Glasgow
Glasgow names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Glasgow the metropolis of Scotland
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the metropolis of Scotland. It ranks next to London in the United Kingdom . It is situated on both banks of the Clyde at the head of deep water navigation. In 1769 James Watt surveyed the river and found but two feet of water. By narrowing the channel and dredging, however, a passage 400 feet wide and 21 feet deep has been created. Large ships from all parts of the world lie at the wharves of Glasgow. Smaller ships for the coast trade crowd the channel. Little ships dart up and down the stream with passengers or loads of goods designed for shipment. The river is spanned by a number of bridges. Some consist of stone arches, others are of iron. There are two suspension bridges. Tunnels have been constructed beneath the river to accommodate a portion of the enormous traffic. The city possesses a series of fine parks. The most celebrated, though not the most beautiful, is Glasgow Green, facing the river. The various greens and squares contain statues of Queen Victoria, James Watt, Robert Burns, Dr. Livingstone, Sir John Moore, Walter Scott, Wellington, etc. There are a number of fine buildings, including the bank of Scotland, the Royal Exchange built in Corinthian style, the United Free Church College, the Stock Exchange , and immense railroad stations, but the most celebrated building is the old cathedral, dating from 1133. It is a stately edifice, now used as a Presbyterian church. It possesses a fine crypt with graceful arches. The crypt measures 125 feet in length. It is considered the masterpiece of Scottish architecture. It figures in Walter Scott's novel of Rob Roy. The University of Glasgow occupies a magnificent pile of new buildings on a commanding site near the city. Its library is especially rich in volumes and old manuscripts illuminated beautifully by the hands of industrious monks. The city obtains its water supply from Loch Katrine thirty-four miles distant. When the system was ready for use Queen Victoria turned on the water in person. The supply is 50,000,000 gallons a day. The street railways are owned by the city. Fares are regulated according to distance. It costs but a cent for a short ride, though the cost of a long ride exceeds the five cent fare customary in the United States . American students of municipal affairs consider Glasgow one of the best governed cities in the world. The early wealth of the city was derived from trade with France. Cargoes of herrings were exchanged for brandy and salt. An extensive trade was opened up later with the West Indies. The early merchant princes of the city were known as the tobacco lords. When cotton took the place largely of wool for clothing Glasgow became an important center of the cotton industry. Enormous quantities of raw material were imported, converted into cloth, then shipped abroad again. Coal and iron are at hand in great abundance. Enormous smelters with their tall chimneys stand out against the horizon in every direction. Shipbuilding has long been an important industry. Glasgow is still the most noted shipbuilding center in the world. When British oak was exhausted, pine was obtained from Maine and Georgia. Large quantities of ship timber are still purchased in Scandinavia. Glasgow led off in the building of iron ships. Clyde built steamers are noted the world over. The population at the beginning of the present century was 760,423--one-fourth of all Scotland. In 1908 the population was returned at 860,000. Goods to the value of $70,000,000 are imported annually. The exports amount to about $92,000,000. The secret of Glasgow's prosperity is told in the following extract from a United States Consular Report: Not a vessel entered the harbor during the year 1906 flying the flag of the United States. The records for six years past disclose the astonishing fact that while 1,130 loaded ships sailed from Glasgow to the United States, not one of them carried an American flag. The local market value of the goods carried on these vessels to the United States in the six years amounted to $37,016,949. This does not include an average annual passenger list of 25,000 persons. As the value of the importations from the United States into Glasgow exceeds the exports, the foreign vessels leaving this port carried freight valued at over $37,000,000 and returned with cargoes the estimated cost of which in America was no less than $50,000,000. Glasgow has 110 separate firms and corporations owning steam and sailing ships engaged in the foreign and coastwise trade. In some instances a single company owns as many as 30 vessels, the tonnage of many of these being over 8,000 tons. The number of local shipping offices and agents engaged in extending the foreign commerce is 569. The practical benefits of a merchant marine, and how it has aided in the development of a new industry in Glasgow during the past fifteen years, until it has outstripped its older rivals in the United States, is shown in the case of a well-known sewing-machine company. Its capital is English and its active management is in the hands of able and experienced Americans. This plant was built in the suburbs of Glasgow fifteen years ago. To-day it gives employment to 11,000 people, and during the past year it manufactured 1,000,000 sewing machines. These machines were sold in Central and South America, on the Continent of Europe, and all over the Far East. They reached these desirable markets through the medium of Glasgow's merchant vessels. This was an advantage its rivals in the United States did not enjoy, and hence during these years have missed the sale of millions of machines. With equal shipping facilities--direct lines and cheap transportation--and having all the raw material in America, the Glasgow plant could not undersell the sewing-machine companies of the United States in the foreign markets of the world. See Clyde
Glasgow UNIVERSITY OF, a university of Scotland
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
UNIVERSITY OF, a university of Scotland. It was founded in 1450 by Bishop Turnbull, and is, both in respect to its age and for the number of its students, the second university of Scotland. Throughout the many years of its existence it has gradually acquired much property from grants made by royalty as well as from gifts by private individuals. James I. of England issued a new charter to the institution. Parliament reorganized it by special acts in 1858 and 1889. In 1864 the buildings then occupied by the university were sold and new buildings were erected overlooking Kelvin River. They were opened in 1870 and many additions have been made since then. The university is now a corporation, consisting of a chancellor, vice-chancellor, rector, principal, dean of faculties, professors, and students. The property of the institution is administered by the university court, consisting of the rector, the principal, the lord provost of Glasgow, and various assessors representing both the university and the city. This body also appoints and regulates professors and acts as a court of appeal from the senate. The latter body consists of the principal and professors, who regulate teaching and discipline. The general council, consisting of a number of exofficio members and of all masters and doctors, meets twice a year for the purpose of revising the business of the university, elects the chancellor, four of the assessors, and, together with the general council of Aberdeen University, one member to Parliament. The Chancellor, who in 1920 was the Earl of Rosebery, is elected for life. The rector, whose duties are entirely honorary, is elected triennially by the students. He is usually a man distinguished in politics or letters, and the office in 1920 was held by Rt. Hon. A. Bonar Law. At times this office is conferred on foreigners, as in 1915, when the students elected President Poincaré of France. The university has faculties of arts, science, medicine and surgery, divinity and law. There are many scholarships, exhibitions and fellowships, some of great age and considerable value. The university has an important library of about 250,000 volumes, botanical gardens, an observatory, many special libraries and collections, the most famous of the latter being the Hunterian collection of coins, medals, and anatomical preparations. Among the graduates and teachers of the university are to be found some of the most Since 1893 illustrious Scotch names. women are admitted and in that year Queen Margaret College for Women became part of the university. In 1919- 1920 there were 164 teachers and 3,900 students. The principal was Sir Donald MacAllister.
Glasgow a city of Lanark co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Lanark co., Scotland; on the river Clyde, 42 miles W. of Edinburgh; the most important and populous manufacturing and commercial city of Scotland. Area with extensions is now (1920) 19.183 square miles. The city contains many public buildings, among which the most celethe cathedral of St. Mungo brated are , a splendid specimen of Gothic architecture, begun in 1123; the Court House, Royal Exchange, Traders' Hall, Town Hall, and the Royal Infirmary. It contains a celebrated university, founded in 1450. There are besides the Anderson College, the College of Physicians, Mechanics' Institute, and the Mitchell Library (1911), the largest public reference library in Scotland. The manufactures include cottons, bandana handkerchiefs, muslins, soap, cordage, flint-glass, and cudbear. Glasgow is also noted for its ship-building and engineering establishments, chemical works, type-foundries, and almost every kind of production in the mechanical arts. The for vessels drawing 7 Clyde is navigable or 8 feet of water; and the wharves and docks afford extensive accommodation for vessels of every description. The origin of Glasgow is generally attributed to St. Mungo, who is said to have here founded, in 560, a bishopric, afterward erected was here into an archiepiscopal see. It that Watt first commenced to improve the steam engine; and on the Clyde, the "Comet," the first boat in Europe successfully propelled by steam, 1812. Pop. (1918) was launched in 1,111,428.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's boast in 1910 that Glasgow "is still the most noted shipbuilding centre in the world" no longer holds: the Clyde's yards closed one after another through the 1960s and 70s, and the surviving commercial work is now largely confined to BAE Systems' warship yards at Govan and Scotstoun and the Ferguson yard at Port Glasgow. The Singer sewing-machine plant praised here for employing 11,000 people at Clydebank shut in 1980. The population Aiton put at 860,000 and rising peaked above a million in the 1930s, then fell as slums were cleared and families moved to new towns; the city proper now holds roughly 620,000, though the wider region is far larger. Loch Katrine still supplies the taps, the medieval cathedral still stands, and the municipal tramway Aiton admired ran until 1962; the city has since rebuilt its reputation on culture and services, hosting the 1990 European City of Culture year, the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the COP26 climate summit in 2021.
Written for this edition, 2026.