FIFTH ANNUAL PUBLICATION.

A964

A 55 1882

COPYRIGHT, 1881, BY AINSWORTH R. SPOFFORD.

THE AMERICAN ALMANAC AND TREASURY OF OF FACTS

Is published in two editions:

1. Popular Edition, handsome paper cover. Price 25 cents.

2. Library Edition, with 100 additional pages; elegantly bound in full scarlet cloth. Price, $1.50.

Copies of the former issues, 1878, 1879, and 1881, may be had, bound, at $1,50 each. The American Almanac for 1880 is out of print.

10 VIMU

PRESS OF

WM. K. BOYLE,

BALTIMORE.

The Solar Cycle embraces a period of 28 years.

The Roman Indiction is a cycle of 15 years.

The Lunar Cycle is 235 synodical revolutions of the moon 19 years.
The Epact denotes the age of the moon on the first day of January.

ECLIPSES FOR THE YEAR 1882.

In 1882, there will be two Eclipses, both of the Sun, and a transit of the planet Venus over the disk of the Sun.

1. A total Eclipse of the Sun, May 17. Visible in Europe, Asia, and in Northern and Central Africa.

2. An annular Eclipse of the Sun, November 10, invisible in North and South America. Visible in Australia, Polynesia, and the Southern regions of the Pacific ocean.

A transit of Venus over the Sun's disc will occur on December 6. Visible in a greater or lesser degree to a large part of the world, except to Eastern Europe and to Asia; and wholly visible to the Eastern portion of North America and to South America. Invisible to most of the United States lying west of 110° W. longitude from Greenwich. There will be four contacts of the circular disk of the Sun and the planet.

AMERICAN ALMANAC FOR 1882.

PERPETUAL

CALENDAR.

For finding the day of the week on which any day of any month falls, (or the day of the month of any given day of the week) in any year before or after Christ, Old Style or New.

years being in

40

41

42

43

serted twice, the

46

47

48

48

first number is

52

52

53

54

used when the

69

60

2. Find the year in "Years of the Century; follow up the column to the day on the same horizontal line with the given cenFind this day tury. under the given month. The figures above it in the same vertical line show the dates of that day during the given month, and the weekdays in the same horizontal line to the right or left have their respective dates above them, thus forming the entire calendar for that month and year. EXAMPLE 1.-To find the day of the week for July 4th, 1881. Opposite Century 19, New Style, and over year 81, is Saturday. Under July, Saturday falls in the vertical line under 2, and the second day to the right following, under 4, is Monday, July 4th. EXAMPLE 2.-To find the day of the week on which Columbus discovered America, October 12th, 1492, Old Style. Opposite Century 15, Old Style, and over 92 in black letter (it being leap year,) is Monday. Therefore, October 8th was Monday; and the line of week-days in which Monday falls under October (which is the sixth,) with the days of the month above, constitute the entire Calendar for October, 1492, Old Style, and the 12th, as seen, falls on Friday.

EXAMPLE 3.-To find the 1st Tuesday after the 1st Monday in November, (Election Day,) 1882. Find 82 in "Years of the Century;" follow up the column to the day on a line with the figure 19 of the "Centuries, New Style:" this will be found to be Sunday. Under November, Sunday is found in the vertical line under 5, of the calendar above, Monday to the right of it under 6, and Tuesday under 7. So the Tuesday after the first Monday, is the 7th.

6

12

23

34

40

45

51

56

62

THE TIME OF HIGH WATER

at the places following may be found approximately for each day by adding to or subtracting from the time of high water at New York the hours and minutes annexed.

[Corrected at the office of the United States Coast and Geodetical Survey.]

EXAMPLE.-To ascertain at what hour it will be high tide at Baltimore on the 1st of August, find the time of high water at New York under August 1st, which is 4.24 A.M., then add 10 hours 52 minutes, as found in the table of Tide Constants under Baltimore, and we have 3.16 P.M. as the hour of high water at Baltimore August 1st, 1880.

NOTE.-The hours of high water in the calendar pages are the morning hours -from midnight to noon-throughout the year, as computed for the U. S. Coast Survey. To find the time of next high water, or the afternoon tide-from noon to midnight-add 12 h. 25 m. in each day. The result will be the proximate hour of evening tide. For low water, add 6 h. 12 m., approximately, to the time of high water.

Explanation of the Calendar.

THE two natural divisions of time are the day, of 24 hours, representing one revolution of the earth on its axis, and the year, 365 days, approximately representing one revolution of the earth around the sun. The month represents (nearly) the period of the moon's revolution round the earth (about 291 days), while the week is approximately one-fourth of this.

By the Julian Calendar, established by Julius Cæsar, 46 B.C., the months were reconstructed; the Roman year, which began March 1, and had but ten months, being changed to Jan. 1, and two months added. Thirty-one days were given to the 1st, 3d, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th, and 12th months, and 30 days each to the rest, except February, which on every fourth year received an intercalary day, made by the sexto Calendas Martius, whence "leap year" came to be called Bissextile. As the Julian year had 36514 days, its length exceeded the true solar year by 11m.14 sec., so that the equinox in the course of centuries fell back several days. To correct this error, Pope Gregory XIII. in 1582 reformed the calendar by suppressing ten days, restoring the equinox to March 21. The Gregorian Calendar also made every year which is divisible by four without & remainder a leap year, except the centesimal years, which are only leap years when the first two figures are divisible by four: thus 1600 was a leap year, 1700, 1800, and 1900 common years, 2000 a leap year, etc. The length of the mean year is 365 d. 5h. 49m. 12 sec., exceeding the true solar year nearly 26 sec., which error amounts only to 1 day in 3.325 years.

The Gregorian Calendar was adopted by Germany in 1700, and by English law in 1752, when the Julian Calendar, or old style, gave place to the new style, by dropping eleven days from the month of September, 1752.

The festival of Easter, commemorating the resurrection of Christ, used to be observed on the 14th day of the moon, i.e., near the full moon-the same as the Jewish Passover. But the Council of Nice, A.D. 325, ordered Easter to be celebrated on the Sunday next succeeding the ful' moon. that comes on or next after the vernal equinox-March 21st; thus makin, Easter and the related feast and fast days movable holidays.

To find the time of high tide at fifty places in the United States, see page 5. JANUARY is so named from the Roman Janus, who was the porter of heaven, having the surname of Patulcus, the opener. He presided over the beginning or opening of everything, hence the first month of the year was called after him, when the Roman year was altered by Numa Pompilius (in the 7th century B. C.,) from ten months beginning in March, to twelve months by adding January and February. In his original character Janus was the god of the sun, and worshipped as such by the Etruscans and the Romans. The temple of Janus, (which was really a covered passage or gate at Rome) was left open in war as a symbol that the god had gone out to assist the Roman arms, while it was continually shut in time of peace.

On New Year's day, which was the festival of the god Janus, the Romans gave presents to one another. Thus ancient was the origin of the modern custom of New Year's presents and first of January festivities.