Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-07-30

How the Advertising Medicines Are
MAde-The Largest Almanac In the
United States.

Made-The L4rgest 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 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
eclipses, and the hundred and one
other facts told 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 wheL one goes further and picks
up one of the big volumes called
nautical almaEacs, published for the
use of astronomers and navigators,
the array of figures is really appal~
ling, and their long lines Of digits,
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, it's
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 was
first issued in 1885, and it is now said
to be the best almanac Published any
where in the world. It contains more
valuable information and calculation
than any of the other government al,
MANAGES, 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. It is book of solid
figures, over an inch thick, about
eight inches wide, and twelve inches
long. It contains more than 500
pages, and each page is black with a
multitude of carefully arranged fg~
ures, each Of which represent hours of
calculation and sheets of scientific
and algebraic study.
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 a 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 and 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
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 nay request
to know what this book of 500 pages
OF solid figures contained. He said
It's calculations are divided into three
parts. Part 1 is adapted to the merI
idan of Greenwich It contains the
positions of the sun, moon, and pri-
mary planets for every mean moon
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 longitude, etc.. etc. Part 2 is
adopted to the meridian of Washing
ton, and is intended for the use of as
as we'll as navigators. It
contains data for finding the apparent
positions of the fixed stars, and gives
also the apparent places of the prin-
cipal fixed stars for every tenth upper
transit at Washington; also the suns
right ascension and declin-
alton, hourly motion, and equation of
time for every mean and apparent
noon at Washington, and likewise the
same circumstances for the moon.
It also contains the mean time of
transit. right ascension and declina
ton, horizontal parallax and semi-di~
ameter of each primary planet at the
time as transit at Washington. Part
8 is devoted to phenomena" and
here, as I am not scientific diction-
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 I looked again at
the millions of fgues as he repeated
the scientific jargon I became more
and more impressed with the immense
work of getting up nautical almanac
and 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
took them up. The old
Romans had a sort of almanac, but
the first printed almanac was that of
~ Il r.