Knight
Knight names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Knight AUSTIN MELVIN American naval officer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
AUSTIN MELVIN American naval officer, born at Ware, , an Mass., in 1854. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1873, and was commanding ensign in the following year. He served on the Asiatic Station in 1874-1875, and from 1876 to 1878, was at the Naval academy. He followed this with service on the European and South Atlantic stations, and from 1885 to 1889 was in charge of the ordnance proving ground at . After additional service at sea, he was Annapolis made superintendent of the Naval Academy from 1892 to 1895. During the Spanish- American War, he commanded several vessels, engaged in the blockade of Cuba. From 1898 to 1901 he was head of the department of seamanship at the Naval Academy. From 1904 to 1907 he was president of the special board on naval ordnance , and from 1913 to 1917 he was commandant and president of the Naval War College. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Asiatic Fleet with the rank of admiral, in April, 1917. He retired from active service in December, 1918. He wrote "Modern Seaman- D ship" (1901), and contributed many arouted man ticles to magazines.
Knight a man admitted to a tain degree of military rank
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a man admitted to a tain degree of military rank. Also one cerwho holds a certain dignity conferred by the sovereign or his representative, and entitling the possessor to the title of Sir prefixed to his name. The dignity differs from that of a baronet in not being hereditary . Wives of knights are legally entitled to the designation of Dame, but are more commonly addressed as Lady.
Knight nit. See Chivalry
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
nit. See Chivalry
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's definition of 1921 still holds in outline: a knighthood is conferred by the sovereign, carries the title "Sir," and unlike a baronetcy is not hereditary. What has shifted is who receives it and what "Dame" means. The Order of the British Empire, founded in 1917, admitted women as Dames in their own right, and today that is the ordinary sense of the word rather than Collier's "wives of knights"; modern knighthoods go overwhelmingly to civilians — scientists, actors, musicians, athletes, civil servants — rather than to men of "military rank," and foreign nationals may be given honorary knighthoods without the use of "Sir." As for Austin M. Knight, who had just retired when Collier's wrote, he died in 1927, but his "Modern Seamanship" of 1901 outlived him by decades in successive revised editions as a standard American text.
Written for this edition, 2026.