Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1892-05-14

enough when you know how. It's merely
a question Of mathematics and patience.
make my calculations for this meridian
from the Nautical Almanac That is a
work issued by the Royal Observatory of
Greenwich several years IN advance for the
special ls5 of astronomers and nayiga-
tors. 1t contains for the navigator, tables
of the distances of the moon from the
more prominent stars for every three
hours throughout the year. by which lon
gitudes are most conveniently and occur
ately determined To the astronomer it
furnishes a great mass of important data
1t gives the position of the moon in right
ascension aud declination for every hour,
and the sun latitude and longitude for
every day in the year. Ii shows the obi
guilty Of the ecliptic, the suns and moon 5
paralax, ALTERATION, &c, at the different
times. 1t supplies the necessary data for
the determination of the real or apparent
size, petition and motion of the planets
and their satellites. it fixes accurately
the places OF about $50 fixed stars, and
gives full details concerning eclipses, oc.
cul8tions, transits, and other celestial phe-
nomena occurring during the year. All
Greenwich, So il is necessary for ME to
calculate 1t all over again for the meridian
of New London, and that takes me, the
way ] work, about a year.
The Farmer Friend has all of the
astronomical calculations needed on land
or sea, as well as a daily forecast of the
weather for the entire year. The forecasts,
however represent the almanac makers
personal opinion; but to the farmers they
are worth a great deal. He believes that
the sun and the moon have a gerat deal to
40 with the weather. He reached that
conclusion forty years ago, and ever since
then has kept a daily journal of the wealth.
er, with the exact position of the sun and
moon. Once In nineteen years the con.
junction of tire moon and the sun are
nearly the same, he says. When he de
slres TO know what the weather /. year in
advance is to be, ne argues cut the exact
position of the sun ana the moon and then
searches his journal until he finds them in
similar positions. If fr)sts or rain or snow
prevailed on that day, he calculates that
there will be frost, or rain, or snow on the
one In question. His father, he saws.
guessed at II.
David A. Daboll is the third gentleman
of the family that published the Farm
er Friend. His grandfather, Nathan
DabOll, conceived the idea and produced
the FIRST number in l772. He was
professor of mathematics of Plainded
Academy, and the author of the famous
old Daboll arithmetic, or "SchooIaster'
Assistant, and a work on navigation
He made the calculations until 1919
From then until 1864 his son, also
named Nathan, was the almanac
maker, and from that time down David
A., enc of six sons of Nathan the second
has figured out astronomical problems.
Every one of David's brothers was capable
Of taking up the work at moments
notice, but it was never necessary. All
were mathematicjans. One of them in
vented the fog horn, which warns the
mariner OF danger when the weather on
the coast rs thick and keeps the seaside
summer boarder awake on fogy nights.
The present almanac maker has foul sons,
all mathematiclaus. Two of them are in
New York. David A. DaJoll, Jr., lives in
Centre Groton, and expects to be his
father successor.
The house which the almanac maker oc-
cupies was built 10y an Old Nathan more
than century ago, and it has been the
bone of a Ddb5li always. The first mum.
Der of the almanac was prepared under its
low oaken roof ann each succeeding num-
her has been prepared there also. There
Nathan arranged his "Schoolmaster's
Assistant. The book on navigation was
written there. Afterward the little house
was used for a nautic Il school although
four miles from the water, and for years
father and son taught navigation. Bows
came from many towns of New England
to receive instructions, men for the navy.
Some Of the well known captains of the
of the present day received their first in
structions in navigation in Centre
Groton.
The Farmers Friend for the Year of
Our Lord Christ, 1892: Being Bissextile,
or Leap Year, and the One Hundred and
Sixteenth OF American independence,
contains, the old almanac maker saws.
besides the astronomical calculations, a
variety OF matter both useful and enter
tanning He predicts that or June Is
the weather will grow dry By the 23l,
he says, rain will be very much needed.
There will not be anything but fying
clouds and distant thunder until July /.
however. On that day he promises fght
showers. On the 18th and 18th should be
rain such as we read about. From then
until Aug "A nothing remarkable, speak
ing meteorologlcally, is in sight as far as
the almanac maker has seen. But on that
day we will beassailed by high winds which
will whistle about the chimney tops for
two days. After that the weather will be-
have itself fairly well until Sept. IA. when
we can expect frosts. The 6rst snow Of
the season, in the almanac makers opin-
ion, will tiy on Nov II. Although he has
searched the heavens carefully and Gelvsd
deeply in his journal for weather in the
past, the old almanac maker has not dis
covered even a baby blizzard fot 1892. -
Exchange.
CONGRESS.
TUESDAY, May 3.