More than one of these 7 encyclopedias carries each of the following subjects — but every one of them treats it in a sentence or two and then moves on. They are gathered here so the different accounts can sit side by side.
Arno
Aiton's Encyclopedia: a river of Italy. Like the Tiber, it rises in the Apennines. After a course of 140 miles, it empties into the Mediterranean halfway from Rome to Genoa. The ancient city of Pisa, with its leaning tower, is situated near the mouth of the river. Florence, with its wonderful bridges, cathedrals, and treasures of art, is situated in the fruitful upper valley of the Arno. The valley of the Tiber is the native seat of Roman law and is the home of the Roman Church; but Italian art, literature, and nationality sprang to life in the charming Val d'Arno. 2026 Editor's Note: The Arno turned destroyer in November 1966, when it burst its banks and buried Florence in mud and oil, damaging thousands of artworks and books. Volunteers from around the world — the ' mud angels ' — rushed to save them, in one of history's great cultural rescues. Downstream, Pisa's leaning tower was finally stabilized in a famous engineering effort completed in 2001. (Ed: BR 2026-06-08)
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a river of Italy, which rises in the Etruscan Apennines, makes a sweep to the south and then trends westward, divides Florence into two parts, washes Pisa, and falls, 4 miles below it, into the Tuscan Sea, after a course of about 130 miles.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Arquebus
Aiton's Encyclopedia: spelled also Harquebus. The earliest form of the musket. An earlier firearm was set off by means of a match applied to the priming. It was difficult for a soldier to apply his match and to take aim at the same time. The arquebus added an improvement suggested, it is said, by the arbalest or crossbow. The burning match was brought down to the priming by pulling a trigger when aim had been secured. This was about 1476. The Germans are credited with the invention of a bent stock, which enabled the musketeer to take better aim. These old muskets were exceedingly heavy, clumsy affairs. When engaged in battle, the musketeers advanced to the front, rested their arquebuses in crotches carried for the purpose, discharged their pieces, and then retired behind their comrades, the pikemen, and reloaded their guns with infinite labor. See Firearms
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a hand-gun; a snoei of firearm resembling a musket. tly used. It was fired from a forked rest, and sometimes cocked by a wheel, and carried a ball that weighed nearly two ounces. A larger kind used in fortresses carried a heavier shot.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Arrack
Aiton's Encyclopedia: an oriental drink corresponding to western whiskey. It is made by fermenting and then distilling the juice of the cocoanut, date, and other palms. It is also made from rice by malting, fermenting, and distilling, as for whiskey. The genuine arrack of Ceylon and India is made from palm juice only. In Jamaica it is made from fermented rice liquor. The liquor obtained by the first distillation is strengthened by passing it through the still a second and a third time. Arrack contains on an average about 52 per cent of alcohol. It is used throughout a greater extent of territory, and by more people, than whiskey, being well known to the nations of South America , Africa, India, the Pacific islands, and in the East generally, including Japan, where it is known as saki. It is also imported into Europe. See Alcohol 2026 Editor's Note: Arrack still flows across South and Southeast Asia — Sri Lanka's coconut arrack , Indonesia's Batavia arrack — and holds a place in cocktail history: it was the fiery base of the original 18th-century 'punch,' the drink whose name comes from its five ingredients and which gave the world the whole idea of the mixed party bowl. (Ed: BR 2026-06-21)
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a term used, in the countries to which the Arabs have penetrated, for distilled spirits, especially those distilled from rice and the sap of palm trees.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Arrow
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a missile weapon, designed to be propelled by the impulse communicated by the snapping of the string of a bow, temporarily bent into an angular form, back to its normal state of rest in a straight line. To make the wound it inflicts more deadly, and prevent its being easily pulled out, it is barbed at the tip, and often poisoned, while at the other extremity it is f feathered, to make it move more directly forward.
Aiton's Encyclopedia: . See Archery
Covered by Collier's New Encyclopedia and Aiton's Encyclopedia
Artemis
Collier's New Encyclopedia: an ancient Greek divinity, identified with the Roman Diana. She was the daughter of Zeus (Jupiter) and Leto or Latona, and was the twin sister of Apollo, born in the island of Delos. She is variously represented as a huntress, with bow and arrows; as a goddess of the nymphs in a chariot drawn by four stags; and as the moon goddess, with the crescent of the moon above her forehead. She was a maiden divinity, never conquered by love, except when Endymion made her feel its power. She demanded the strictest chastity from her worshippers, and she is represented as having changed Actæon into a stag, and caused him to be torn in pieces by his own dogs, because he had secretly watched her as she was bathing. The Artemisia was a festival celebrated in her honor at Delphi.
Aiton's Encyclopedia: ar'te-mis. See Diana
Covered by Collier's New Encyclopedia and Aiton's Encyclopedia
Asbury Park
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a city and popular Popular summer resort in Monmouth co., N. J.; on the Atlantic Ocean, 6 miles S. of Long Branch, and on several railroads. It adjoins Ocean Grove on the N., being separated from it by Wesley Lake. It was founded in 1869, and given a city charter in 1897. The city contains a large number of hotels and boardinghouses, many attractive summer dwellings, electric lights and street railways, National banks, and several periodicals. It has trolley connections with a cluster of summer resorts extending down to Atlantic Highlands, and is rapidly becoming nearly as popular a winter as a summer resort. Asbury Park and Ocean Grove were originally laid out by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church for camp meetings and other purposes. Pop. (1910) 10,150; (1920), 12,400.
Aiton's Encyclopedia: New Jersey , a popular summer resort on the Atlantic coast, six miles south of Long Branch. It was laid out in 1869 by the Methodist Episcopal church for camp-meeting grounds. Winter population, 5,000. Summer population, five to ten times that number. Named for Bishop Francis Asbury (1745-1816), the first American bishop of the denomination. See New Jersey 2026 Editor's Note: Asbury Park's real fame came from music: its boardwalk and the Stone Pony club launched Bruce Springsteen , whose 1973 debut album was titled Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. After decades of decline the faded resort has enjoyed a lively revival, drawing new crowds to the shore Bishop Asbury's Methodists first laid out. (Ed: BR 2026-06-03)
Covered by Collier's New Encyclopedia and Aiton's Encyclopedia