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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Steve Leblanc

Extremely overdue book returned to Massachusetts library 119 years later

Massachusetts James Clerk Maxwell New Bedford
PETER PEREIRA/The Standard-Times

On Feb. 14, 1904, someone curious about the emerging possibilities of a key force of nature checked out James Clerk Maxwell's “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity” from the New Bedford Free Public Library.

It would take 119 years and the sharp eyes of a librarian in West Virginia before the scientific text finally found its way back to the Massachusetts library.

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