Madras
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Madras. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a province of British India, occupying with its dependencies and Mysore, the entire S. of the peninsula of India, surrounded on every the N. by the sea, bounded on side except the N. by Bengal and the Central Provinces, the territory of Hyderabad and Mysore; area, 142,330 square miles; pop. about 43,000,000. It comprises 22 Brit ish districts, 3 agencies under special administration, and 5 native states, viz., Travancore, Cochin, Pudukota, Banganapalli, and Sandúr. The three chief rivers, Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri, rise in the western Ghats and enter the Bay of Bengal. The climate is varied; in the Nilgiri Hills it is temperate, on the Malabar coast the monsoon brings an excessive rainfall, while in the central table-land the rainfall is low and the heat almost unendurable. The soil is sandy along the coast, but there are many fertile districts; while iron, copper, lead, and coal are found in considerable quantities. There are extensive forests in the presidency, yielding teak, ebony, and other valuable timber trees. The principal vegetable products are rice, wheat, barley, maize, and other grains; sugar-cane, areca, yam, plantain, tamarind, jack-fruit, mango, melons, cocoanuts, ginger, r, turmeric, pepper, tobacco, oil seeds, coffee and cotton. Irrigation has been employed with excellent results. The wild animals are the elephant, tiger, chetah, jackal, wild hog, etc. The Madras administration authority is vested in a governor, with a council of three members appointed by the king, of whom one is the commander-in-chief. For legislative purposes the council is increased by nominations of the governor. In each of the 22 districts there is a collector and a sessions judge. The chief educational institution is the Madras University, an examining body granting degrees in arts, law, medicine, and engineering. The imports amount to about $30,000,000, and the exports to $60,000,- 000 annually. Capital, Madras, situated on the E. or Coromandel coast of India, 835 miles S. W. of Calcutta, and 790 miles S. E. by rail of Bombay; has Fort St. George (1639), Government House (the governor's residence); churches and chapels of all denominations; the cathedral of St. George's; Presidency College; the central institution of the Free Church of Scotland's Mission; the Medical and Civil Engineering Colleges; a flourishing school of art; a central museum; public statues to Lord Cornwallis, Sir T. Munro, and General Neill. The city is supplied with water from the Red Hill Reservoir, and sanitation is carefully enforced. Though situated on an open, surf-beaten coast of the Indian Ocean, the city possesses an important maritime trade, equal to more than one-third that of the entire presidency. Madras has been greatly improved in recent years by modern facilities. It is third in size among the cities of India. The site of Madras was acquired in 1639 from the Hindu Rajah of Chandgherry, by Mr. Francis Day, the chief of the company's trading settlement at Armagon. Pop. about 525,000.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
ma-dras', a city of British India. It is the capital of the province of that name. It was founded in 1639 by the English, who purchased a piece of ground for the erection of their first Indian trading post and a fort. Madras is the third city of India in commercial importance. The harbor is shallow and is exposed to the storms of the Bay of Bengal. Artificial breakwaters have remedied this difficulty to some extent. The city has grown rapidly. The government buildings make a fine show of solidity and prosperity. A university is maintained at government expense. The railroads of India take their time from the observatory. The productions of eastern Hindustan are marketed here. Teak, ebony, cotton, grain, indigo, coffee, tea, and dyestuffs are exported. The climate is exceedingly hot. The plantain, tamarind, mango, cocoanut, and other native fruits, as well as melons, are abundant. In 1900 the population of the city was 509,397. 2026 Editor's Note: By way of comparison, Chennai (the article's Madras) today has some 7 million in the city and 11 million in its metro area, up from the 509,397 this article reports for 1900. (Ed: BR 2026-07-19)