The penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, issue 36 by Charles Knight

Peony Ink Chronicles
Sep 30, 2026

The penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, issue 36 by Charles Knight (1791 - 1893)
Genre(s): Essays & Short Works, Periodicals & Magazines

Read by: Phil Schempf, Brize C, Weretortoise, BettyB, mleigh, BeAWhale, Larry Wilson in English

Chapters:
00:00:00 - 01 - The Boa Constrictor
00:06:03 - 02 - The Labourers of Europe No. 3
00:16:02 - 03 - Comets No. 2
00:26:39 - 04 - The Temples of Paestum
00:35:22 - 05 - Difference Between Gambling and Trading
00:41:27 - 06 - Saturday Night's Wages
00:55:11 - 07 - The Week

The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was published in competition to Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, which started two months earlier. Costing just one penny, it was aimed at the working class and needed broad circulation in order to survive. Initially successful, its content proved to miss the mark and be of more interest to the upper classes and folded after a couple of years. It's format was to offer short essays on a variety of topics the paternalistic publisher deemed important to its readership. - Summary by LynneT