Book People Archive

Re: Encylopedic Mystery

On Tue, 23 Jan 2001, Charles P. Hall wrote:

> I inherited an 1899 encyclopedia ("World Wide Encylopedia and
> Gazetteer"), published in 1899 by the Christian Herald and Werner House.
> It consists of 12 volumes.
> 
> Here's the mystery, Volumes I-VIII cover A-ZYMOTIC, Volumes IX-XII cover
> AACHEN-ZYLONITE. That's right, the alphabet starts over in the middle of
> the series. 

I have a Britannica from the same period that does the same thing.

> 
> As near as I can tell there are very few articles in common. Those that
> do show up in both are extremely short in the first set, much longer in
> the second. But most articles are not duplicated.

Yes, same here. . .I can try to look in the introduction if you like,
to see if they explain this.

>            
> Bindings, print style and copyright pages are all the same. Can anyone
> explain what was going on back then? I've been pondering it for years
> and have never found any pattern to explain which articles are in which
> section!
> 

It *could* be something like the modern Britannica "macro/micropedias."

> It's a fascinating thing by the way. Subjects like the invention of the
> "safety match" have huge articles. Fire engines get a big write up.
> Other subjects I expect to find are nowhere to be seen, or I just don't
> know the correct 19th Century term to find them under. The telegraph
> gets only a column or so. I also suspect some 19th C. personalities are
> more famous today than in 1899 (Charles Babbage for example).
> 

I found some VERY interesting articles on "Window Tax" and the related
architectural period with fewer windows facing the street to be taxed.

> Thanks!
> 
> Charles Hall
> Raleigh, NC


Thanks!

So nice to hear from you!


Michael S. Hart
<hart@[redacted]>
Project Gutenberg
"Ask Dr. Internet"
Executive Director
Internet User ~#100