Volume 16 , Issue 32

1889 Capital Almanac of Miss Lucy Eckard

This is one of the old almanacs that belonged to Lucy Eckard that was recently sent to me by the lady who recently purchased the Old Sam Lindsay Place, five miles south of Monterey, Virginia.

In the year 1889 my grandmother, Constance Estella Warwick McGill, would have been six years of age. Around the same age as Lucy Eckard, her cousin. Lucy would have been my first cousin twice removed. Lucy's mother, Rhuhama "Hami" Gwin Eckard, was my grandmother's older sister. They also had an older brother, Walter P. Gwin. Their parents were Samuel Gwin and Eleanor "Ellen" Dever.

In 1889 there were five eclipses, three of the Sun, and two of the Moon. A total eclipse of the Sun, January 1, 1889 was visible to the larger portions of North America and the North Pacific Ocean, being total along a track eighty miles wide, extending from the Aluetian Islands, and running centrally through Point Arena, California; Winnemuea, Nevada; Mountain Meadows, Idaho; and terminating about Lake Winnepeg. Elsewhere it would be partial. It was invisible east of a line drawn through New York City and Ogdensburg. A partial eclipse of the Moon, January 16-17, 1889, was visible more or less to the world generally, except to Asia and Australia.

An annular eclipse of the Sun, June 28, 1889, was visible to the southern half of Africa, extreme Southern Asia, and the Indian Ocean.

A partial eclipse of the Moon, July 12, 1889, was invisible. It was visible to the northern half of South America and the most of Africa.

Estimating A Storm's Distance

Here is an interesting little tidbit we found in the 1889 almanac. It concerns estimating a storm's distance. First, observe how many seconds elapse between a flash of lightning and the thunder, multiply them by 1142, the number of feet sound travels in a second; the product will be the distance in feet. In the absence of a watch, the pulsation of the wrist may be counted as seconds, by deducting one from every 7 or 8.

Thunder can scarcely be heard more than 20 or 30 miles from the flash that produces it. Lightning on the other hand may be seen (or at least the reflection called sheet lightning) a distance of 100 or 150 miles.

Powers of Locomotion And Average Velocity

This is quite interesting, as to the powers of locomotion and the average velocity, as it relates miles in hours and feet in seconds.

• A man walks 3 miles per hour, or 4 feet per second;
• A horse trots 7 miles per hour, or 10 feet per second;
• A horse runs 20 miles per hour, or 29 feet per second;
• Steamboat runs 18 miles per hour, or 26 feet per second;
• Sailing vessel runs 10 miles per hour, or 14 feet per second;
• Slow rivers flow 3 miles per hour, or 4 feet per second;
• Rapid rivers flow 7 miles per hour, or 10 feet per second;
• A moderate wind blows 7 miles per hour, or 10 feet per second;
• A storm moves 36 miles per hour, or 52 feet per second;
• A hurricane moves 80 miles per hour,or 117 feet per second;
• A rifle ball moves 1,000 miles per hour, or 1,466 feet per second;
• Sound moves 743 miles per hour, or 1142 feet per second;
• Light moves 192,000 per second;
• Electricity moves 288,000 miles per second.
Government Officials of the United States

President Grover Cleveland,of New York; Vice-President (Vacant); Secretary of state Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware; Secretary of Treasury Charles S. Fairchild, of New York; Secretary of War William C. Endicott, of Massachusetts; Secretary of Navy William C. Whitney, of New York; Secretary of Interior William F. Vilas, of Wisconsin; Postmaster General Don M. Dickinson, of Michigan; and Attorney General Augustus H. Garland, of Arkansas.

The Census of United States

The census of the United States: 1790, 3, 929,328; 1800, 5,395,923; 1810, 7,239,814; 1820, 9,638,131; 1830, 12,866,026; 1840, 17,069,453; 1850, 23,191,876; 1860, 31,443,321; 1870, 38,558,371; and 1880, 50,152,866.

The Territories

New Mexico, organized 1850, 121,201 Square miles; Utah, organized 1850, 84,476 square miles; Washington, organized 1853, 69,994 square miles; Dakota, organized 1861, 150,932 square miles; Arizona, organized 1863, 113,916 square miles; Idaho, organized 1863, 86,294 square miles; Montana, organized 1864, 143,776 square miles; Wyoming, organized 1868, 97,833 square miles; Indian, organized 1834, 68,991 square miles; District of Columbia, organized 1790, 64 square miles.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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