ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 221, 16 March 1912, Page 4

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA

THE BOOK OF THE HOUR. FORTY MILLION WORDS-COST £230,000. An up-to-date work of forty million words that cost £230,000 before a single volume was printed, is, surely, one that is deserving of more than passing attention. Such is the new edition of the' Encyclopaedia Britannica, of which, in a short space of time, some 50,000 copies have already been sold, amongst the purchasers being King George V., the Emperor |of Russia, the German Emperor, the King of Spain, the Emperor of Japan, the President of the United States, and the President of the French Republic. Our own King, , the present reviewer .learns, took a special interest in the work and ordered that his own particular set should be bound in half-green morocco with white sides, to match the other bcioks in the Royal Library at Windsor. Reference to the binding of the book—,if one can refer to 28 volumes as "a" book—leads one, at the outset, to remark upon a most important innovation that has been carried out by the Cambridge University Press in connection with the new edition, It is the printing of such, a voluminous work on India paper. Previously India paper was used mainly with the printing of Bibles, and .only some 200 tons a year was produced in England. The first order of the Cambridge Pre??, in connection, with the eleventh edition of the "Britannica." t amounted to 2000 tons, and, as that I could not be supplied in England, foreign j markets had to be drawn upon. The history of India paper dates back to 1841, when an Oxford graduate returning from the Far East, brought back with him a quantity of very fine thin pajjer. This he presented to the Oxford 'University Press, and during the follow- j ing year it was used for printing 24 copies of the smallest Bible then in existence. The original source of produc-! ■tion was not easily discoverable, so attempts were made to imitate the paper, and it was found that by a certain process a remarkably fine paper could be produced from rag material—a paper that, while it was of astonishing thinness, was at the same time very tough and pf sufficient capacity for printing on 'both sides. By the use of this paper the cumbrous tomes of the old •'Britannica," three inches in thickness and weighing 81bs 90z., have been made to jrive place to volumes only one inch thick and weighing only 2%lbs. Moreover, owing to the size of the volumes it has been made possible to liave a flexible binding, whioh enables the reader to double back the book at any page and hold it ip one hand. He can thus, instead of bending over a table, as with the old editions, take the volumes to an easy chair by the fireside and read them comfortably over a pipe or a cigar. One result of this is that while there need be no hesitation in consulting a volume on even a most trivial detail, the work has now become a book to read. It is a remarkable improvement, .and will lead many a man of moderate means and moderate house-room to buy the'new edition.

The second point that strikes the reviewer is that the, eleventh edition is a new and up-to-date work, and that for the first time in 150 years an entire edition has 'been 'sfiied simultaneously from the Press. Thus while the ninth edition, issued by A. and C. Black, took fourteen years to produce, the present edition made its complete appearance in Janilary-May, 1911. It should be mentioned that the copyright and production of the Encyclopaedia, recently in the hands of the London Times, has now been taken over entirely by the University of Cambridge. Thus two important objects have been gained. In the first place, the famous work now has behind it all the "mana" of a great English university; and in the second place, the work appears before the public with commercial aims made subservient to those of sound learning and profound scholarship. The Times undoubtedly did a great work in popularising and making accessible to men of moderate means the Encyclopaedia Eritannica; but it must, nevertheless, be some satisfaction to know that the foremost work of reference used by the people of the Englishspeaking world has now its origin and abiding-place in one of the Empire's greatest educational institutions. Moreover, the work has practically' been re-written from end to end, by a legion of the foremost men of science, letters, travel and religion in the civilised world. There are lengthy and up-to-date articles upon the most interesting j subjects contributed by such men as Lord Rayleigh, Professor Meyer,, Sir Arthur Evans, Sir William Crookes, Sir Harry Johnston,' Mr. Edmund Gosse, Sir Philip Watts, Sir Robert Giflfen and Sir Archibald Geikie. New Zealand, too, our readers will be pleased to learn, holds an honored place in this galaxy of modern genius and talent, for one of the principal contributors was not so long ago a pupil in the New Zealand schools. Thie reference is, of course, to Professor Ernest Rutherford (now a Fellow of the Royal Society), who writes the article on radio-activity. One could give many examples of excellent articles that the work contains; but as there are in all 40,000 articles, the task would require a special notice, and oven then it would be difficult to give an adequate idea of the magnitude and importance of this great publication. Suffice it to say that every subject under the sun from ancient Timbuktu to modern telegraphy, seems to be treated, ■ and treated with- a master hand. The article on Timbuktu—described as "the meeting place of the camel and the canoe" and as "the port of the Sudan in the Sahara"—is a particularly interesting one to the general reader, while that on telegraphy—by John Ambrose Fleming, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and Pender Professor of Electrical Engineering in the University of London—is an exhaustive treatise dealing with tihe whole field of operations from the days when the crude germ of the idea struck the human mind, down to the present time in which the Marconis and the Mawsons can almost speak to each other, through the ether, from the ends of the earth. Indeed, it may be claimed without dispute that the new Encyclopaedia covers a wider range of human knowledge than any other work that has ever issued from the British printing press, while its arrangement and literary excellence are a tribute alike to editors and contributors. To the man in the country the Encyclopaedia offers a vast field of informative reading. In science, history, law, medical research, commerce, industry, engineering, military matters, sport, and a host of other subjects the work stands out as one of great value. And the practical side of everyday life is not lost sight of by any means. In other words, there is no tendency to sacrifice "applied" knowledge to the predominating claims of "pure" knowledge. Thus the carpenter will find that the new edition is .remarkably full in its treatment of his subject from the practical point of view. IFor instance, every known method of joining wood together and erecting and bracing framework is described and illustrated. The article on motor vehicles is another instance of the eminently practical. It gives such a thorough account of practical design as will enable the purchaser ol a motor car, realising that every motor vehicle is compromise, to balance one construc-

tive feature against another,,in view of bis requirements and the amount lie is prepared to spend. There is even a group of articles concerning the hous, and under the headings of. jjrickwotk, masonry, concrete, mortar, plastering, carpentry,, joinery,, glazing, paSnter-worf,. wall coverings, roofs, staircase, heating,' ventilation and sewerage he finds an enormous amount of information, illustrated in the most practical fashion. In. short, the possessor of the new Encyclopaedia Britannica has at Ms' disposal, the equivalent of euch a library as he could not liopu to collect, at all events in New Zealand, except at a. Viry great > cost. '