Count
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Count. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a title of nobility in most of the continental states of Europe, equivalent in rank to the British earl and the German graf. Under the first two races of the Frank kings, the title was given to officers of various degrees, and was at first attached to the office, and not the person; but in the progress of time, when feudalism had introduced inheritance instead of election as a fixed rule in succession, it became subject to the same law as the higher titles of kings and dukes, and conferred hereditary privileges on its possessor. The term count has in most of the states where it is in use degenerated into a mere title, to which no political importance is attached. Though the title has never been introduced into England, the wives of earls have from the earliest period of its history been designated as countesses.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
in spinning, the number given to thread or yarn to indicate the fineness. A "hank" of cotton contains 840 yards; when 60 such hanks are required for a pound, the thread is No. 60; if 80 hanks make a pound, it is No. 80, etc. The count of spun silk is made in the same way. The count of reel silk is based upon the number of thousands of yards to the ounce; the count of worsted yarn, upon the number of hanks, each containing 560 yards, to the pound. The count of woollen yarns varies, but is usually based upon the number of thousands of yards to the pound. The count of linen yarn is based upon the number of "leas," each containing 300 yards, to the pound.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 that count had "degenerated into a mere title, to which no political importance is attached" — and within a few years even the title went. Austria abolished nobility outright in 1919, Weimar Germany made "Graf" a mere part of the legal surname the same year, Russia's counts had been swept away in 1917, and Italy's republic stopped recognising titles in 1946; today a European count is a courtesy of custom, except in surviving monarchies such as Belgium, Spain and Sweden. Aiton's 1910 account of yarn counts is still broadly usable — the 840-yard cotton hank and the 560-yard worsted hank remain in trade use as Ne and NeK — but the industry's standard measure is now the SI unit tex (grams per 1,000 metres), with decitex used for man-made filament in place of the older denier.
Written for this edition, 2026.