Encyclopædia Britannica

Ten editions · 1771–1860 · 41,842 topics · 211,481 articles

ELECTRICITY

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Each topic wears its history: cell height is article size, colour is what the edition did to the text. Electricity grows tenfold, is stereotyped through the 1820s, then rewritten from scratch for the 7th edition.
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Map of the encyclopædia’s world · Present in all eight editions · Treatise-scale texts · Most rewritten · Dropped & merged

New topics by edition

2nd ed. (1778–83) · 3rd ed. (1797) · 4th ed. (1810) · 5th ed. (1815) · 6th ed. (1823) · 7th ed. (1842) · 8th ed. (1853–60)