The Irish standard., 1886-12-04
A PECULIAR MAN.
The Old Blacksmith Astronomer Of
Newmanstown, Pa.

Newmanstown, Pa.
A Plain, Unpretentious Septaagenarian
Who Makes Calculations for Some Of
the Best Almanacs In the Country
His Disbelief In Signs.
[Cor. Philadelphia Hmes.l
Right under tho shadows of the Cones
toga mountains, in the little village of
Newmanstown, Lebanon County, Pa,
lives the blacksmith astronomer, Laurence
]. Ibach. He is comparatively illiterate
man, but seems natural born to this
special science. His knowledge of the
heavenly bodies and the bearings of their
cycles has brought him into use with
scientific minds and his little world has
been enlarged to the literary centers of
our great cities He was found seated
upon the front portico of his modest little
home. It is a frame building, one.story
and half high, surrounded by large shade
trees and stands in the center of the vii
lage. Ibach is now seventy y-one years old
and has been in practical service as an
astronomer for twenty-five years. He
was born in Allentown, Pa, and moved
to Newmanstown in 1885, where he engaged
with his father at the blazing forge
in the manufacture Of iron ladies. He
speaks of his one hundred-pound tilt
hammer with lingering affection, and re-
grets that the sweet intonations of his
anvil will never ring out from his blows
again. The close attention to his chosen
calling has made him physical wreck
and his days are numbered. He is of me-
dunn height, with a well-built form, a
clean-shaven face and has an honest. good
natured eye His memory is somewhat
impaired.
He remarked that as boy he had an
instructive longing for the stars. 1t was
his pleasure to sit up late at night and
hold communion with them. he then al
ready was familiar with Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn and HerscheL He read
books on the planets, and this, with a
meager school education, was about the
only equipment he received for the great
science. He got the first impulse to a
practical use of his knowledge from an
obscure astronomer in Reading: Mr..
1bach was a journeyman with him at trade
for two years, when Mr.. Edleman died
and gave into his hand the arduous task of
unfinished calculations for the Plumb
Almanac, Of Salem, N. G. So ne settled
down to study in the little village by the
hills, and for two years worked hard to
master the rules Of the solar, lunar and
planetary cycles.
In 1868 he published his first calculations
and since then the name and fame of this
village astronomer worked out into silent
but enlarged recognition. During all these
years his anvil rung out the tune of honest
toll, but his busy brain rose above the
smoke of his burning forge. He relates
how, when in his calculations the solutions
failed him and would not come, he then
would go out and beat on the anvil with
vengeance-and perhaps like the sudden
flash of his fire, the light came He
dreamed of the planets most frequently
and in his dreams he solved difficult prob
lems
To engage in so intricate science one
would suppose that an array of preten-
tious books would be called into use. But
our astronomer is altogether self-made,
and at that very unlearned prodigy. He
simply has pile of old almanacs and one
or two nautical works. He has been COM
plimented with presents of Chambers,
Newcomb's, Steels, Loomis' and Robin
sons works, but he has only one really
scientific book, which is the Bible, of all
his astronomical calculations. He pro-
duced his English Ephemeris and declared
that to be the guide of all his problems
s'With that book will awake in ship
mld-ocean and can soon calculate my
bearing and sail to any point OF the
earth. Before that book came into use
the orrery was the key to all calculations,
but the quaint wheel of my perceptor is
now an encumbrance." So having de-
clared, he laid aside his ''Ephemeris,"
but could not help but wonder how
such an unlettered man ever was able to
glyphics the basis of sure prognostica-
tions He next explained the signs Of
the consultations in homely but most
satisfactory manner He incidentally re-
ferred to request received from Pitts
burg gentlemen to write an explanation
Of these almanac signs for his sick wife,
and told how he received much appre-
ciated ive-dollar bill as his expression of
thanks.
He calculates for no less than twenty
five almanacs in the country. This ex-
tensive and most thorough work has
brought him into contact with the distin-
guished Prof. Simon Newcomb, U. s.
Naval Observatory. All this work has
enriched his patrons, but kept him poor.
The sum total of his annual receipts foot
up the trifling sum of five hundred dollars.
Leslie, of New York, pays him eighteen dol
lars for four calculations; Hagerstown,
Lancaster and other firms pay him twenty
dollars for one circulation. A shrewd
business-like man would make fortune
out Of the work, but the modest blacksmith
is content with bare living:
eyes" he says, ''the world is full OF su-
perstition. Our good housewives plant
beans in Leo, the lion, for otherwise the
seed would shoot too much into the stalk;
eucumbers are sown in Gemini, the twins,
for then they will hang fuller; radish are
stuck in Aquarius, the butler, to make
them grow watery and tender; flowers are
planted in the Virgin, to make them bloom
more abundantly; nothing must be plant
cd in Aries, the ram, to grow it hard, and
sauerkraut must not be made in the gal
1us' week of October to turn it bitter;
meat must be salted in the right sign, and
ha1r never cut in the waning of the moon.