What is it?
The Electric Chronicle was a project I worked on with a newspaper indexing business some years ago.
Every two months I selected authentic news reports from the major daily Australian newspapers of exactly a century before, plus, wherever possible, current affairs cartoons from Australian and international newspapers.
The news stories were selected for historical and contemporary interest and relevance, and for their informative and entertainment value.
We presented two versions of the Chronicle. One was an online text selection of news reports transcribed as originally published - some were edited for length, while spelling now regarded as archaic was replaced. For example: Tokio/Tokyo, M'Donald/McDonald, Smith-street/Smith Street.
The second version was a bi-monthly 12-page newspaper of news stories edited and re-written, with headlines, for a contemporary reading audience. The newspaper also included cartoons and newspaper advertisements of the day.
Above is a sample edition of the Electric Chronicle newspaper, looking at news events from July-August 1904.
Clicking it will take you to a full-sized PDF version.
As well as the British march into Tibet, other news stories and cartoons in this edition are:
* Russian raiders grab ships en route to Asia.
* Cartoons on the Japanese-Russian war.
* Watson Labor gov't lose power.
* Growth of French power in the Pacific.
* Kanaka petition.
* Building the English 'chunnel'.
* Footy in state schools... plus more...