On October 8, 2004, the international community of [Distributed Proofreaders][] enriched the online public domain with the largest single contribution in the project’s four year history. Through the organized collective efforts of volunteers throughout the world, Distributed Proofreaders made available 50 diverse and significant written works consisting of over 13,000 pages. Entrusted into the care of the Project Gutenberg Archive, these legacy works are now accessible free of charge to Internet users around the globe.

The inspiration for this coordinated effort was the nearing completion of Distributed Proofreaders’ 5,000th distinct work. Within the span of a mere four years DP–as the project is called by members–succeeded in transforming 5,000 unique published works into formats that can be viewed by a variety of electronic devices. The secret to this prolific output is the innovative production process of DP which employs several thousand volunteers all working towards a single objective, expanding the availability of written works in the public domain. Once completed, these machine readable texts are placed within Project Gutenberg where they remain available without cost.

As a demonstration of the varied strengths of the Distributed Proofreaders production model, the 50 titles of this commemorative collection were selected from amongst its most challenging and complex projects. The accomplishment of this milestone is a source of great pride to the diversified and dedicated membership of DP. The intent of the 5,000 Collection was to produce for the world a gift of immense value that would dramatically exemplify the best of which Distributed Proofreaders is now capable. A mere cursory reading of this wealth of titles stirs up a sense of excitement and wonder at what is possible when enough like-minded people join together in creative endeavor.

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The Paris Academy of Sciences has been investigating the project to explore the polar regions by balloon. They think it not unlikely that the adventurous aeronaut may arrive at his destination, but that the coming back may be attended with great danger. The balloon is built, and is large enough to carry three persons, all the equipments, instruments and provisions, and a boat may be made into a sledge. The expedition will start from one of the extreme northwestern Norwegian islands. A stiff south breeze and a clear day in July will determine the time. The explorer hopes to reach the north pole within forty-three hours. The meteorological conditions of this locality are said to be extremely favorable for a voyage of this sort. In July, the sun never sinks below the horizon, and there are but slight variations in the temperature. There are no storms to be feared, and ordinary snow-falls would not interfere with progress and observation.

Scientific American: One of the most peculiar vegetable products of Brazil is the Moquilea utilis, or pottery tree. This tree attains a height 100 feet, and has a very slender trunk, which seldom exceeds a foot in diameter at the base. The wood is exceedingly hard, and contains a very large amount of silica, but not so much as does the bark, which is largely employed as a source of silica for the manufacture of pottery. In preparing the bark for the potter’s use it is first burned, and the residue is then pulverized and mixed with clay in the proper proportion. With an equal quantity of the two ingredients a superior quality of earthenware is produced. This is very durable and is capable of withstanding any amount of heat. The natives employ it for all kinds of culinary purposes. When dry it is generally brittle, though sometimes difficult to break. After being burned it can not, if of good quality, be broken between the fingers, a mortar and pestle being required to crush it.

One of the most wonderful of the many feats performed by Hindoo jugglers is the egg dance. Usually it is executed by a girl, fantastically dressed. She makes use of the willow wheel, around which at equal distances, are threads, and at the end of each thread there is a noose, held open by a bead. This wheel the girl places on her head, while she carries a basket of eggs on her arm. When the music strikes up she begins to dance and the wheel begins to spin around. She then takes an egg from the basket, places it in one of the thread nooses, and throws it from her with sufficient force to draw the knot tight. The spinning of the wheel keeps the thread stretched with the egg at the end of it. She then takes another egg from the basket, places it in another noose, and repeats this until there is an egg in every noose. Her fantastic costume, her perfect motion, and all the eggs swinging on the stretched threads at once, present a very pretty sight indeed. It requires much art to execute the dance, for at one false step the eggs would be dashed together, the dance spoiled, and the dancer thereby disgraced. After dancing for a time with all the eggs swinging around her head, she takes them out of the noose one by one, all the time keeping the wheel balanced and in motions, and again, places them in the basket on her arm. When the dance is finished the spectators are allowed to examine the eggs to see that they are real.

There is said to be a total of 482 systems of shorthand in practical use.

Orange growers of Southern California have realized $1,850,000 for their crop.

The income of the London Daily Telegraph is said to be about $650,000 per year.

Thirty per cent of the iron made in Tennessee is sold outside the Southern States.

There are now 249,273 Indians in this country, or were at the taking of the last census.

Illinois stands third among the states in the number of its milch kine, with 1,087,886 animals.

Pomona County, California, will produce 750 tons of apricots this year, against 2,800 tons last year.

A snake alleged to be fourteen feet long, steals chickens, ducks and geese at Cold Spring Harbor, L.I.

The largest map of the world is in fifteen feet wide and 126 feet long.

Bucharest has the reputation of being the place of residence of the greatest number of swindlers in the world.

In 1889, 10,250,410 bushels of flax seed and 241,389 pounds of fiber were produced on 1,318,698 acres in this country.

Beer frozen and called “hops frappe” is very popular in the Sunday resorts of Philadelphia since the enforcement of the Sunday law.

The public has had its sense of the wondrous very much blunted during the past year or two by the rapid introduction of telephones and agraphones¹, microphones, [phonographs][] and the like, so that if the announcement were to be made that Professor Somebody had devised a plan by which a person could make a trip between Philadelphia and Liverpool² in twenty-four hours the public would only be surprised, not astonished. It certainly seems marvelous enough to say that there has been discovered a way in which persons may sit in their own homes and listen to sermons, converts or lectures going on in churches or halls miles distant, and but a brief time ago such a statement would have been regarded with incredulity; to-day it simply evokes the remark, “I thought they’d get up something like that.”

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An astonishing discovery in regard to the production of electricity is announced, which, if genuine, will do away with the necessity of burning coal. Dr. Borchers, of Driesburg, Germany, says that he has found that electricity is generated by the conversion of hydrocarbon and carbonic oxide into carbonic acid, and as this is the same thing that takes place in burning coal he accomplishes the same end by chemical means by what he calls the wet process. While a steam engine utilizes about 12 per cent. of the theoretical energy and a gas engine 20 per cent., Dr. Borchers claims that his new process gives no less than 38 per cent.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, October 11, 1828. Number 335. A great periodical — lots of fun to read!