The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-30
ABOUT ALMANACS.


Written for the indianapolis Journal by W. Dawson,
The word almanac seems to come originally
from the Arabic al and manah TO count or reg
lister. Hence publication showing the divis-
ions of the year-seasons, months, weeks and
days, we'll as the phases of the moon, rising
and setting of the sun and moon, eclipses, as
poets of the planets, and many other items of
value or entertainment Such work, especi-
ally in modern times must be regular publica-
ton every year. But it was not so for many
years after the first attempts to compile informa-
ton of this character The old Egyptians and
Greeks, the Romans and Spaniards made many
efforts to produce a reckoning of time and events
before the astronomer Purbach issued his al
manac yearly from 1850 to 1861. But this work
was only i'll manuscript, the art Of printing not
having then come into general use.
| Purbach's little almanac sold for
ten dollars copy. The printing
| of almanacs was begun in 1475, and continued
annually for thirty years, under the superin-
tendence of Purbach's pupil, Regiomontanus.
! Other works of similar character were intro
duced by different individuals companies. and
there was perhaps not much space of time
afterward without an almanac of some kind.
Other matter besides astronomical was early in
troduced, and sometimes valuable information
was given. But in others much comic, super
stitious and would-be prophetic matter was
| thrown in. And such literature pretty sure
to take with a great mass of the uneducated
people When predictions were made on many
points of great variety, some of them were pref
| ty sure to hit and suit the forecast And
when such matters as the death of Henry IL of
France the execution of Charles l of England,
and the great fire of London were thus foretold
and occurred on time, the reputation
of the prophet soon rose high among the people.
Perhaps the most lucky man of this character was
! Nostradamus NJ D., noted astrologer of
France This empiric succ eeded well in a
few points that his fame as prophet became
widespread in western Europe His prophetic
almanac was followed by others of less note; and
such works are still used considerably among
the rural and uneducated population of France.
! England has for time been sufficiently
under the influence of moral education to put
| away such works as Moore's and poor Robins
| almanacs, which fourished vigorously in the
last century; and out of which sit would be diff
ficult to find in so small compass, an equal
quantity of ignorance, profigacy and imposture
|
| Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
brought out the British Almanac in 1928, pub
| LEGATION of high merit and still continued. The
people of Scotland seemed to have much use for
almanacs in early times-5O,O0O copies
| being sold annually more than 200
years ago. The Edinburg Almanac, be,
! gun in 1858, is still published
every year For some time it was only small
affair, containing little besides common astro-
nomlcal matter But weather predictions could
not long be spared. They hit occasionally, as a
matter of course, and every body wants to know
about the weather for next week. and SO on The
| Edinburg Almanac grew in favor and import
| ance, and in SIZE also. In 1740 it had doubled
| its former SIZE and in twelve years was again
doubled, then containing seventy two pages of
instructive matter, suited to the requirements
| of advancing civilization" Several years ago
this almanac had grown to q thousand pages.
And am a little surprised at Ireland getting up
| an almanac mot less excellent, and even more
| extensive than that of Edinburg The I'm
| perial Almanac of France, the Royal, of Bel
| gium the Prussian Royal and some others are
national in character, as well as massive in
| volume. In the fourshing town of Gotha,
southern Prussia, for 40 years there has
been published pocket almanac, which, of
| late, contains about thousand pages of
| fine print mo book ever printed contains so
much political and statistical information IN so
small a compass" This grand little work
| Though large in value) is Published in French,
l and widely known as the Almanach de Gotha.
The first almanac printed in this country is
believed to have been from the noted press of
William Bradford, Philadelphia, for the year
| 1851 The wise and witty sayings of Poor Rich
| ards Almanac, kept up by Benjamin Franklin
| for twenty five years, from 1872, were highly APP
| precated by the people of America and Europe.
The American Almanac, a moderate-sized vol
| ume of near 400 pages, well filled with large
| amount of astronomical and political matter, in
GLIDING valuable essays scientific subjects,
many obituaries, events for the year, ETC.,
printed in Boston from 1928 to 1861, and then
| discontinued Any odd volume of this series is
| well worth securing at twenty to forty cents
| wherever you find it The almanac
| published by the New York Tribune
was commenced in 1S4L Several
large newspapers also publish almanacs. Per
| haps most people know already that number
| of medical firms publish almanacs by the million
and are glad for everybody to take one and read
! it carefully.
Several of the chief governments of the world
| have, for a number of years, published what are
called nautical almanacs, in which is given
great amount of information relative to the right
| ascension declinatiou, ETC., of the sun, moon,
planets and stars, for the special use of navi
gators on the ocean. By having these data for
every day of the year, and some of them for
every hour and minute, the captain of ship can
readily ascertain his latitude and longitude, and
| thus know where he is OH the great deep.
| considerable portion of this almanac is ar
ranged for the convenience of astronomers in the
observatory. So great is the value of these ia
bles that the best mathematical astronomers of
the world are employed to calculate them.
The United States government publishes
every year the American Ephemeris ard Nautical
Almanac, a large octave volume of about 500
pages. This work is generally issued three years
in advance; i. e. the volume for 1885 was pub
lished about three years ago Each volume is
calculated for use in any observatory, and of
| course contains much matter not needed by the
amateur But no person who feels much inter
est in keeping up with the planets etc, can well
afford to be without it The price, one dollar, is
fixed very low ''for the promotion of science 1t
may be obtained from Professor Simon New
comb. Washington. d. G. England has It's own
Nautical Almanac. and France gets uF similar
work named Connoissance des Temps; while