Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-07-24
THE ALMANAC.

THE ALMANAC.
HOW the Advertising Medicines Are
Made The Largest Almanac i'm the
United States.
Every family in the United States,
writes a correspondent TO The Cleye-
land Leaser, uses an almanac, but few
people are cognlzant of the immense
amount OF work required in their
preparation. The phases of the moon,
the positions which the sun and stars
Will hold at given times for every day
drought the year, the calculation of
echpses, ans the hundred and one
other facts tod by astronomy and
mathematics appear as regularly as
the years go round. The simplest al
manacs used for druggists advertise
ments are full of such information,
and wheE one goes further ard ~'cks
up one of the big volumes called
nautical almaEacs, published for the
use of astronomers and navlgators,
the array of figures is really appal-
ling, and their long lines Of oiyits,
thrown into order which would de-
light Gradgrind, make the brains Of
the general reader swim as he en-.
deavors to understand them. These
big nautical almanacs are the fathers
of all the others. The calculations of
the smaller almanacs are taken from
them, and they feed, as it were, the
whole family of little almanacs the
world over. The greatest nations of
the world now have their own nautic
al 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 several
hundred years. The British almanac
comes next, dating back to little be-
fore the Revolution, and the German
and Spanish were begun since then.
The American nautical almanac vas
first issued in 1885, and it is now said
to be the best almanac Published any
where in the world. 1t contains more
valuable information and calculation
than any of the other government al,
manacs, and it holds the highest place
among astronomers and navigators.
The almanac is made at Washington,
and 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 500
pages, and each page is black with a
multitude of carefully arranged fig
ures, each of which represent hours of
calculation and sheets of scientific
and algebraic stddy.
The work is published three or more
years in advance of its date. The all
manac for 1888 is now out, aad that
for 1885 is being prepared. Twelve
scientists, each noted as an astrono,
mer and mathematician, located in
different parts of tae country, are al
most constantly working 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 aud Nau-
teal Almanac" and if. you would alb
breviate this title in talking of it to
one of the makers of it he would be
highly Disguised One Of them told
me few days ago what it contained,
but his words of scientific terms fell
upon my ear like the jargon of a
Cnoctaw, and he nigh. as we'll have
expressed himself in Greek. Some of
the more scientific of your readers,
however, may understand him. L
will repeat his answer to nay request
to know what this book of 500 pages
of solid figures contained. He said
It's calculations are divided into three
parts. Pat 1 is adapted to the merI
idian of Greenwich. 1t contains the
positions OF the sun, moon, and pri-
mary planets for every mean moon
throughout the year. 1t contains the
distance of the moon from the sun and
certain fixed planets This is used
by navigators at sea for determining
the lor gitude, etc. etc. Part Is
adopted to the meridian of Washing
ton, aad is intended for the use of as
tronomers, as we'll as navigators. 1t
contaiss data for finding the apparent
positions Of the fixed stars, and gives
also the apparent places of the prln-
cipal fixed stars for every tenth upper
transit at Washington also the sun S
apparent right ascension and declln-
alton, hourly motion, and equation of
time for every mean and apparent
noon at Washington, and likewise the
same circumstances for the moon.
1t also contains the mean time Of
transit. right ascension and declina-
ton, horizo ntal parallax and semi di~
ameter of each primary planet at the
time as transit at Washington. Part
8 is devoted to phenomena" and
ho-n I n flo
airy on legs, | will not attempt to re-
peat what the astronomer said it con-
Ia ined. 1t was much worse than the
above, and when l looked again at
the millions of fgues as he repeated
the scientific jargon | became more
and more impressed with the immense
work of getting up nautical almanac
aud an American Ephemeris."
These nautical almanacs, however,
do not deal with the weather. That
is left entirely to the weather bureau,
which is distinct from them. AMMAN
acs were made for years before any
government took them up. The old
Romans had sort of almanac, but
the first printed almanac was that of
George Won Burback, who issued his
predictions at Vienna III 1460. In the
sixteenth and seventh centuries al
manacs were used as political docu-
ments, aud they were full of astrol-
ogy, astronomy, and superstition in
addition to their polotics. The first
American almanac was that of Will
liam Bradford, who published one in
1857. Ben Franklin's Poor Rich
ards Almanac" in 1882, and the
American Almanac. which continued
its publication up TO 1851, was Erst
published in 1923. There are now
about one hundred almanacs pub.
lished Ia the United States, of which,
perhaps, the best is Spofford's Ameri>
can Almanac, published by tho
librarian of congress.