Rigi
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Rigi. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
re'ge, a mountain of Switzerland. It rises from the northwest shore of Lake Lucerne, a few miles from the Swiss city of that name. The summit commands a magnificent view of lake and mountain. Lake Zug lies on the north. Lake Lucerne, with its numerous arms, stretches away in the opposite direction. Tell's Chapel stands on the Lucerne shore at the south of the mountain below. The St. Gothard, Pilatus, the Jungfrau, and the snowcapped peaks of Uri and the Bernese Alps may be seen for a distance of 120 miles. The Rigi may be ascended by a few hours' climb or by either of two inclined railways. There are mammoth hotels at the top. During the tourist season they are thronged by people from all parts of the world. A veritable babel of languages is heard. In his Innocents Abroad Mark Twain gives a humorous and, of course, exaggerated account of his experience in watching for sunrise on the Rigi.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an isolated rocky mountain of Switzerland , in the canton of Schwyz, between Lakes Zug and Lucerne, 5,905 feet high. It affords one of the finest views in Switzerland, and is annually visited by numerous travelers . Two railways have been constructed to reach its summit (Rigi- Kulm) from opposite sides. They are on the "rackand-pinion" principle, there being a central toothed rail into which works a toothed wheel under the locomotive . There is also a short line on the mountain worked on the ordinary principle. Hotels and similar establishments are numerous on the Rigi.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both railways Collier's described in 1921 are still running: the Vitznau line of 1871, Europe's first mountain rack railway, and the Arth-Goldau line of 1875, now electrified and merged under a single operator, joined since 1968 by an aerial cableway from Weggis. What has gone is the era Aiton's evoked in 1910 — the "mammoth hotels" of the Victorian grand-tour boom, whose survivors were mostly pulled down or rebuilt, the present Rigi Kulm hotel dating from the 1950s rather than the age of Mark Twain's sunrise vigil. The view and the visitors remain: the mountain still draws several hundred thousand rail passengers a year, enough that local authorities have debated capping numbers to curb overtourism. The 5,905 feet Collier's gives is very close to the modern figure of 1,798 metres.
Written for this edition, 2026.