pleurodynia, viral (coxsackie B) epidemic disease with an incubation period of two to four days, marked by a brief fever, severe chest and lower back pain aggravated by deep breathing and movement, and a tendency to recur at intervals of a few days. The disease is usually self-limiting, terminating

witching hour, in folklore, the time at night when the powers of witches and other supernatural beings are believed to be strongest, usually occurring at midnight or 3:00 am. The term also has a modern colloquial meaning that refers to a time of unpredictable or volatile activity, such as the

pothos, (Epipremnum aureum), hardy indoor foliage plant of the arum family (Araceae) native to southeastern Asia. It resembles, and thus is often confused with, the common philodendron. Pothos is an evergreen plant with thick, waxy, green, heart-shaped leaves with splashes of yellow. As a

Atom Egoyan: …movies included the crime drama Devil’s Knot (2013), about the West Memphis Three, and Remember (2015), in which an Auschwitz survivor suffering from dementia searches for a former Nazi official. Guest of Honour (2019) centres on the relationship between a woman wrongly convicted of sexual misconduct and her father. Egoyan…

Devil’s Lair, cave in southwestern Western Australia, Australia, that is considered to be among the most important archaeological sites in the country. It is located about 3 miles (5 km) from the ocean and about 12 miles (20 km) north of Cape Leeuwin. A single-chamber cave with a floor of about

Berlin: The city site: “Devil’s Mountain” (Teufelsberg), one of several hills constructed from the rubble left by World War II bombing, rises to 380 feet (116 metres) and has been turned into a winter sports area for skiing and sledding.

Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP: …year he recorded the album Devil’s Night with D12 and toured with the group. He also created his own record label, Shady Records. The D12 collective, 50 Cent, and other rappers signed to and released albums with the label.

Alan J. Pakula: Films of the 1990s: Pakula’s final directing effort was The Devil’s Own (1997), a well-made thriller starring Ford as a New York City police detective who unwittingly takes in a boarder (Brad Pitt) who turns out to be an extremely lethal Irish terrorist. The film demonstrated that Pakula was still able to work effectively…

Hong Kong: Relief: …650 feet (198 meters) at Devil’s Peak. Victoria (Hong Kong) Harbor is well protected by mountains on Hong Kong Island that include Victoria Peak in the west, which rises to 1,810 feet (552 meters), and Mount Parker in the east, which reaches a height of about 1,742 feet (531 meters).

Cape Town: The city site: …Bay, on the south by Devil’s Peak, and on the east by marshlands and the sandy Cape Flats beyond. The nearest tillable land was on the lower eastern slopes of Devil’s Peak and Table Mountain and, farther to the southeast, at Rondebosch, Newlands, and Wynberg. From the fortress that protected…

angel and demon: Relationship to views of a tripartite cosmos: …La Part du Diable (1942; The Devil’s Share) that the Devil and the demonic forces that plague the modern world can be well documented in modern society’s return to barbarism and inhumanity. In the 2nd century ce Clement of Alexandria, a Christian philosophical theologian, pointed toward a psychological interpretation of…

jimsonweed, (Datura stramonium), annual herbaceous plant of the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Possibly native to Central America, the plant is considered an invasive species throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere. It was used by Algonquin Indians in eastern North America, among other

Jo Nesbø: Harry Hole books: …work in Marekors (2003; “Pentagram”; The Devil’s Star), this time in Oslo. Hole tracks a contract killer in Frelseren (2005; “Saviour”; The Redeemer) and another serial killer in Snømannen (2007; The Snowman). Panserhjerte (2009; “Armoured Heart”; The Leopard) has Hole tracked down in Hong Kong and persuaded to

Nelson Algren: His last novel, The Devil’s Stocking, which he completed in 1979, was rejected by many publishers but was published posthumously in 1983.

Garganta del Diablo, spectacular cataract on the Río Iguazú (Rio Iguaçu) at the border of Argentina and Brazil. The water roars down a descent of 269 feet (82

Gibraltar remains: …evidence of occupation: Forbes’ Quarry, Devil’s Tower, Gorham’s Cave, and Vanguard Cave. The first locality yielded the second Neanderthal fossil ever discovered, the skull of an older adult female; though found in 1848, it was not announced to science until 1865. In 1926 the second site yielded a Paleolithic tool…

The Devil’s Trill, sonata for violin and basso continuo by Italian composer Giuseppe Tartini, dating from about 1713 or, more likely, according to scholars of Tartini’s style, after 1740. About a dozen years younger than his compatriot Antonio Vivaldi, Tartini was a gifted violinist who wrote

Edward Hoagland: …of the Alligators (1992), and The Devil’s Tub (2014).

angelica tree, (species Aralia spinosa), prickly-stemmed shrub or tree, of the ginseng family (Araliaceae), that can reach a height of 15 m (about 50 feet). Its leaves are large, with leaflets arranged feather-fashion and often prickly. The angelica tree is native to low-lying areas from Delaware

Ingmar Bergman: Life: …of his own, Fängelse (1949; Prison, or The Devil’s Wanton). It recapitulated all the themes of his previous films in a complex, perhaps overambitious story, built around the romantic and professional problems of a young film director who considers making a film based on the idea that the Devil rules…

Trinidad and Tobago: Relief and drainage: …of which is called the Devil’s Woodyard. In the southwest of the island is the deep asphalt deposit known as Pitch Lake.

nematode: In addition, two species, Halicephalobus mephisto and Plectus aquatilis, which inhabit subterranean water seeps as deep as 3.6 km (2.2 miles) beneath Earth’s surface, are the deepest-living multicellular organisms known. See also aschelminth.

metallurgy: Light metals: The process was very expensive, but cost was greatly reduced when the American chemist Hamilton Young Castner developed an electrolytic cell for producing cheaper sodium in 1886. At the same time, however, Charles M. Hall in the United States and Paul-Louis-Toussaint Héroult in France announced their…

Édouard Gaston Deville was a French-born Canadian surveyor of Canadian lands (1875–1924) who perfected the first practical method of photogrammetry, or the making of maps based on photography. Deville served in the French navy, conducting hydrographic surveys in the South Sea islands, Peru, and

blue-eyed soul: Louis, Missouri; the Box Tops, from Memphis, Tennessee; and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, from Detroit, Michigan. Other performers who were regarded as blue-eyed soul singers included Laura Nyro in the 1960s, Robert Palmer and the Average White Band in the 1970s, and in the 21st…

Bruce Springsteen: Back with the E Street Band and into the 21st century: …following the release of the Devils and Dust album and coinciding with a 30th anniversary celebration of Born to Run, explored the full depth of his song catalog—it was Tracks with a one-man band—and continued his opposition to the Bush administration’s policies.

Arches National Park: …in the setting sun), and Devils Garden. Landscape Arch, measuring about 290 feet (88 metres) long from base to base, is one of the longest natural freestanding spans of rock in the world; since 1991 large pieces of the formation have fallen, though the arch remains intact. In 2008 Wall…

North Sea: Physiography: …of the North Sea, including Devils Hole off Edinburgh, where depths exceed 1,500 feet (450 metres), and Silver Pit, nearly 320 feet (95 metres) deep, off the bay of The Wash in England. These trenches may have been formed at the time of the last glaciation, when parts of the…

Death Valley: Plant and animal life: …of water; the highly endangered Devils Hole pupfish (C. diabolis) lives in a single desert pool.

Devils Island, rocky islet off the Atlantic coast of French Guiana. The smallest of the three Îles du Salut, about 10 miles (16 km) from the mainland and the Kourou River mouth, it is a narrow strip of land about 3,900 feet (1,200 metres) long and 1,320 feet (400 metres) broad, mostly covered by

Devils Lake: …head of steamboat navigation on Devils Lake, a closed-basin lake (one having no river outlet) with constantly fluctuating water levels. By 1909 water levels had dropped so much that navigation ceased; the lake reached a low point of only 2 feet (0.6 metre) deep in 1940. In 1993 water levels…

Devils Lake, city, seat (1883) of Ramsey county, northeast-central North Dakota, U.S. It lies about 90 miles (145 km) west of Grand Forks. The site was surveyed in 1882 and named Creelsburg (later Creel City) for its surveyor, Heber M. Creel; in 1884 it was renamed Devils Lake, a misinterpretation

Aldous Huxley: …most important later works are The Devils of Loudun (1952), a detailed psychological study of a historical incident in which a group of 17th-century French nuns were allegedly the victims of demonic possession, and The Doors of Perception (1954), a book about Huxley’s experiences with the hallucinogenic drug mescaline. His…

Devils Postpile National Monument, scenic area in Madera county, east-central California, U.S. It is situated in Inyo National Forest on the Middle Fork San Joaquin River, about 12 miles (20 km) southeast of Yosemite National Park. The monument, which lies on the western slopes of the Sierra

Devils Tower National Monument, the first U.S. national monument, established in 1906 in northeastern Wyoming, near the Belle Fourche River. It encompasses 2.1 square miles (5.4 square km) and features a natural rock tower, the remnant of a volcanic intrusion now exposed by erosion. The tower has a

John Robert Whiting: …picture was made from his The Devils (1961), based on Aldous Huxley’s novel The Devils of Loudun, about mass hysteria that sweeps through a convent in 17th-century France. His translations include two plays by Jean Anouilh: Madame De . . . and Traveller Without Luggage.

Ken Russell: The Devils (1971), based on the Aldous Huxley novel The Devils of Loudon, aroused even more vehement criticism with its story of mass sexual hysteria in a convent. Russell then made The Boy Friend (1971) and Savage Messiah (1972) before he again achieved a commercial…

The Possessed, novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, published in Russian in 1872 as Besy. The book, also known in English as The Devils and The Demons, is a reflection of Dostoyevsky’s belief that revolutionists possessed the soul of Russia and that, unless exorcised by a renewed faith in Orthodox

Devilsbit Mountain, range of hills in County Tipperary, Ireland, that extends from the boundary of County Limerick to the lowland opening known as the Roscrea Gap. The name derives from the gap in the highest peak in the range (1,577 feet [481 metres]), which, according to legend, was formed by the

tea olive: The main American species, devilwood (O. americanus), reaches 15 metres and bears greenish-white flowers. Its close-grained, dark-brown wood is valued for carpentry.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Formative years: …and one of his operas, Le Devin du village (1752; “The Village Soothsayer”), attracted so much admiration from the king (Louis XV) and the court that he might have enjoyed an easy life as a fashionable composer, but something in his Calvinist blood rejected that type of worldly glory. Indeed,…

Stagecoach: …the stage driver Buck (Andy Devine) are responsible for overseeing the safety of an eclectic group of passengers that includes Dallas (Claire Trevor), a prostitute who is being evicted from town; Samuel Peacock (Donald Meek), a milquetoast whiskey salesman; Henry Gatewood (Berton Churchill), a corrupt banker attempting to abscond…

Father Divine was a prominent African American religious leader of the 1930s. The Depression-era movement he founded, the Peace Mission, was originally dismissed as a cult, but it still exists and is now generally hailed as an important precursor of the civil rights movement. Reportedly born on a

Western theatre: Great Britain: …Ensemble at work in Germany, George Devine set up the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre in 1956 to encourage new playwrights and promote foreign drama. That year marked a turning point in British theatre, with Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (in his own translation) introducing the Theatre…

Holy of Holies, the innermost and most sacred area of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem, accessible only to the Israelite high priest. Once a year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, he was permitted to enter the square, windowless enclosure to burn incense and sprinkle sacrificial animal blood. By

inheritance: Historical development: … of the “purchaser” or “devisee” as a son, or, once free alienation had become possible inter vivos (between living persons) but not yet upon death, by fictitious sale or gift to a middleman who would promise to let the grantor keep the property as long as he should live…

Danny DeVito is an American actor, director, and producer best known for portraying wisecracking dispatcher Louie DePalma in the television comedy series Taxi (1978–1983). DeVito is a versatile entertainer and filmmaker who has produced several popular films and television series, such as the crime

Danny DeVito is an American actor, director, and producer best known for portraying wisecracking dispatcher Louie DePalma in the television comedy series Taxi (1978–1983). DeVito is a versatile entertainer and filmmaker who has produced several popular films and television series, such as the crime

devitrification, process by which glassy substances change their structure into that of crystalline solids. Most glasses are silicates (compounds of silicon, oxygen, and metals) in which the atomic structure does not have the repetitive arrangement required for the formation of crystals. Glass is

Devizes, town (parish), administrative and historical county of Wiltshire, southwestern England. It lies along the disused Kennet and Avon Canal, at the edge of Roundway Down. It was the site of a Roman fortification, Castrum Divisarum; and Roger, bishop of Salisbury, built a castle there about

Nepali literature: …his great contemporary, the poet Lakṣmīprasād Devkoṭā, discarded the earlier Sanskrit-dominated literary tradition and adopted some literary forms of the West, notably prose poetry, tragic drama, and the short story. In their poetry these writers dealt with such themes as love and patriotism as well as the problems of injustice,…

Devo, American new-wave band from Akron, Ohio, that took its name from devolution, the theory of humankind’s regression that informed the band’s music and stage act. Devo enjoyed commercial success in the early 1980s. The band members were Mark Mothersbaugh (b. May 18, 1950, Akron, Ohio, U.S.),

Yambo Ouologuem: …Le Devoir de violence (1968; Bound to Violence), which received the Prix Renaudot. With this work, Ouologuem became the first African writer to receive a major French literary award.

metamorphic rock: Principal types: …C + mineral D) or devolatilization reactions (hydrous mineral A = anhydrous mineral B + water), but in either case they require significant breaking of bonds and reorganization of material in the rock. They may depend most strongly on either temperature or pressure changes. In general, devolatilization reactions are temperature-sensitive,…

War of Devolution: Devolution was a local custom governing the inheritance of land in certain provinces of the Spanish Netherlands, by which daughters of a first marriage were preferred to sons of subsequent marriages; and Louis XIV of France began the war on the pretext that this custom…

devolution, the transfer of power from a central government to subnational (e.g., state, regional, or local) authorities. Devolution usually occurs through conventional statutes rather than through a change in a country’s constitution; thus, unitary systems of government that have devolved powers

War of Devolution, (1667–68), conflict between France and Spain over possession of the Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium and Luxembourg). Devolution was a local custom governing the inheritance of land in certain provinces of the Spanish Netherlands, by which daughters of a first marriage

Devon, administrative, geographic, and historic county of England. It forms part of the South West (or Cornish) Peninsula of Great Britain and is bounded to the west by Cornwall and to the east by Dorset and Somerset. The Bristol Channel lies to the north, and the English Channel abuts it to the

Devon Island, largest of the Parry Islands, in Nunavut, Canada, in the Arctic Ocean south of Ellesmere Island and west of Baffin Bay. It is about 320 miles (515 km) long, 80–100 miles (130–160 km) wide, and has an area of 21,331 square miles (55,247 square km). Chiefly an ice-covered plateau, the

Devonian extinctions, a series of mass extinction events primarily affecting the marine communities of the Devonian Period (419.2 million to 359 million years ago). At present it is not possible to connect this series definitively with any single cause. It is probable that they may record a

Devonian Period, in geologic time, an interval of the Paleozoic Era that follows the Silurian Period and precedes the Carboniferous Period, spanning between about 419.2 million and 358.9 million years ago. The Devonian Period is sometimes called the “Age of Fishes” because of the diverse, abundant,

Devonport, city, northern Tasmania, Australia. It lies near the mouth of the Mersey River, which empties into Bass Strait. One of the state’s largest communities, it was formed through the amalgamation in 1893 of the villages of Torquay (east bank) and Formby (west), both of which had been founded

Auckland: Devonport, in North Shore ward, is the chief naval base and dockyard for New Zealand. A natural gas pipeline runs from the Maui field to Auckland.

Devon, administrative, geographic, and historic county of England. It forms part of the South West (or Cornish) Peninsula of Great Britain and is bounded to the west by Cornwall and to the east by Dorset and Somerset. The Bristol Channel lies to the north, and the English Channel abuts it to the

Kenya: Political movements: …the colonial secretary issued a White Paper in which he indicated that African interests in the colony had to be paramount, although his declaration did not immediately result in any great improvement in conditions. One area that definitely needed improvement was education for Africans; up to that point nearly all…

Charles Blount, 8th Lord Mountjoy was a soldier and English lord deputy of Ireland, whose victory at Kinsale, County Cork, in 1601 led to the conquest of Ireland by English forces. The second son of James Blount, 6th Lord Mountjoy, he succeeded to the family peerage on the death of his elder

William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire was a leader of the parliamentary movement that sought to exclude the Roman Catholic James, duke of York (afterward James II), from succession to the British throne and that later invited the invasion of William of Orange. Cavendish was the eldest son of

William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire was a leader of the parliamentary movement that sought to exclude the Roman Catholic James, duke of York (afterward James II), from succession to the British throne and that later invited the invasion of William of Orange. Cavendish was the eldest son of

William Cavendish, 1st earl of Devonshire was the first of the long line of Devonshire peers. The son of Sir William Cavendish and his third wife, Elizabeth Hardwick (afterward the Countess of Shrewsbury), the young Cavendish was educated at Eton College and Gray’s Inn and was knighted in 1580 and

William Cavendish, 1st earl of Devonshire was the first of the long line of Devonshire peers. The son of Sir William Cavendish and his third wife, Elizabeth Hardwick (afterward the Countess of Shrewsbury), the young Cavendish was educated at Eton College and Gray’s Inn and was knighted in 1580 and

Thomas Hobbes: Early life: Through his employment by William Cavendish, the first earl of Devonshire, and his heirs, Hobbes became connected with the royalist side in disputes between the king and Parliament that continued until the 1640s and that culminated in the English Civil Wars (1642–51). Hobbes also worked for the marquess of…

William Cavendish, 4th duke of Devonshire was the prime minister of Great Britain from November 1756 to May 1757, at the start of the Seven Years’ War. Eldest son of William Cavendish, the 3rd Duke (1698–1755), he was elected to the House of Commons in 1741 and 1747, and in 1751 he moved to the

William Cavendish, 4th duke of Devonshire was the prime minister of Great Britain from November 1756 to May 1757, at the start of the Seven Years’ War. Eldest son of William Cavendish, the 3rd Duke (1698–1755), he was elected to the House of Commons in 1741 and 1747, and in 1751 he moved to the

Betsy DeVos is an American philanthropist and Republican political activist who served as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (2017–21) in the administration of Pres. Donald Trump. Her father, Edgar Prince, was a wealthy industrialist who, with her mother, formed a foundation to make

devotio moderna, religious movement within Roman Catholicism from the end of the 14th to the 16th century stressing meditation and the inner life, attaching little importance to ritual and external works, and downgrading the highly speculative spirituality of the 13th and 14th centuries. Devotio

Patti Smith: Devotion (2017) is an installment in Yale University Press’s Why I Write series. Smith later published A Book of Days (2022), which was inspired by her Instagram account. In 2016 she accepted Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize for Literature on his behalf.

Hinduism: Devotion: Devotion (bhakti) effectively spans and reconciles the seemingly disparate aims of obtaining aid in solving worldly problems and locating one’s soul in relation to divinity. It is the prime religious attitude in much of Hindu life. The term bhakti is derived from a root…

Curtis Bernhardt: Early years in Hollywood: Devotion (1946), a fanciful account of the lives of the Brontë sisters—with de Havilland and Ida Lupino as Charlotte and Emily, respectively—had been filmed earlier than Conflict but was held back for nearly three years before being released. A Stolen Life (1946) is more convincing,…

Hans Memling: Many devotional diptychs (two-panel paintings) such as this were painted in 15th-century Flanders. They consist of a portrait of the “donor”—or patron—in one panel, reverently gazing at the Madonna and Child in the other. Such paintings were for the donor’s personal use in his home or…

John Donne: Prose of John Donne: …illness, Donne in 1623 wrote Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, the most enduring of his prose works. Each of its 23 devotions consists of a meditation, an expostulation, and a prayer, all occasioned by some event in Donne’s illness, such as the arrival of the king’s personal physician or the application…

Ireland: The Home Rule movement and the Land League: …influenced by two Irish Americans: John Devoy, a leading member of Clan na Gael, an effective American Fenian organization, and Patrick Ford, whose New York paper The Irish World preached militant republicanism and hatred of England. At Westminster Parnell adopted a policy of persistent obstruction, which compelled attention to Irish…

Devrient family, German theatre family. Ludwig Devrient (1784–1832) was the greatest actor of the Romantic period in Germany. At the Dessau court theatre he developed his talent for character parts. After his Berlin debut in The Robbers (1814), he played Falstaff, Shylock, King Lear, and Richard

Eduard Devrient was an actor, director, manager, translator of Shakespeare into German, and author of the first detailed account of the development of the German theatre, Geschichte der deutschen Schauspielkunst (1848; “History of German Dramatic Art”). Nephew of the great Romantic actor Ludwig

Emil Devrient was a German actor of the 19th century who gained prominence in youthful heroic parts. Nephew of the great Romantic actor Ludwig Devrient, he made his debut in Brunswick in 1821. By way of Bremen, Leipzig, and Hamburg, he reached Dresden in 1831, where he remained associated with the

Karl August Devrient was a German actor who achieved popularity in heroic and character roles such as the title roles of Friedrich von Schiller’s Wallenstein, Goethe’s Faust, and Shakespeare’s King Lear. Nephew of the great Romantic actor Ludwig Devrient, he began his career in 1819 in Brunswick.

Ludwig Devrient was the greatest and most original actor of the Romantic period in Germany, whose temperament, characterizations, and life invite comparison with his English contemporary Edmund Kean. Devrient’s characterizations conformed to no existing school of acting and owed nothing to any

Max Devrient was a German actor who excelled in tragic roles, particularly in the plays of Goethe, Schiller, and Shakespeare, but who was also much admired in comedy, especially as Petruchio in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Grandnephew of the great Romantic actor Ludwig Devrient and son of

Otto Devrient was a German actor, director, producer, and playwright. Grandnephew of the great Romantic actor Ludwig Devrient, Otto was trained by his father, Eduard Devrient, who was a director, a translator of Shakespeare, and a stage historian. His early engagements included Karlsruhe,

Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front, left-wing Marxist-Leninist terrorist group in Turkey, formed in 1978 as an offshoot of the Turkish People’s Liberation Party/Front, that is strongly anti-United States and anti-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). In the 1990s, Dev Sol (renamed

Turkey: The ascendancy of the right, 1961–71: …new trade union federation, the Confederation of Reformist Workers’ Unions (Devrimci Işçi Sendıkalari Konfederasyonu [DİSK]; founded 1967); a revolutionary youth movement, Dev Genç (1969); a socialist political party, the Workers’ Party of Turkey (WPT; 1961); and an armed guerrilla movement, the Turkish People’s Liberation Army (1970). These and similar groups…

Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front, left-wing Marxist-Leninist terrorist group in Turkey, formed in 1978 as an offshoot of the Turkish People’s Liberation Party/Front, that is strongly anti-United States and anti-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). In the 1990s, Dev Sol (renamed

Irving: …the University of Dallas and DeVry University. Pop. (2010) 216,290; Dallas-Plano-Irving Metro Division, 4,235,751;(2020) 256,684; Dallas-Plano-Irving Metro Division, 5,129,966.

Balkans: Conquest and rule: …required to pay included the devşirme, an occasional levy on male children who were taken from Christian households to be converted to Islam and trained as members of the administrative elite of the empire, including the military Janissary corps. Despite the horrors of such separation, there is evidence that children…

dew, deposit of waterdrops formed at night by the condensation of water vapour from the air onto the surfaces of objects freely exposed to the sky (see video). It forms on clear nights when the air is calm or, preferably, when the wind is light. If the temperature of the surface is below the

Edwidge Danticat: …to explore Haitian history in The Dew Breaker (2004), a series of interconnected stories about a Haitian immigrant who had tortured and murdered dissidents during the repressive rule of François Duvalier. Her memoir, Brother, I’m Dying (2007), won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line), Cold War communications network, made up of more than 60 manned radar installations and extending about 4,800 km (3,000 miles) from northwestern Alaska to eastern Baffin Island. The network served as a warning system for the United States and Canada that could

dew point, the temperature at which the atmosphere is saturated with water vapour, when it is cooled without changing its pressure or vapour content. A given volume of air containing much water vapour has a higher dew point than the same volume of drier air; thus the dew point gives an indication

retting: Basic methods include dew retting and water retting.

hygrometer: Dew-point hygrometers typically consist of a polished metal mirror that is cooled at a constant pressure and constant vapour content until moisture just starts to condense on it. The temperature of the metal at which condensation begins is the dew point.

dew point, the temperature at which the atmosphere is saturated with water vapour, when it is cooled without changing its pressure or vapour content. A given volume of air containing much water vapour has a higher dew point than the same volume of drier air; thus the dew point gives an indication