Arsenal
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Arsenal. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a place appointed for the making, repairing, keeping and issuing of military stores. An arsenal of the first class should include factories for guns and gun-carriages, small-arms, smallarms ammunition, harness, saddlery, tents and powder; a laboratory and large storehouses. In arsenals of the second class, workshops take the place of the factories. The Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, England, which manufactures warlike implements and stores for the English army and navy, was formed about 1720, and comprises factories, laboratories, etc., for the manufacture and final fitting up of almost every kind of arms and ammunition. Great quantities of military and naval stores are kept at the dockyards of Chatham, Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Pembroke. In France there are various arsenals or depots of war material at L'Orient, Rochefort, Cherbourg, Mézières, Toulouse, etc.; the great naval arsenals are Brest and Toulon. The chief German arsenals were at Spandau, Strasburg, and Dantzig, that at the first-mentioned place having been the great center of the military manufactories. The chief Austrian arsenal was the immense establishment at Vienna, which includes gun factory, laboratory, small-arms and carriage factories, etc. Russia had her principal arsenal at Petrograd with supplementary factories of arms and ammunition at Briansk, Kiev, and elsewhere. In Italy Turin is the center of the military factories. The principal arsenals of the United States are at Pittsburgh (Pa.); Augusta (Ga.); Benecia (Cal.); Columbia (Tenn.); Fort Monroe (Va.); Frankford (Pa.); Indianapolis (Ind.); Augusta (Me.); New York (N. Y.); Rock Island (III.); San Antonio (Tex.); Watertown (Mass.); and Watervliet (N. Y.). There were also powder depots at St. Louis (Mo.), and Dover (N. J.); a noted armory at Springfield (Mass.), and ordnance proving grounds at Sandy Hook (N. J.) and Aberdeen (Md.).
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a storehouse or factory for making, repairing; or keeping government arms, ordnance, and munitions of war. Governments very frequently purchase guns, bayonets, sabres, and other needful articles from contractors; yet all considerable governments maintain arsenals. The chief arsenals of the United States are at Allegheny, Pa.; Augusta, Ga.; Benecia, Cal.; Columbia, Tenn.; Fort Monroe, Va.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Kennebec, Me.; New York , N. Y.; Rock Island, Ill.; San Antonio, Tex.; Watertown, Mass.; and Watervliet, N. Y., with powder depots at St. Louis, Mo.; and Dover, N. J. There is a noted armory at Springfield, Mass., and a proving ground for cannon at Sandy Hook, N. J. Of foreign arsenals, the most noted is that at Woolwich, England, founded in 1720. The French arsenals are at Cherbourg, Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, and Toulon. There are German arsenals at Spandau, Cologne, and Dantzig. The chief Austrian arsenal is at Vienna; that of Russia at St. Petersburg, and of Italy at Turin.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both lists have largely dissolved. The Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, which Collier's called the source of "almost every kind of arms and ammunition" for Britain in 1921, stopped making munitions in the 1960s and is now a riverside housing district with its own Elizabeth line station; the Springfield Armory the 1910 account calls "noted" closed in 1968 and is a National Historic Site. Of the American arsenals named, Rock Island and Watervliet still manufacture for the Army, while Frankford, Watertown and the Sandy Hook proving ground are gone, their ordnance work having moved to Aberdeen in Maryland. The word itself has outgrown the building: since 1945 "arsenal" most often means a nuclear stockpile, counted in warheads rather than gun-carriages and saddlery.
Written for this edition, 2026.