman educated himself in law before entering public ser¬ vice, eventually ascending to the Supreme Court (1937-44). As president, Tubman enacted suffrage and property rights for women, authorized par¬ ticipation in government by all ethnic groups, and established a nation¬ wide public-school system.
Tuchman Vtok-monV Barbara orig. Barbara Wertheim (b. Jan. 30, 1912, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d.
Feb. 6, 1989, Greenwich, Conn.)
U.S. historian. She wrote for The Nation and other publications before beginning to write most of the books that made her a leading popular his¬ torian. Marked by a masterly literary style and a powerful grasp of com¬ plex issues, they include The Zim- mermann Telegram (1958); The Guns of August (1962, Pulitzer Prize), on the first month of World War I; Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 (1970, Pulitzer Prize), a study of the China-U.S. relationship; and A Dis¬ tant Mirror (1978), concerning 14th- century France.
Tucson Vtu-,san\ City (pop., 2000:
486,699), southeastern Arizona, U.S.
It lies along the Santa Cruz River on a hilly plain of the Sonoran Desert rimmed by mountains. In 1700 the Spanish founded several missions nearby, and in 1776 the small walled pueblo of Tucson was made a Span¬ ish presidio (fort). It remained the province’s military headquarters under Mexican rule. The U.S. acquired the territory through the Gadsden Pur¬ chase (signed in 1853). Tucson was the territorial capital from 1867 to 1877. It grew with the arrival of the railroad in 1880 and the discovery of silver at nearby Tombstone and copper at Bisbee. Its dry, sunny climate and desert locale have made it a popular tourist and health resort and retirement community. It is the seat of the University of Arizona (1885).
Tucuna or Ticuna or Tikuna \t3-'ku-nos\ South American Indian people living in Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. Traditional Tucunas live in the rainforest of the northwestern Amazon basin, cultivating cassava and com (maize), raising chickens, and hunting and gathering in the forest. They make baskets, pottery, and bark cloth and trade animal hides and handmade canoes for money and manufactured goods. They were once skilled hunters with blowguns, spears, and snares, but depletion of ani¬ mal populations has altered old hunting patterns.
Tudjman \'tuj-man\, Franjo (b. May 14, 1922, Veliko Trgovisce, King¬ dom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes—d. Dec. 10, 1999, Zagreb, Cro.) Croatian politician and president of Croatia (1990-99). He served with the partisans under Marshal Tito in World War II. He taught political science and history at the University of Zagreb (1963-67) and later wrote numer¬ ous books on history and politics. He was expelled from the Yugoslav Communist Party in 1967 for his nationalist writings, and he was impris¬ oned in 1972 and 1981. In 1989 Tudjman founded the Croatian Democratic Union, which won Croatia’s first free parliamentary elections in 1990. Named president, he pressed for the creation of a homogenous Croatian state. When Serbian areas of Eastern and Western Slavonia and the Krajina revolted, they were occupied by the Yugoslav army. Beginning in 1995, Tudjman reasserted control over these areas and established virtual control over portions of Bosnia and Herzegovina with majority Croatian popula¬ tions. His authoritarian style, along with his refusal to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, led to the inter¬ national isolation of Croatia, and his excesses in the Bosnian conflict and his autocratic rule earned Tudjman a reputation for brutality.