Brazil nut Edible seed of a large South American tree, Bertholletia excelsa (family Lecythidaceae), and one of the major commercially traded nuts in the world. The hard-walled fruit, resembling a large coconut, con¬ tains 8-24 nuts (seeds) arranged in it like sections of an orange. Each nut has a very hard shell and is three-sided in shape. Brazil nuts are high in fat and protein and taste somewhat like almond or coconut. The tree grows wild in stands in the Amazon River basin, reaching heights of 150 ft (45 m) or more.
brazing Process for joining two pieces of metal by applying heat and adding a filler metal. The filler, which has a lower melting point than the metals to be joined, is either pre-placed or fed into the joint as the parts are heated. In brazing parts with small clearances, the filler is able to flow into the joint by capillarity. The temperature of the molten filler in braz¬ ing exceeds 800°F (430°C). In soldering, a related process, the filler metal remains below that temperature. Brazed joints are usually stronger than soldered joints. Most metals can be brazed, and the range of available brazing alloys has increased as new alloys and new service requirements are introduced. Brazed joints are highly reliable and are used extensively on rockets, jet engines, and aircraft parts. See also welding.
Brazos Vbra-Z3s\ River River, central Texas, U.S. Formed in eastern New Mexico, it flows southeast 1,280 mi (2,060 km) into the Gulf of
Mexico. The city of Waco is one of the largest on the river. Near its mouth it connects with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The lower river valley was a major site of early Anglo-American settlement in Texas; one of the first English-speaking colonies there was founded by Stephen Austin at San Felipe de Austin in 1822. The river’s original name was Brazos de Dios (“Arms of God”).
Brazza \bra-'za\, Pierre (-Paul-Francois-Camille) Savorgnan
de (b. Jan. 26, 1852, near Rome [Italy]—d. Sept. 14, 1905, Dakar, Seneg., French West Africa) French explorer and colonial administrator. Born to Italian nobility in Brazil, he joined the French navy. In 1875-78 he explored the Ogooue River (in present-day Gabon). Racing his British- U.S. counterpart, Henry Morton Stanley, Brazza was sent to explore the Congo River region. There he founded the French (Middle) Congo, explored Gabon, and founded the city of Brazzaville (1883), adding some 200,000 sq mi (500,000 sq km) to the French colonial empire. From 1886 to 1897 he governed a colony there.
Brazzaville Vbra-z9-,vil\ River port (pop., 1992 est.: 937,579), capital of Republic of the Congo. Lying on the north bank of the Congo River across from Kinshasa, it was founded in 1883 by Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. Developed as a European administrative and residential center, it was used as a base for later claims of France to lands to the northeast; it became the capital of French Equatorial Africa. The river port forms the terminus of the Congo-ocean transport system, with steamer service to the Congo’s upper reaches and a railroad to Pointe-Noire 245 mi (394 km) west.
bread Baked food product. It is made of flour or meal that is moistened into a dough, kneaded, and usually leavened with yeast. A major food since prehistoric times, bread has been made worldwide in various forms using a variety of ingredients and methods. Flat, unleavened bread, the earliest
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breadfruit ► Bremen I 271
form, is still eaten in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The principal grains used in such breads are wheat, barley, millet, buckwheat, rye, and corn. Raised bread, common in Europe and the U.S., is usually made of wheat or rye. Both contain the elastic protein substance gluten, which traps gas produced by fermentation during leavening, helping the bread to rise. While the simplest breads contain only flour, water, and yeast, other common ingredients are milk, shortening (fats, butter, oils), salt, eggs, and sugar. Bread is a source of complex carbohydrates and B vitamins (see vitamin B complex); whole-wheat bread contains more protein, vitamins, minerals, and fibre than white-flour bread. See also baking.
breadfruit Fruit of either of two closely related trees belonging to the mulberry family. Artocarpus communis (also called A. incisa or A. altilis ) provides a staple food of the South Pacific. Its greenish to brownish-green, round fruits have a white, fibrous pulp. Treculia africana, native to tropi¬ cal Africa, is less important as a food crop. Cultivated in the Malay Archi¬ pelago (where it is thought to be indigenous) since remote antiquity, the breadfruit was spread throughout the tropical South Pacific in prehistoric times. It is high in starch and is seldom eaten raw. Unable to tolerate frost, the tree has not been successfully grown in the U.S., even in southern¬ most Florida. In the South Seas, cloth is made from the inner bark, the wood is used for canoes and furniture, and glue and caulking material are obtained from the milky juice.
bream European food and game fish (Abramis brama) of the carp fam¬ ily (Cyprinidae). Found in lakes and slow rivers, the bream lives in schools and eats worms, mollusks, and other small animals. Deep¬ bodied, with flat sides and a small head, it is silvery with a bluish or brown back. It is usually about 12-20 in. (30-50 cm) long and weighs up to 13 lbs (6 kg). Other species called bream include the sil¬ ver bream (Blicea bjoorkna), the golden shiner, and the sea breams (family Sparidae).
breast cancer Malignant tumour in a breast, usually in women after menopause. Risk factors include fam¬ ily history of breast cancer, prolonged menstruation, late first pregnancy (after age 30), obesity, alcohol use, and some benign tumours. Most breast cancers are adenocarcinomas. Any lump in the breast needs investigation because it may be cancer. Treatment may begin with radical or modified mastectomy or lumpectomy (in which only the tumour is removed), fol¬ lowed by radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or removal of the ovaries or adrenal glands.
breathing See respiration
Brebeuf \bra-'boef. Saint Jean de (b. March 25, 1593, Conde-sur- Vire, Normandy—d. March 16, 1649, Saint-Ignace, New France; canon¬ ized 1930; feast day October 19) French Jesuit missionary to New France. Ordained in 1623, he arrived in New France in 1625 to work as a mis¬ sionary among the Huron. Forced out by the English in 1629, he returned to “Huronia” in 1634. In 1648 the Iroquois began their war against the Huron, and in 1649 they captured Brebeuf and tortured him to death. His writings include historical narratives and a Huron grammar. He is regarded as the patron saint of Canada.
breccia Vbre-choX Coarse sedimentary rock consisting of angular or nearly angular fragments larger than 0.08 in. (2 mm). Breccia commonly results from processes such as landslides or geologic faulting, in which rocks are fractured. It can also be of igneous explosive origin (e.g., a vol¬ canic breccia).
Brecht Vbrekt\, Bertolt orig. Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht
(b. Feb. 10, 1898, Augsburg, Ger.—d. Aug. 14, 1956, East Berlin, E.Ger.) German playwright and poet. He studied medicine at Munich (1917-21) before writing his first plays, including Baal (1922). Other plays followed, including A Man’s a Man (1926), as well as a considerable body of poetry. With the composer Kurt Weill he wrote the satirical musicals The Three¬ penny Opera (1928; film, 1931), which gained him a wide audience, and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930). In these years he became a Marxist and developed his theory of epic theatre. With the rise of the Nazis he went into exile, first in Scandinavia (1933-41), then in
the U.S., where he wrote his major essays and the plays Mother Cour¬ age and Her Children (1941), The Life of Galileo (1943), The Good Woman of Sichuan (1943), and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1948).
Harassed for his politics, in 1949 he returned to East Germany, where he established the Berliner Ensemble theatre troupe and staged his own plays, including The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1957). He outlined his theory of drama in A Little Organum for the Theatre (1949).