The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1885-09-24
THE ALMANAC.
How the Advertising Medicines Are
Made-The Largest Almanac In the
United States.

How the Advertising Medicines Are
Made-The Largest Almanac In the
United States.
Every family in the United States,
writes correspondent to the Cleve-
land Leader, uses an almanac, but few
people are cognizant of the immense
amount of work required in their prep
aration. The phases of the moon, the
positions which the sun and stars will
hold at given times for every day
throughout the year, the calculation of
eclipses, and the hundred and one
other facts told by astronomy and
mathematics appear as regularly as
the years 60 round. The simplest al
manacs used for druggists advertise
ments are full of such information, and
when one goes further and picks up
one of the big volumes called nautical
almanacs, published for the use of as
tronomers and navigators, the array of
figures is really appalling, and their
long lines of digits, thrown into order
which would delight a Gradgrind.
make the brains of the general reader
swim rs he endeayors to understand
them. These big nautical almanacs
are the fathers of all the others. The
CoACuldtiOHS VI bhC
are taken from them, and they feed,
as it were, the whole family of little
almanacs the world over. The great
est nations of the world now have their
own nautical almanacs, and these are
made by their respective governments.
The nautical almanac of France has
been published longer than any other,
its editions having been issued for sew
rnl hr1r ...A RVfk kHrk Il
manac comes next, dating back to
little before the Revolution, and the
German and Spanish were begun since
then. The American nautical almanac
was first issued in 1855, and it is now
said to be the best almanac published
anywhere in the world. 1t contains
more valuable Information and calcu-
lation than any of the other govern
ment almanacs, and it holds the high
est place among astronomers and navi-
gators. The almanac is made at
Washington, and Il special department
of the navy under Prof. Newcomb is
devoted to its getting up. 1t is book
of solid figures, over .an inch thick,
about eight inches wide, and twelve
inches long. 1t contains more than
five hundred pages, and each page is
black with multitude of carefully ar
ranged figures, each of which repre-
sent hours of calculation and sheets of
scientific and algebraic study.
The work is published three or more
years in advance of its date. The al
manac for 1888 is now out, and that
for 1889 is being prepared. Twelve
scientists, each noted as an astronomer
and a mathematician, located in differ
ent parts of the country, are almost
constantly at work upon it. They
make their calculations and send them
to Washington, and they are here
proved before going into the Almanac.
The title of the book is ''The American
Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac"
and if you would abbreviate this title
in talking of it to one of the makers of
it he would be highly disgusted. Quo
of them recently told me what it con-
tanned, but his words OF scientific terms
fell upon my ear like the jargon of a
Choctaw, and he might as well have
expressed himself in Greek. Some of
the more scientific of your readers,
however may understand him. / will
repeat his answer to my request to
know what this book of five hundred
pages of solid figures contained. He
said its calculations are divided into
three parts. Part 1 is adapted to the
meridian of Greenwich. 1t contains
the positions of the sun, moon, and
primary planets for every mean moon
throughout the year. 1t contains the
distances of the moon from the sun
and certain fixed planets. This is
used by navigation at sea for deter
mining the longitude, etc, etc Part
2 is adapted to the meridian of WASH
ington, and is intended for tho use of
astronomers, as well as naVigators. 1t
contains data for finding the apparent
positions of the fixed stars, and gives
also the apparent places of the princi-
pal liked stars for every tenth upper
transit at Washington; also the SUMS
apparent right ascension and declina-
tion, hourly motion, and equation of
time for every mean and apparent noon
at Washington, and likewise the Same
circumstance for the moon. 1t also
contains the mean time of transit,
right ascension and declination, hori-
zontal parallax and semi-diameter of
each primary planet at the time of
transit ut Washington. Part 8 is de-
voted to "phenomena," and here, as |
am not a scientific dictionary on legs,
l will not attempt to repeat what the
astronomer said it contained 1t was
much worse than the above, and when
l looked again at the millions of fig
ures as he repeated the scientific jar
| gon / became more and more impress
| ed with the immense work of getting
up a nautical almanac and an 'tAmeri-
can Ephemeris."
These nautical almanacs, however,
4 l. hot &c
left entirely to the weather bureau,
which is distinct from them. Alma
macs were made for years before any
government took them up. The old
Romans had a sort of almanac, but the
first printed almanac was that OF
George Won Burback, who issued his
predictions at Vienna in 1850. In the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries al
manacs were used as political docu-
ments, and they were full of astrOlogy,
astronomy, and superstition in addition
to their politics. The first American
almanac was that of William Brad
ford, who published one in 1857. Ben
Franklin's "Poor Richards Almanac"
was first published in 1882, and the
American Almanac, which continued
its publication up to 1861, was first
published in 1923. There are now
about one hundred almanacs published
in the United States, of which, perhaps,
the best is Spotford's American Alma
mac, published by the librarian of con-
gresS-