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Timeline

Explore the Handbooks in more detail.

Hover over each Handbook to find out the length of each Handbook, as well as the three most frequently mentioned words. For some editions of the Handbook, you'll also find a significant event which happened that year.

In the 1956 handbook, we can see that the word "nuclear" is mentioned more times than any other handbook.

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This is because on 17 October, 1956, Britain switched on its very first nuclear power station.

Calder Hall was the first power station in the world to supply substantial quantities of electricity to a national system!

Book length:

1531688 words

Most mentioned words:

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1957 Edition is not in the collection of the National Library of Scotland

1955

1956

1958

1959

1961

1962

1963

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1960

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1964

1965

1967

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1968

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1971

1970

1972

1973

1974

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1976

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1975

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1977

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1978

1980

1979

1981

1983

1985

1987

1989

1991

1993

1995

1997

1999

2001

2003

1982

1984

1986

1988

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1990

1992

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1994

1996

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1998

2000

2002

1969

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Book length:

1723261 words

Most mentioned words:

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Book length:

1766352 words

Most mentioned words:

Book length:

1933928 words

Most mentioned words:

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Book length:

1968108 words

Most mentioned words:

Book length:

1,132,362  words

Most mentioned words:

1954

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Book length:

1,132,362  words

Most mentioned words:

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Book length:

1,363,702 words

Most mentioned words:

Book length:

1979979 words

Most mentioned words:

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Book length:

1990416 words

Most mentioned words:

Book length:

1990416 words

Book length:

1990416 words

Book length:

2018183 words

Most mentioned words:

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Book length:

2,007,904 words

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Most mentioned words:

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Remember the Quiz?

There are some hints for you to discover through the timeline!

Click here to see graphs that describes 50 years contents ...

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1966

2004 Edition is not in the collection of the National Library of Scotland

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2005

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