Pole
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
REGINALD, CARDINAL, a British statesman, and Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Queen Mary, descended from the blood royal of England; born in Stourton Castle, in Staffordshire, in 1500. He was educated at after obtaining preferment Oxford; an and in the Church, went to Italy, where he long resided. On his return to England he so strongly opposed the divorce of Henry VIII. from Catherine of Aragon, that the king drove him from his presence, and never saw him more. He again left England, was made a cardinal in December, 1536, and had the offer of the popedom on the death of Paul III. Henry put to death his mother, and other members of his family, for corresponding with him. He found protection at Rome, was employed as nuncio, and was named president of the Council of Trent. When Mary ascended the throne, Pole returned to England as legate, in which capacity he absolved the Parliament from their sin of heresy, and reconciled the nation See. The day after the burnto the Holy Ioly of Cranmer, the cardinal was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury; later he was elected chancellor of Oxford and Cambridge, and died Nov. 18, 1558.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
PERCH, or ROD, a measure of length containing 16½ feet or 5½ yards. Sometimes the term is used as a superficial measure, a square pole denoting 5½ × 5½ yards, or 304 square yards.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MAGNETIC. See MAGNETISM.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in astronomy, one of the two points in which the axis of the earth is supposed to meet the sphere of the heavens; one of the fixed points about which the stars appear to revolve.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Three of the four senses have held up; one has visibly moved. Collier's 1921 definition of the celestial pole as "one of the fixed points about which the stars appear to revolve" is still how astronomers describe it, though precession keeps shifting it: Polaris will come closest to true north around 2100 before drifting away. The magnetic pole, which Collier's disposed of with a cross-reference, turned out to be the restless one — the north magnetic pole has wandered out of the Canadian Arctic toward Siberia, crossing the prime meridian around 2017 and at times moving some 50 km a year, fast enough that the World Magnetic Model used by navigation systems needed an out-of-cycle update in 2019. The rod or perch of 16½ feet survives mainly in American public-land survey descriptions and old deeds; Britain ended its use for trade in the 1980s. Reginald Pole's life needs no revision, except that historians now generally date his death to 17 November 1558, hours after Queen Mary, rather than the 18th.
Written for this edition, 2026.