Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-10-08
THE ALMANAC.
HOW the Advertising Medicines Are
Made-The Largest Almanac in the
United States.

Every lamliy IN the United states
writes correspondent to the Cleve
land Leader, uses an almanac, but few
people are cognizant of the immens
amount of work required in their prep
aration. The phases of the moon, tn
positions which the sun and stars vii
hold at given times for every da'
throughout the year. the calculation o
eclipses, and the hundred and on
other facts told by astronomy an,
mathematics appear as regularly a
the years go round. The simplest al
manacs used for druggists advertise
ments are full of such information, ant
when one goes further and picks III
one of the big volumes called nautiea
almanacs. published for the use of as
tronomcrs and nayigators, the array 0
figures is really appalling, and thei
long lines of digits. thrown into ordcl
which would delight Gradgrind
make the brains of the general reader
swim as he endeayors TO understan,
them. These big nautical almanac,
are the fathers of all the others. Til,
calculations of the smaller almanac,
are taken from them, and they feed
as it were. the whole family OF littl,
almanacs the world over. The great
est nations of the world now have theil
own nautical almanacs, and these ar,
made by their respective governments
The nautical almanac of France ha,
been published longer than any other.
its editions having boon issued for sew
eral hundred years. The British al
manac comes next, dating back to T.:
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 al
Washington, and special department
of the navy under Prof Newcomb is
devoted to its getting up. 1t is a 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 u 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 cat, and that
for 1889 Is being prepared Twelve
scientists, each noted rs an astronomer
and n all nln.ttiptap lnanf...l -, 4,
ent parts OF the country, are almost
constantly ut work upon it. They
make their calculations and send them
to Washington, and they arc here
proved before going into The Almanac.
The title of the book is The American
Ephemcris and Nautical Almanac, :"
and il you would abbreviate this title
in talking of it to one OF the makers of
1t he would be highly disguised. One
of them recently told me what it con-
tanned, but his words of scientific terms
fell upon my ear like the i.rgon of a
Choctaw, and he might as we'll have
expressed himself in Greek. Some of
the more scientific of your readers.
however may understand him. | will
repeat his answer to my rcquc to
know what this book of five hundred
pages of solid figures contained. He
said its calculations are divided into
three parts. Part is adapted to the
meridian of Greenwich Ii 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
is adapted TO the meridian OF WASH
lngton, and is intended for the use of
astronomers, rs well rs navigators. 1t
contains data for finding the apparent
positions OF the fixed stars. and gives
also the apparent places of the princ-
pal hxed stars Tor every tenth upper
transit Mt Washington; also the suns
apparent right ascension and declina-
ton, hourly motion. and equation of
time for every mean and apparent noon
at Washington. and likewise the same
for the moon. 1t also
contains the mean time of transit,
right ascension and dcclination. hori-
zontal parallax and semi-diameter of
each primary plan t at the time OF
transit at Washington. Part ) is de-
voted to 'phcnomena. and here, rs
am not scientific dictionary on legs,
l will not attempt TO repeat what the
astronomer said it contained. liz was
much worse than the above, and when
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 "Ameri-
can Epnemcris. p"
These nautical almanacs, however,
do not deal with the weather. That is
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 ut Vienna in 1860. In the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries al
MANAGES 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 1887. 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 Spotlord's American Alma
nae, published by the librarian of con
gress.