Burglary
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Burglary. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the crime of breaking church, or the into an inhabited house, a night with the intengates of a town by tion of committing a felony. In the burglary is punished by United States, law is gen- State laws, but the common erally followed. Some States include breaking into shops, offices, warehouses, factories, and meeting houses as burglary. An Act of Congress of 1825 expressly includes breaking into boats and to commit a felony vessels with intent . deed done in In some States the same the daytime is defined as burglary in The night is the the second degree. time, between one hour after sunset and hour before sunrise, or when the feaone cannot be clearly distures of a man cerned. In the United States, burglary servitude for is never punished by penal life, but long sentences are frequently imposed. BÜRGLEN (bürg'len), a village of of Uri, about Switzerland, in the canton a mile from Altorf; is the traditional Tell. The supbirthplace of William house is now posed site of the patriot's in 1522, occupied by a chapel, erected are represented occ upon the walls of which scenes from his certain well-known history.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
in law, the breaking and entering the house of another with intent to commit a crime, particularly to steal. In a wider sense the term applies to the criminal entry of any building. The penalty is usually from five to ten years' imprisonment. North Carolina makes burglary punishable by imprisonment or death. The slightest breakage, as of a window pane, or the removal of the smallest portion of the house, with evident intent to enter, constitutes an act of burglary. The forcible entrance of a foot or hand is likewise proof of intent to commit burglary. See Arson
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts define burglary by its common-law elements: breaking and entering, a dwelling, and above all night, which Collier's in 1921 fixed at "one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise, or when the features of a man cannot be clearly discerned." Nearly every American state has since abandoned those elements, largely following the Model Penal Code of 1962: no breaking is required, entry by an unlocked door or open window counts, and the offence is graded instead by whether the building was a dwelling and whether anyone was inside, with daytime and night-time entries often treated alike. The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports now count burglary as unlawful entry of any structure with intent to commit a felony or theft, force or no force. Aiton's note in 1910 that "North Carolina makes burglary punishable by imprisonment or death" also no longer holds: capital punishment in the United States is confined to murder, and no one is executed for a burglary in which nobody was killed.
Written for this edition, 2026.