Ark
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Ark. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a chest, coffer, or large vessel. For an account of the ark constructed by Noah, which saved himself and family from the deluge and landed them at Mt. Ararat, the reader is referred to the biblical account contained in the sixth chapter of Genesis. The name " Noah's Ark " is given to a toy boat and a collection of wooden people and animals, representing the company that went aboard the ark at the time of the flood. The ark of the covenant was a sacred chest of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, which was kept in the holiest place of the Jewish tabernacle, and, when completed, of the temple. It contained the tables of stone on which were written the ten commandments. It was provided with rings through which staves might be thrust to carry it, and was surmounted by two winged cherubim. The high priest alone was permitted to come face to face with the ark in its secret chamber. In time of war, it was carried to the battle field. During the stormy times attendant on the captivity of Israel, the ark was lost, doubtless forever. See Solomon
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a chest or coffer for the safekeeping of any valuable thing; a depository. The large floating vessel in which Noah and his family were preserved during the deluge. The Ark of the Covenant, in the synagogue of the Jews, was the chest or vessel in which the tables of the law were preserved. This was a small chest or coffer, three feet nine inches in length, two feet three inches in breadth and the same in height, in which were contained the various sacred articles. It was made of shittim wood, overlaid within and without with gold and was covered with the mercy seat, called also the propitiatory, as the Septuagint expresses it, that is, the lid or cover of propitiation; because, in the typical language of Scripture, those sins which are forgiven are said to be covered.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both entries treat the flood ark as a matter for the reader to settle with Genesis, and Aiton's is right that the ark of the covenant was "lost, doubtless forever" — it has still not been found, though the church at Axum in Ethiopia continues to claim it. What has moved is the comparative picture: cuneiform flood stories, above all the Babylonian tale of Utnapishtim and Atrahasis, are now standard reading beside Genesis, and in 2014 Irving Finkel published a Babylonian "Ark Tablet" whose boat is a giant round coracle of rope and bitumen rather than a ship. Repeated twentieth-century expeditions to Mt. Ararat, and claims for the Durupınar formation nearby, have produced nothing that scholars accept as a vessel. Meanwhile the nursery toy Aiton's mentions has been built at full size: the Ark Encounter in Kentucky, opened 2016, is a 510-foot timber hull sized to the Genesis cubits.
Written for this edition, 2026.