Carver, George Washington (b
U.S.—d. Jan. 5, 1943, Tuskegee,
Ala.) U.S. agricultural chemist and agronomist. Born a slave, Carver lived until age 10 or 12 on his former owner’s plantation, then left and worked at a variety of menial jobs.
He did not obtain a high school edu¬ cation until his late twenties; he then obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Iowa State Agricultural College. In 1896 he joined Booker T.
Washington at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama, where he became director of agricul¬ tural research. He was soon promot¬ ing the planting of peanuts and soybeans, legumes that he knew would help restore the fertility of soil depleted by cotton cropping. To make them profitable, he worked intensively with the sweet potato and the peanut (then not even recognized as a crop), ultimately developing 118 derivative products from sweet pota¬ toes and 300 from peanuts. His efforts helped liberate the South from its untenable cotton dependency; by 1940 the peanut was the South’s sec¬ ond largest cash crop. During World War II he devised 500 dyes to replace those no longer available from Europe. Despite international acclaim and extraordinary job offers, he remained at Tuskegee throughout his life, donating his life’s savings in 1940 to establish the Carver Research Foun¬ dation at Tuskegee.
Carver, Jonathan (b. April 13, 1710, Weymouth, Mass.—d. Jan. 31, 1780, London, Eng.) American explorer. He served in the French and Indian War. In 1766 he was sent by Maj. Robert Rogers to explore an area west of northern Michigan. He traveled through the Great Lakes and up
. 1861?, near Diamond Grove, Mo.,
George Washington Carver
COURTESY OF THE TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE, ALABAMA; PHOTOGRAPH, P.H. POLK
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Cary ► cashew I 345
the Mississippi River, wintering in a Sioux village. Though his travel journal (published 1778) was a huge success, he died penniless.
Cary, (Arthur) Joyce (Lunel) (b. Dec. 7,1888, Londonderry, Ire.—d. March 29, 1957, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng.) British novelist. Cary stud¬ ied art in Edinburgh and Paris before graduating from the University of Oxford. After serving in West Africa in World War I, he began publish¬ ing short stories, then novels, some set in Africa, including An American Visitor (1933) and Mister Johnson (1939). The Horse’s Mouth (1944), his best-known novel, was the third in a trilogy in which each volume is nar¬ rated by one of three protagonists. Other works include a second trilogy, A Prisoner of Grace (1952), Except the Lord (1953), and Not Honour More (1955).
caryatid \,kar-e-'a-t3d\ Supporting column sculpted in the form of a draped female figure. Caryatids first appeared in three small buildings (treasuries) at Delphi (550-530 bc). The most celebrated example is the caryatid porch of the Erechtheum (421-406 bc), with six figures, on the Acropolis (see acropolis) of Athens. Caryatids are sometimes called korai (“maidens”). Their male counterpart is the atlas.
Casa Grande Vka-s9-'gran-da\ Ruins National Monument
Archaeological site, southern Arizona, U.S. Designated a national monu¬ ment in 1918, it occupies 448 acres (181 hectares). The site’s pre- Columbian ruins are dominated by the Casa Grande (“Big House”), a multistory building built by Salado Indians in the 14th century; it is the only surviving building of its type. Nearby are partially excavated village sites established much earlier by Hohokam Indians (see Hohokam culture).
Casablanca Coastal city (pop., 1994: 2,940,623), western Morocco. It occupies the site of the ancient city of Anfa, destroyed by the Portuguese in 1468. The Portuguese returned in 1515 and built a new town, Casa Branca (“White House”). Abandoned after an earthquake, it was occupied by a Moroccan sultan in 1757. European traders, including the French, began to settle there. In 1907, after French citizens were murdered there, French forces occupied the town. During the subsequent French protec¬ torate, it became Morocco’s chief port. Since then, its growth and devel¬ opment have been continuous. In World War II (1939—45) it surrendered to the Allied Powers in 1942, and in 1943 the Casablanca Conference was held there.
Casablanca Conference (Jan. 12-23, 1943) Meeting during World War II at Casablanca, Morocco, between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. They planned future global military strategy for the Western allies, reaching agreement on such issues as the invasion of Sicily, opera¬ tions in the Pacific theatre, and the concentrated bombing of Germany. Most importantly, they issued a demand for an “unconditional surrender” from Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Casals \k3-'salz\, Pablo (Carlos Salvador Defillo) orig. Pau Casals (b. Dec. 29, 1876, Vendrell, Spain—d. Oct. 22, 1973, Rio Pie- dras, PR.) Spanish (Catalan)-born U.S. cellist and conductor. He received early instruction from his organist father and took up the cello and com¬ position in his teens. A romantic who eschewed the drier, literal interpre¬ tations of modernism, Casals established an innovative technique employing more flexible fingering positions and freer bowing. He per¬ formed internationally as soloist, in a trio with Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) and Jacques Thibaud (1880-1953), and from the 1920s as a conductor. Refusing to return to Spain after Francisco Franco took power, he ulti¬ mately made his home in Puerto Rico.
Casamance \,ka-za-'ma n s\ River River, Senegal. Rising in southern Senegal, it flows west between The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau and emp¬ ties into the Atlantic Ocean after a course of about 200 mi (322 km). Only some 80 mi (130 km) of the river are navigable.
Casanova \ I ka-s9-'no-v9\ / Giovanni Giacomo (b. April 2, 1725, Venice—d. June 4, 1798, Dux, Bohemia) Italian ecclesiastic, writer, sol¬ dier, spy, and diplomatist. Expelled from a seminary for scandalous con¬ duct, he launched a dissolute career that took him throughout Europe. In Venice in 1755 he was denounced as a magician and imprisoned; he escaped and fled to Paris, where he mingled with the aristocracy. Fleeing from creditors, he took the name Chevalier de Seingalt and traveled again before returning to Venice in 1774 to become a spy for the Venetian inquisi¬ tors of state. He spent his late years (1785-98) as librarian to the Count von Waldstein in Bohemia. His huge autobiography, first published in 12 vol¬ umes in 1825-38, gives a splendid picture of 18th-century Europe; it estab¬ lished his reputation as an extraordinary seducer of women.
Casas, Bartolome de las See Bartolome de Las Casas
Cascade Range Mountain range, western U.S. A continuation of the Sierra Nevada, it extends north from Mount Lassen in northeastern Cali¬ fornia across Oregon and Washington for 700 mi (1,100 km). Its highest elevation is Mount Rainier. Some of the summits, including Mount St. Helens, have erupted in the recent past. The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through the range in the Columbia River Gorge. Its northern con¬ tinuation in British Columbia is known as the Coast Mountains. See also North Cascades National Park.
CASE in full computer-aided software engineering Use of
computers in designing sophisticated tools to aid the software engineer and to automate the software development process as much as possible. It is particularly useful where major software products are designed by teams of engineers who may not share the same physical space. CASE tools can be used for simple operations such as routine coding from an appropriately detailed design in a specific programming language, or for more complex tasks such as incorporating an expert system to enforce design rules and eliminate software defects and redundancies before the coding phase.