History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
It consisted of 21 volumes with 17,101 pages and 506 plates, with an Index of 187 pages. Powell also introduced the Library Research Service (1936), in which owners of the Britannica could write to have their personal questions researched and answered by the editorial staff. Under Powell s leadership, the Britannica began to capitalize on its reputation by aggressively developing spin-offs , such as the 12-volume Britannica Junior for children (published 1934, and revised to 15 volumes in 1947), the historical timeline The March of Man (published 1935, and edited by Albert Bushwell Hart, Isaac J.The 4,207 articles of the first version Macropædia were combined into 674 longer articles; for example, the individual articles for each of the 50 U.S. In 1926, the Britannica released three new volumes covering the history of 1910-1926, which were intended to supplant those of the 12th edition.
Thus, the Propædia was intended to be the road-map of all knowledge, within which every fact, technique, and theory could be organized. The lack of an index and the unusual organization into two sets of alphabetically organized articles provoked much criticism. A pagination error caused page 8000 to follow page 7099.
The 2nd edition also reports a cure for tuberculosis and a somewhat melancholy article on Love that persisted in the Britannica for nearly a century (until its 9th edition) The third edition was published from 1788 to 1797 in 300 weekly numbers (1 shilling apiece); these numbers were collected and bound in 30 parts (10 shilling, sixpence each) and finally in 18 volumes with 14,579 pages and 542 plates. Macfarquhar again edited this edition up to Mysteries but died in 1793 (aged 48) of mental exhaustion ; his work was taken over by George Gleig, later Bishop Gleig of Brechin (consecrated 30 October 1808).
The number of topics indexed by the Britannica has fluctuated from 500,000 (1985, the same as in 1954) to 400,000 (1989,1991) to 700,000 in the current 2007 print version. The Britannica was published under the pseudonym A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland , possibly referring to the many gentlemen who had bought subscriptions. The key idea that set the Britannica apart was to group related topics together into longer essays, that were then organized alphabetically.
Hadley and Franklin Henry Hooper, the brother of the owner Horace Hooper. states were merged into what became a 310-page article United States of America .
The mathematical articles of Prof. Horace Hooper died in 1922, a few weeks after the publication of the 12th edition.
Since the early 1930s, the Britannica has developed several spin-off products to leverage its reputation as a reliable reference work and educational tool. Encyclopedias of various types had been published since antiquity, beginning with the collected works of Aristotle and the Natural History of Pliny the Elder, the latter having 2493 articles in 37 books. Black was able to hold costs to roughly £75,655.
This led to the popular joke: The Times is behind the Encyclopædia Britannica and the Encyclopædia Britannica is behind the times. The 1903 advertising campaign for the 10th edition was an onslaught of direct marketing: hand-written letters, telegrams, limited-time offers, etc. More generally, Dr.
It was very different to the 11th edition, having fewer volumes and simpler articles, continuing the business strategy of popularizing the Britannica for the American mass market at the expense of its scholarship. The 14th edition was published in September 1929, and had 23 volumes with a one-volume Index that also contained a complete atlas. Famous pirates of that era include the Philadelphian Joseph M.
The so-called New Encyclopædia Britannica (or Britannica 3) had a unique three-part organization: a single Propædia (Primer for Education) volume, which aimed to provide an outline of all known, indeed knowable, information; a 10-volume Micropædia (Small Education) of 102,214 short articles (strictly less than 750 words); and a 19-volume Macropædia (Large Education) of 4,207 longer, scholarly articles with references, similar to those of the 9th and 11th editions. He later said: The vivid prose and easy navigation of the first edition led to strong demand for a second.
In all, there were 344 contributors, including Lord Macaulay, Charles Kingsley, Robert Chambers, the Rev. despite Dr.
Although this edition has been faulted for its imperfect scholarship, Smellie argued that the Britannica should be given the benefit of the doubt: Smellie strove to make Britannica as usable as possible, saying that utility ought to be the principal intention of every publication. Cox also tried to involve the University of Chicago in producing the Britannica, even including a $1 million advance from Rosenwald as a temptation; however, the trustees of the University turned down his proposal, a choice they almost repeated a generation later under William Benton. By 1926, the 11th edition was beginning to show its age, and work on a new edition was begun.
The strict 750-word limit was softened to allow articles of medium length, such as Internet, which almost fills one page. A & C Black authorized two American firms, Charles Scribner s Sons and Little, Brown and Company, to distribute the Britannica in the United States, and roughly 45,000 sets were sold.
Although not all encyclopedias succeeded commercially, their elements sometimes inspired future encyclopedias; for example, the failed two-volume An Universal History of Arts and Sciences of Dennis de Coetlogon (published 1745) grouped its topics into long self-contained treatises, an organization that likely inspired the new plan of the Britannica. To edit the supplement, Constable hired Macvey Napier, who recruited other eminent contributors such as Sir Humphry Davy, Jean-Baptiste Biot, John Stuart Mill, William Hazlitt, David Ricardo, and Thomas Malthus.
The first encyclopedia to include biographies of living people was the 64-volume Grosses Universal-Lexicon (published 1732–1759) of Johann Heinrich Zedler, who argued that death alone should not render people notable. The Britannica was the idea of Colin Macfarquhar, a bookseller and printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, both of Edinburgh. Adler was that the Propædia and the Micropædia could serve the role of an index.
Previous English encyclopedias had generally listed related terms separately in their alphabetical order, rather like a modern technical dictionary, an approach that the Britannica s management derided as dismembering the sciences . However, Adam Black had invested over £108,766 in its production: £5,354 for advertising, £8,755 for editing, £13,887 for 167 contributors, £13,159 for plates, £29,279 for paper, and £19,813 for the printing.
Several editions have been amended with multi-volume supplements (3rd-6th) or undergone drastic re-organizations (15th). Ironically, the Encyclopédie had begun as a French translation of the popular English encyclopedia, Cyclopaedia published by Ephraim Chambers in 1728.
and noting that the Great Flood of 2348 B.C. Rosenwald died in 1932, and General Robert E.
Its illustrious contributors are legion, including Baden-Powell writing on kite-flying; Arthur Eddington on astronomy; Edmund Gosse on literature and Donald Tovey on music. But Encarta, released in 1993, became a software staple with almost every computer purchase and the Britannica s market share plummeted.
L. As he got into the car, he turned to Bill Benton and said, All right, Bill, I will give you the Britannica. The University of Chicago declined the offer, viewing the mission of the university as not entirely consistent with a large commercial publishing house; however it continues even today to be involved in its production, offering editorial advice and allowing its name to be associated with the Britannica.
hoped that including the CD-ROM would entice buyers to stay with the brand. In 1994 an online version was launched, Facing financial pressure, Britannica Inc. Cox argued forcefully for a new 14th edition, pointing out that the 11th edition (the bulk of the 12 and 13th editions) was badly out of date.
Although later editions of Chambers Cyclopaedia were still popular, and despite the commercial failure of other English encyclopedias, Macfarquhar and Bell were inspired by the intellectual ferment of the Scottish Enlightenment and thought the time ripe for a new encyclopedia compiled upon a new plan . Needing an editor, the two chose a 28-year-old scholar named William Smellie who was offered 200 pounds sterling to produce the encyclopedia in 100 parts (called numbers and equivalent to thick pamphlets), which were later bound into three volumes. The first number appeared on December 6 1768 in Edinburgh, priced sixpence or 8 pence on finer paper.
However, in 1896, Scribner s obtained court orders to shut down the pirate operations, whose printing plates were melted down as part of the enforcement. Horace Everett Hooper was an American business man, and a close associate of James Clarke, one of the leading American pirates. Why don t you make a gift of the Britannica to the University of Chicago? General Wood did not reply immediately but walked to his car.
Wood replied that sales would earn his company some $300,000 before taxes that year. Rather than releasing supplemental editions or volumes, new printings would be made every year with only enough copies made to cover the sales for that year.
At the same time, the number of Micropædia volumes was increased from 10 to the present 12 volumes, although the number of articles was reduced from 102,214 to roughly 65,000. The following quote, written in 1926, captures the mood An excellent collection of prospectuses received by a single person (C.
The basic idea was to maintain a continuous editorial staff that would constantly revise the articles on a fixed schedule. The third edition established the foundation of the Britannica as an important and definitive reference work for much of the next century.
of Chicago, who issued a physically smaller but complete version. Unfortunately, Constable went bankrupt on 19 January 1826 and the rights to the Britannica were sold on auction; they were eventually bought on 16 July 1828 for 6150 pounds sterling by a partnership of four men: Adam Black (a publisher), Alexander Wight (a banker), Abram Thomson (a bookbinder) and Thomas Allen, the proprietor of the Caledonian Mercury.
Beginning in the early 1960s, the failings of the 14th edition began to be collated and published by physicist Harvey Einbinder, culminating in his highly critical 390-page book, The Myth of Britannica (1964). It was published in 40 half-volume parts, priced 16 shillings in boards.
After the release of a new edition, sales would generally begin strong, and decline gradually for 10-20 years as the edition began to show its age ; finally, sales would drop off precipitously with the announcement that work had begun on a new edition, since few people would buy an obsolete encyclopedia that would soon be updated. to collaborate on a CD-ROM encyclopedia, but the offer was declined.
This edition also featured the first American contributor to the Britannica, Edward Everett, who wrote a 40,000-word hagiographic biography of George Washington The landmark ninth edition, often called the Scholar s Edition , The 9th and 11th editions are often lauded as high points for scholarship; the 9th included yet another series of illustrious contributors such as Thomas Henry Huxley, Lord Rayleigh, Algernon Swinburne and William Michael Rossetti. Wherever this intention does not plainly appear, neither the books nor their authors have the smallest claim to the approbation of mankind .
Joseph Dalton Hooker, Baron Robert Bunsen, Sir John Herschel, Professors Richard Owen, John Stuart Blackie and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). Cox, who ran the company from 1923-1928. The passage of a few years led to a better perspective on that era.
This supplement was published by a wine-merchant, Thomas Bonar, the son-in-law of the Britannica s owner Andrew Bell; unfortunately, the two men quarreled and they never spoke for the last ten years of Bell s life (1799–1809). The Britannica explicitly positioned itself as a conservative publication in reaction to the radical French Encyclopédie of Diderot published between 1751-66. Completed in 1817, the fifth edition sold for 36 pounds sterling and consisted of 20 volumes with 16,017 pages and 582 plates.
Millar was again the editor. In turn, Microsoft used content from Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia to create what is now known as Encarta. In 1990, the Britannica s sales reached all-time high of $650 million.
Hampden did all of Greek philosophy, and William Hosking contributed an excellent article on architecture. He seems to have been swayed by William Jones Essay on the First Principles of Natural Philosophy (1762), which in turn was based on John Hutchinson s MA thesis, Moses Principia, which was written in 1724 but rejected by Oxford University.
decided on charging $995 for customers looking to purchase only the CD-ROM, while bundling a free disc with the print version. Ephraim Chambers wrote a very popular two-volume Cyclopedia in 1728, which went through multiple editions and awakened publishers to the enormous profit potential of encyclopedias.
Since then, Safra has introduced massive price-cutting measures in an effort to compete with Encarta, even offering the entire reference free of charge for a time (around 18 months, from October 1999 to March 2001) on the Internet. Currently, Britannica co-operates with Taiwan companies (遠流/智慧藏學習科技公司) to provide a Traditional Chinese-English bilingual version encyclopedia on internet according to the 2002 edition. The advertising was clearly targeted at middle and lower-middle class people seeking to improve themselves. The renowned 11th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica was begun in 1903, and published in 1910-1911 in 28 volumes, with a one-volume Index.
Andrew Bell, Macfarquhar s partner, bought the rights to the Britannica from his heirs. Nearly doubling the scope of the 2nd edition, Macfarquhar s encyclopedic vision was finally realized. The first United States copyright law was passed on 30 May 1790 — although anticipated by Section 8 of Article I of the United States Constitution (ratified 4 March 1789) — but did not protect foreign publications such as the Britannica.
senator and advertising executive, obtained exclusive control of the Britannica, which he published until his death in 1973. Sometimes called the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, this edition is still highly regarded for its lucid explanations of scholarly subjects.
Not long after, Black bought out his partners and ownership of the Britannica passed to the Edinburgh publishing firm of A & C Black. The 7th edition was begun in 1827 and published from March 1830-January 1842. lasted for exactly 777 days.
For example, it does not mention the American Revolution at all. This was the first edition to include a general index for all articles, a practice that was maintained until 1974. Many illustrious contributors were recruited to this edition, including Sir David Brewster, Thomas de Quincey, Antonio Panizzi and Robert Stephenson.
Taken together, the 35 volumes were dubbed the 10th edition . The Britannica s headquarters were moved to Chicago, where they have remained ever since.
Pirated copies were also sold in Dublin by James Moore under the title, Moore s Dublin Edition, Encyclopædia Britannica; this was an exact reproduction of the Britannica s 3rd edition. The story of this offer was recounted at the bicentennial banquet of the Encyclopædia Britannica Yes, replied General Wood, Sears, Roebuck should never have acquired it in the first place. Does it make any money? Bill asked.
In the end, roughly 5,000 sets were sold but Black considered himself well-rewarded in intellectual prestige. The 8th edition was published from 1853–1860 in 21 volumes, with 17,957 pages and 402 plates and a 239-page Index (published separately in 1861). This has been periodically reprinted and is still part of Britannica s product line. After the success of the first edition, a more ambitious second edition was begun in 1776, with the addition of history and biography articles.
On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the 1st edition, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. These strong fluctuations in sales led to economic hardship for the Britannica. To amend this problem, Powell suggested in 1933 the policy of continuous revision, with the goal of keeping the Britannica always timely and always salable .
Nineteenth-century editions of the Britannica regularly included high-level research works from its authors; by contrast, the 20th century editions are notable for being more popularized, easier to understand but less scholarly. In 1797, Fath Ali Shah was given a complete set of the Britannica s 3rd edition, which he read completely; after this feat, he extended his royal title to include Most Formidable Lord and Master of the Encyclopædia Britannica. A two-volume supplement to the 3rd edition was published in 1801, having 1,624 pages and 50 copperplates by D. The Micropædia and Macropædia articles are listed in alphabetical order; the 4,287 contributors to the Macropædia articles are identified scrupulously, but the Micropædia articles are generally anonymous and unreferenced. This 15th edition had no general index, which had been a feature of the Britannica since its 7th edition; even in the 2nd edition, individual long articles had their own indices.
The Encyclopædia Britannica has been published continuously since 1768, appearing in 15 official editions. They cannot buy businesses.
Since Macvey Napier died in 1847, Adam Black selected for its editor Dr. Encyclopedias were published in Europe and China throughout the Middle Ages, such as the delightful Satyricon of Martianus Minneus Felix Capella (early 5th century), the Speculum majus (The Great Mirror) of Vincent of Beauvais (1250), and Encyclopedia septem tomis distincta (A Seven-Part Encyclopedia) by Johann Heinrich Alsted (1630).
L. The 14th edition took three years to complete, at the then exorbitant cost of $2.5 million dollars, all of it invested by Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck and Company.
Wood took over; Cox was removed as publisher and the Secretary-Treasurer of Sears, Elkan Harrison Powell was installed as the new President of the Britannica. E. This edition was also enormously profitable, yielding 42,000 pounds sterling profit on the sale of roughly 10,000 copies.
Adler s claims that the sorting followed naturally from the Propædia s outline of all knowledge. In 1985, the Britannica responded to reader requests by restoring the index as a two-volume set. The public furor caused The Times to cancel its sponsorship contract with Hooper, feeling that the interests of the newspaper were not being served.
In 1922, a 3-volume supplement to the 11th edition was released that summarized the developments just before, during and after World War I; these three volumes, taken together with the 11th edition, became known as the 12th edition. The re-issue of the 9th edition under the moniker 10th edition caused some outrage, since many articles of the 9th edition were over 25 years old, and beginning to show their age.
Cox and Lawrence H. Goaded into action, the Britannica began to work on a new edition, the current 15th. The 15th edition was produced over ten years at a cost of $32 million dollars and released in 1974 in 30 volumes.
There were roughly 1100 contributors altogether, a handful of which were women; this edition was also the first to include a significant article about women ( Women, Law Relating to ). The 9th edition was a critical success, and roughly 8,500 sets were sold in Britain. The spy would steal the proofreader s copies and send them by fastest mail to the United States, allowing Stoddart to publish his version simultaneously with the Britannica and at nearly half the price ($5 versus $9 per volume).
Other alleged pirates of the 9th edition included John Wanamaker and the Reverend Isaac Kaufmann Funk of the Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia. Perhaps because of this, the Britannica encountered financial difficulties, whereupon it was licensed to Sears Roebuck and Co.
James Millar, a physician, who was good at scientific topics but criticized for being slow & dilatory & not well qualified . Goetz, the 1985 version of the 15th edition introduced other major changes.
Lizars. Piracy of the Britannica in America remained a problem through the 9th edition (1889).
Britannica had, for example, published the second multimedia encyclopedia titled Compton s MultiMedia Encyclopedia as early as 1989 (the first one being the Academic American Encyclopedia published by Grolier), but did not launch Britannica CD until 1994, one year after Microsoft launched their Encarta encyclopedia. This edition was a commercial failure, losing Sears roughly $1.75 million dollars, after which Sears gave it back to Hooper s widow, Harriett Meeker Cox, and her brother, William J.
Thus, in 1943, the wealthy and powerful William Benton, a former U.S. The Macropædia was also restricted somewhat from 19 volumes to the present 17 volumes.
Charles Merivale, Dr. Gleig wrote that gravity is caused by the classical element of fire.
In 1890, James Clarke published the Americanized Encyclopædia Britannica, Revised and Amended. His widow Helen Hemingway Benton continued to publish the Britannica until her own death in 1974.
An analysis of the Britannica s articles suggested that roughly 75% required only occasional revising, whereas 25% required revision every 1-3 years. Although anticipated by Dennis de Coetlogon, the idea for this new plan is generally ascribed to Colin Macfarquhar, although Smellie claimed it as his own invention. Smellie wrote most of the first edition, borrowing liberally from the authors of his era, including Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson.
published a facsimile of the 1st edition, even including age spots on the paper. was purchased by Swiss financier Jacob Safra in 1996 for $135 million, a fraction of its book value.
Edited by Hugh Chisholm in London and by Franklin Hooper in New York, the 11th edition was the first to be published substantially at one time, instead of volume by volume. Unfortunately, the Great Depression struck scarcely a month after the release of the 14th edition, and sales plummeted.
countered by offering a CD-ROM version of their product, although a CD-ROM could not generate the $500 to $600 in sales commissions that the print version did. Although this was not much of an increase over the 10th edition (which named 37 female contributors out of 1800 total), it was heralded publicly as a major advance in recognizing the contributions of women in learned circles. The poor sales of the war years brought the Britannica to the brink of bankruptcy.
However, English-composed encyclopedias appeared in the 18th century, beginning with Lexicon technicum, or An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences by John Harris (two volumes, published 1704 and 1710, respectively), which contained articles by such contributors as Isaac Newton. The fifth edition was a relatively minor revision of the fourth, which in turn was a relatively minor revision of the 3rd edition and its supplement. After securing sole-ownership rights in December 1816, Constable began work on a supplement to the 5th edition, even before the 5th edition had been released (1817).
It was edited by Macvey Napier, who was assisted by James Browne, LLD. The idea of Mortimer J.
Conversely, the 2nd edition describes the architecture of Noah s Ark in detail (illustrated with a copperplate engraving) and, following Bishop Ussher, includes a remarkably precise chronology for the Earth, beginning with its creation on 23 October 4004 B.C. In 1941, Sears offered the rights to the Britannica as a gift to the University of Chicago.
Finally, the Propædia s Outline of Knowledge was simplified for easier use. In the 1980s, Microsoft approached Britannica Inc. Gleig elaborated on the editorial purpose of the Britannica The 4th edition was begun in 1800 and completed in 1810, comprising 20 volumes with 16,033 pages and 531 plates engraved by Andrew Bell.
They conceived of the Britannica as a conservative reaction to the French Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot (published 1751–1766), which was widely viewed as heretical. It is the first bilingual product of Britannica. Former editor-in-chief Robert McHenry believes that Britannica failed to exploit its early advantages in the market for electronic encyclopedias.
Despite the unfailing support of the Sears Roebuck company, the Britannica almost went bankrupt over the next few years. McHenry believes these failures were due to a reluctance among senior management to fully embrace the new technology, caused largely by the overriding influence of the sales staff and management.
H. Hooper formed a partnership with Clarke, his brother George Clarke, and Walter Montgomery Jackson to sell the Britannica under the sponsorship of The Times, meaning that The Times would advertise the sale and lend its respectable name.
Wallace were widely praised in the 4th edition but, overall, the 4th edition was a minor revision of the 3rd, updated in its historical and biographical articles. The copyright of the material in the supplement to the 3rd edition was owned by Thomas Bonar, who asked 20,000 pounds sterling for it. Nevertheless, Gleig was sanguine about the errors of the 3rd edition, echoing William Smellie s sentiment in the 1st edition quoted above The first American encyclopedia, Dobson s Encyclopædia, was based almost entirely on the 3rd edition of the Britannica and published at nearly the same time (1788-1798), together with an analogous supplement (1803), by the Scottish-born printer, Thomas Dobson.
The senior managers at Britannica were confident in their control of the market and that their healthy profits would continue. His right to do so was upheld in an infamous decision by Justice Arthur Butler who argued Another successful pirate was Henry G.
Donald Hudson) and Ten Eventful Years, a summary of the national and international events surrounding World War II (1937-1946). Sears Roebuck published the Britannica until 1943. The supplemental material was licensed for the fourth edition for 100 pounds, but this copyright issue remained a problem through the 5th edition. Bonar was friendly to the article authors, however, and conceived the plan of paying them as well as the article reviewers, and of allowing them to retain copyright for separate publication of their work. After Andrew Bell died in 1809, his heirs botched the fifth edition; the dilatory and unqualified Dr.
Thomas Young s article on Egypt included the translation of the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone. Constable also produced the 6th edition, which was completed in May 1823. The management did not believe that a CD-ROM could adequately compete or supplement their business.
Recruited by Gleig, several illustrious authorities contributed to this edition, such as Dr. Britannica Inc.
Most early encyclopedias did not include biographies of living people and were written in Latin, although some encyclopedias were translated into English, such as De proprietatibus rerum (On the properties of things) (1240) by Bartholomeus Anglicus. Bill replied, Well, General, you know that universities do not have any money.
Thomas Thomson, who introduced the first usage of chemical symbols, and John Robinson, Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, who wrote several well-regarded articles on natural philosophy. Britannica Inc.
Masaryk and Elihu Root. In 1928, Rosenwald bought back the rights to the Britannica, leaving Cox as publisher. Luckily, the CEO of Sears Roebuck, philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, was devoted to the mission of the Britannica and bought its rights on 24 February 1920 from his friend Horace Everett Hooper for $1.25 million dollars.
The editors were J. This edition began the tradition of a contributors banquet to celebrate the edition s completion (5 June 1861). Many long articles were carried over from the 7th edition, but new articles by illustrious contributors were added.
When Dr. The Book of the Year continues to be published even today.
Robert Louis Stevenson, then 25, contributed an article about Robert Burns that, being unenthusiastic, was never printed. The supplement was completed in April 1824, consisting of 6 volumes with 4933 pages, 125 plates, 9 maps, 3 dissertations and 160 biographies, mainly of people who had died within the preceding 30 years.
This edition was the first to have an Index listing the 669 articles. This supplement had remarkably illustrious contributors. The articles were therefore divided into 30 classifications and a schedule for their revision worked out, such that every article would be checked at least twice a decade. Powell also conceived the Britannica s Book of the Year , in which a single volume would be released every year covering the developments of the previous year, particularly in rapidly changing fields such as science, technology, culture and politics.
The editor was Charles Maclaren. The editor was Dr.
Instead, Dr. At this time complete sets of the encyclopedia were priced between $1,500 and $2,200, and the product was considered part of a luxury brand with an impeccable reputation handed down from generation to generation.
After their deaths, the Benton Foundation continued to manage the Britannica until it was sold to Jacqui Safra in 1996. Despite the policy of continuous revision, the 14th edition of the Britannica gradually became outdated, much as its predecessors, the 9th and 11th editions. Adler felt that the Britannica should not merely serve as a reference work, but also aspire to be a categorization of omne scibile (everything knowable), to fulfill Francis Bacon s grand conception of epistemology.
Constable was friends with Sir Walter Scott, who contributed the Chivalry article. James Wilson did all of zoology, Dr.
The 3rd edition began the tradition (continued to this day) of dedicating the Britannica to the reigning British monarch, then King George III; calling him the Father of Your People, and enlightened Patron of Arts, Sciences and Literature , Gleig wished The 3rd edition is also famous for its bold article on Motion , which categorically rejects Isaac Newton s theory of gravitation. Although the crass marketing was criticized as inappropriate to the Britannica s history and scholarship, the unprecedented profits delighted the manager of The Times, Charles Frederic Moberly Bell, A & C Black had moved to London in 1895 and, on 9 May 1901, sold all the rights to the Britannica to Hooper and Jackson, then living in London. The sale of the Britannica to Americans has left a lingering resentment among some British citizens, especially when it is perceived that parochial American concerns are emphasized. Again under the sponsorship of The Times of London, the new owners quickly produced an 11-volume supplement to the 9th edition; the editors were Hugh Chisholm, Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, Arthur T.
Allen, who developed a photographic reproduction method for the Britannica and charged only half as much as Stoddart ($2.50 per volume). In the royal dedication penned on 10 December 1800, Dr.
Garvin in London and Franklin Henry Hooper in New York. Britannica Inc.
In recent years, digital versions of the Britannica have been developed, both online and on optical media. Parker) in that year has been preserved by the Bodleian Library (catalogued under #39899.c.1).
Hooper recognized the potential profit in the Britannica and, again in 1896, learned that both the Britannica and The Times of London were in financial straits. Hooper and his energetic advertising manager, Henry Haxton, introduced many innovative sales methods: full-page advertisements in The Times, testimonials from celebrities, buying on installment plans, and a long series of so called final offers .
The owner of Sears, philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, was friends with Horace Hooper and enthusiastic about the Britannica s promise; he single-handedly saved the Britannica from bankruptcy several times over the next fifteen years. By contrast, Dobson s work had various corrections and amendments for American readers. Generally, the nineteenth-century articles (those of the 4th-11th editions) were longer and more scholarly than their twentieth-century counterparts, those of the 12th-14th editions and the current 15th editions.
All the maps of this edition are found in a single 195-page article, Geography . The second edition improved upon the 1st, but still had notable omissions and errors. Powell identified and fixed a key vulnerability of Britannica, namely, that its sales (and, hence, the company s income) fluctuated strongly over the life-cycle of an edition.
Although Sears smaller set was successful in 1915-1916, sales dropped significantly when the United States entered World War I. The 11th edition employed 35 named female contributors, out of 1500 total (2.3%). The sales personnel earned commissions from door-to-door selling of the print encyclopedias, which McHenry believes led to decisions about the distribution and pricing of the electronic products being driven by the desires of the sales personnel, rather than market conditions and customer expectations. .
Being in the public domain, the complete text is freely available online. After a heated legal dispute and all-too-public corporate wrangling over ownership of the Britannica (1908-1909) , Hooper bought out Walter Jackson, becoming the sole owner of the Britannica. Stoddart, who employed a spy in the Britannica s own printshop, Neill and Company, in Edinburgh.
Dawson), the Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas (published 1942, and prepared by G. Earlier encyclopedias did not maintain a continuous editorial staff, but rather assembled one just prior to beginning a new edition.
Traill fell ill, he was assisted by a young Scottish philosopher, John Downes. Mathematical diagrams were made from woodcuts. The 7th edition went on sale for £24 per set.
Thomas Stewart Traill, a professor of medical jurisprudence at Edinburgh University. Presumably, this recent increase reflects the introduction of efficient electronic indexing, since the size of the encyclopedia has remained nearly constant at approximately 40 million words from 1954 to the present and far less than 40% of the encyclopedia has changed from 1985 to 2007. Under the editorship of Philip W.
Again taken together with the 11th edition, the new volumes became known as the 13th edition, which maintained the Britannica s tradition of illustrious contributors: Harry Houdini, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Sigmund Freud, Henry Ford, Leon Trotsky, Ferdinand Foch, Gustav Stresemann, Thomas G.
