Sheffield
Sheffield names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Sheffield a municipal and parliamentary borough of England
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a municipal and parliamentary borough of England, county of York (West Riding); on hilly ground at the junction of the Sheaf and Don, about 160 miles N. of London. The site of the town was originally confined to the angle formed by the Sheaf and Don, but it now extends along the slopes above these rivers and their tributaries, the Loxley, Rivelin, and Porter. In the central parts great improvements have been made in the crowded streets by the corporation, and the suburban districts are well built and picturesquely situated. The chief ecclesiastical building is the ancient parish church of St. Peter's in the Perpendicular style. There are numerous educational and literary institutions, and the St. George's Museum founded by Mr. Ruskin . The principal buildings are the town hall, the Cutlers' Hall, the corn exchange, the music hall, and the Albert Hall. There are numerous hospitals and charitable institutions. The town is well supplied with parks, chief of these being the Norfolk, Birth, and Weston parks, the latter of which includes a museum and the Mappin Art Gallery. The trade of Sheffield is chiefly connected with cutlery, for which it has long been famous , and the manufacture of all forms of steel, iron, and brass work. The steel manufacture includes armor plating, rails, engine castings, rifles, etc. There are also manufactures of engines, machinery, plated goods, Britannia metal goods, optical instruments, stoves and grates , etc. Sheffield is supposed to have been originally a Roman station . Edward I. granted it a charter as a market town in 1296, and there is indication in Chaucer's writings that the town was then noted for its cutlery. But it was only after the beginning of the 19th century that it developed such importance as a manufacturing center. The chief modern event in its history was the terrible disaster in 1864, occasioned by the bursting of Bradfield Reservoir. Pop. (1919) 473,695.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a manufacturing city of Yorkshire, England. It was noted in the time of Chaucer for the manufacture of edged tools. It is still the center of the British cutlery trade. The Bessemer process of making steel was put into practical operation first at Sheffield. The manufactures embrace almost every sort of implement, instrument, and edged tool known, including knives, razors, scissors, surgical instruments, mechanical instruments, carpenters' tools, saws, scythes, sickles, spades, shovels, hammers, and vises. There are also enormous manufactures of stoves, grates, engines, steel rails, tires, axles, and ship armor. In 1901 Sheffield had a population of 408,994. The city has no buildings of historical importance comparable to Westminster Abbey or the Tower of London , but it is a city in which municipal problems can be studied to great advantage. Millions of dollars have been expended in straightening and widening streets and in erecting modern homes for workmen. Public parks, schools, colleges, sewerage, lighting, water supply, and tramways have been managed with a degree of honesty and efficiency that shame the average American city. See also CUTLERY.
Sheffield a city of Alabama
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Alabama, in Colbert co. It is on the Tennessee river, and on the Louisville and Nashville , the Northern Alabama, and the Southern railroads. Its important industries include iron products and lumbering. There are also extensive coal mines in the neighborhood, and the farming interests are quite important. Pop. (1910) 4,865; (1920) 6,682.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's called St Peter's simply "the ancient parish church" in 1921, though it had in fact become Sheffield Cathedral in 1914 when the diocese was created; the city itself was granted city status back in 1893. The cutlery and steel trades both accounts dwell on have since collapsed as mass employers " Sheffield's steelworks shed the great majority of their workforce during the crisis years of the late 1970s and 1980s, and the vast East End plants of Attercliffe and Brightside were largely cleared, with the Meadowhall shopping centre opening on former steelworks land in 1990. Steel has not vanished, but survives as high-value specialist and aerospace alloys, in a tradition running from Bessemer's converter to Harry Brearley's development of stainless steel in Sheffield in 1913. Two heavy German air raids in December 1940 gutted much of the central shopping district Collier's praised; the city today has around 560,000 people and two universities, and the Alabama Sheffield, 6,682 strong in 1920, has grown only to roughly 9,000.
Written for this edition, 2026.