A book about electricity was returned to a Massachusetts library 119 years after it was first checked out
- A 119-year-old library book on the development of electricity has finally been returned.
- The New Bedford Public Library's copy of "An Elementary Treatise on Electricity" was checked out in 1904.
A Massachusetts library book checked out in 1904 has finally been returned – 119 years later.
Over a century ago, a borrower from the New Bedford Free Public Library checked out James Clerk Maxwell's "An Elementary Treatise on Electricity," according to the Associated Press.
It would take a rare book curator from West Virginia to help the book find its way back to its proper home. Stewart Plein found it among a donation of books and noted it hadn't been stamped as "Withdrawn" from the library's collection, the AP reported.
"This came back in extremely good condition," Olivia Melo, director of the New Bedford Public Library, told the AP. "Someone obviously kept this on a nice bookshelf because it was in such good shape and probably got passed down in the family."
The library charges 5 cents per day for late books, making the total late fee over $2,100, the AP reported. Luckily, the library's maximum late fee is $2.
The century-old book was first published in 1881. A year earlier, Thomas Edison received the patent for the key concepts of the revolutionary incandescent lamp.
A testament not only to the technological development of electricity, the library book is also a reminder of the permanence of the written word. Books that find themselves overdue by decades seem to carry a wave of nostalgia.
"The value of the printed book is it's not digital," Melo told the AP. "It's not going to disappear. Just holding it, you get the sense of someone having this book 120 years ago and reading it, and here it is in my hands."
"It is still going to be here a hundred years from now. The printed book is always going to be valuable," she added.