Cavalier \,kav-3-'lir\ In the English Civil Wars, the name adopted by Charles I’s supporters, who contemptuously called their opponents Round- heads (a reference to the short-haired apprentices who had formed part of an anti-Cavalier mob). The term (similar to the French chevalier) origi¬ nally meant a rider or cavalryman. At the Restoration, the court party pre¬ served the name Cavalier, which survived until the rise of the term Tory. See also Cavalier poet.
Cavalier \,kav-3-'lir\ poets Group of English gentlemen poets who were Cavaliers (supporters of Charles I during the English Civil Wars). The term embraces Sir John Suckling, Edmund Waller, Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew (15947-16407), and Richard Lovelace (1618-57). Accomplished as soldiers, courtiers, gallants, and wits, they wrote polished and elegant lyrics, typically on love and dalliance and sometimes on war, honour, and duty to the king.
Cavalli \ka-'val-le\, (Pier) Francesco orig. Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni (b. Feb. 14, 1602, Crema, Republic of Venice—d. Jan. 14, 1676, Venice) Italian opera composer. In his teens he was a singer under Claudio Monteverdi at St. Mark's Basiuca, Venice. Also an organist, he would rise to the post of maestro di cappella there in 1668. He wrote some 30 operas for Venice’s public opera houses. The most popular opera composer of the decades following Monteverdi’s death, he was the lat¬ ter’s leading successor, his chief rival for that status being Antonio Cesti (1623-69). His most celebrated operas were Egisto (1643), Giasone (1649), Xerse (1654), and Erismena (1655).
Cavallini V.ka-val-'le-neV Pietro (b. c. 1250, Rome—d. c. 1330) Ital¬ ian painter and mosaicist active mainly in Rome. His major surviving works are mosaics depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin for the Roman church of Santa Maria in Trastevere (1290s) and fragments of a fresco cycle, including a Last Judgment, for the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (c. 1293). He was the first to break with the stylizations of
Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea, Botrytis group).
DEREK FELL
Constantine Cavafy.
DIMITRI PAPADIMOS
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Byzantine art; his figures have a sense of weight and three-dimensionality. Cavallini had many students, and his work was an important influence on his great contemporary Giotto.
cavalry Vka-v9l-re\ Military force mounted on horseback, formerly an important element in the armies of all major powers. When used in com¬ bination with other military forces, its main duties included gathering information about the enemy, screening movements of its own army, pur¬ suing a defeated enemy, striking suddenly at detected weak points, turn¬ ing exposed flanks, and exploiting a penetration or breakthrough. In the late 19th century, largely because of the introduction of repeating rifles and machine guns, cavalry lost much of its former value. By World War I, a cavalry charge against a line of entrenched troops with rapid-firing small arms was suicidal. Armoured vehicles soon replaced horses, and by the 1950s no modern army had horse-mounted units. Today’s units des¬ ignated “cavalry” employ helicopters and light armoured vehicles in ways analogous to horse cavalry.
cave Naturally formed underground cavity. A cave often consists of a number of underground chambers, constituting a series of caverns. An assemblage of such caverns interconnected by smaller passageways makes up a cave system. Primary caves, such as lava tubes and coral caves, develop during the time when the host matrix is solidifying or being depos¬ ited. Secondary caves, such as marine grottoes, originate after the host matrix has been deposited or consolidated. Most caves are of the latter type, including solution caves formed by the chemical dissolution of a soluble host rock that has been weakened by fracturing and mechanical erosion; Mammoth Cave and Carlsbad Caverns are examples of solution caves.
Cavell Yka-volV Edith (Louisa) (b. Dec. 4, 1865, Swardeston, Nor¬ folk, Eng.—d. Oct. 12, 1915, Brus¬ sels, Belg.) English nurse and heroine of World War I. She began her nursing career in 1895 and in 1907 became first matron of a hos¬ pital in Brussels, where she greatly improved the standard of nursing.
After the German occupation of Bel¬ gium (1914), she became involved in an underground group that helped about 200 Allied soldiers escape to The Netherlands. She was subse¬ quently arrested and executed by the Germans.
Cavendish \'kav-on-dish\, Henry (b. Oct. 10, 1731, Nice, France—d.
Feb. 24, 1810, London, Eng.)
English physicist and chemist. A mil¬ lionaire by inheritance, he lived as a recluse most of his life. He discov¬ ered the nature and properties of hydrogen, the specific heat of certain substances, and various properties of electricity. He measured the density and mass of the Earth by the method now known as the Cavendish experi¬ ment. He discovered the composition of air, work that led to the discov¬ ery that water is a compound rather than an element and to the discovery of nitric acid. He anticipated Ohm’s law and independently discovered Coulomb’s law of electrostatic attraction. He left his fortune to relatives who later endowed the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cam¬ bridge (1871).
Cavendish Vkav-on-.dishV experiment Measurement of the force of gravitational attraction between pairs of lead spheres, which allowed the first calculation of the value of the universal gravitational constant, G. Performed in 1797-98 by the British scientist Henry Cavendish (1731— 1810) using a torsion balance, the experiment was popularly known as “weighing Earth,” because determination of G permitted calculation of Earth’s mass.
caviar Eggs, or roe, of sturgeon preserved with salt. Most true caviar is produced in Russia and Iran, from fish taken from the Caspian and Black seas. The best grade, beluga, is prepared from large black or gray eggs; fresh beluga is relatively scarce and thus expensive. Caviar may be pas¬ teurized for longer storage. Lesser grades are made from smaller, denser eggs. In the U.S., the roe of salmon, whitefish, lumpfish, and paddlefish is sometimes sold under the name caviar.
Edith Cavell
SYNDICATION INTERNATIONAL LTD.
cavitation Formation of vapour bubbles within a liquid at low-pressure regions that occur in places where the liquid has been accelerated to high velocities, as in the operation of centrifugal pumps, water turbines, and marine propellers. Cavitation is undesirable because it produces extensive erosion of the rotating blades, additional noise from the resultant knock¬ ing and vibrations, and a significant reduction of efficiency because it dis¬ torts the flow pattern. The cavities form when the pressure of the liquid has been reduced to its vapour pressure; they expand as the pressure is further reduced along with the flow, and they suddenly collapse when they reach regions of higher pressure.
cavity wall In architecture, a double wall consisting of two wythes (vertical layers) of masonry separated by an air space and joined together by metal ties. The cavity allows moisture that penetrates the exterior wythe to drain. Cavity walling is used as both non-load-bearing infill for framed buildings and for bearing-wall construction.
Cavour \k3-'vur\, Camillo Benso, count di (b. Aug. 10, 1810, Turin, Piedmont, French Empire—d. June 6, 1861, Turin, Italy) Italian statesman, leading figure of the Risorgimento. Influenced by revolutionary ideas from an early age, he traveled to Paris and London and in 1847 founded the liberal newspaper II Risorgimento, and he helped persuade Charles Albert to grant a liberal constitution. Elected to Parliament in 1848, Cavour held several cabinet posts before becoming prime minister of Piedmont (1852-59, 1860-61). His exploitation of international rival¬ ries and of revolutionary movements brought about the unification of Italy under the house of Savoy, with himself as the first prime minister of the new kingdom (1861).