A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume IDe Morgan, Augustus
Philosophy
A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I
De Morgan, Augustus
Circle-squaring; Perpetual motion; Science -- Miscellanea; Trisection of angle
The following is some account of the announcement of 1849. The _Athenaeum_
(Feb. 17), giving an account of the meeting of the Astronomical Society in
December, 1858, says:
"Dr. Forster of Bruges, who is well known as a meteorologist, made a
communication at which our readers will stare: he declares that by journals
of the weather kept by his grandfather, father, and himself, ever since
1767, to the present time, _whenever the new moon has fallen on a Saturday,
the following twenty days have been wet and windy_, in nineteen cases out
of twenty. In spite of our friend Zadkiel[691] and the others who declare
that we would smother every truth that does not happen to agree with us, we
are glad to see that the Society had the sense to publish this
communication, coming, as it does, from a veteran observer, and one whose
love of truth is undoubted. It must be that the fact is so set down in the
journals, because Dr. Forster says it: and whether it be only a fact of the
journals, or one of the heavens, can soon be tried. The new moon of March
next, falls on _Saturday_ the 24th, at 2 in the afternoon. We shall
certainly look out."
{322}
The following appeared in the number of March 31:
"The first _Saturday Moon_ since Dr. Forster's announcement came off a week
ago. We had previously received a number of letters from different
correspondents--all to the effect that the notion of new moon on Saturday
bringing wet weather is one of widely extended currency. One correspondent
(who gives his name) states that he has constantly heard it at sea, and
among the farmers and peasantry in Scotland, Ireland, and the North of
England. He proceeds thus: 'Since 1826, nineteen years of the time I have
spent in a seafaring life. I have constantly observed, though unable to
account for, the phenomenon. I have also heard the stormy qualities of a
Saturday's moon remarked by American, French, and Spanish seamen; and,
still more distant, a Chinese pilot, who was once doing duty on board my
vessel seemed to be perfectly cognizant of the fact.' So that it seems we
have, in giving currency to what we only knew as a very curious
communication from an earnest meteorologist, been repeating what is common
enough among sailors and farmers. Another correspondent affirms that the
thing is most devoutly believed in by seamen; who would as soon sail on a
Friday as be in the Channel after a Saturday moon.--After a tolerable
course of dry weather, there was some snow, accompanied by wind on Saturday
last, here in London; there were also heavy louring clouds. Sunday was
cloudy and cold, with a little rain; Monday was louring, Tuesday unsettled;
Wednesday quite overclouded, with rain in the morning. The present occasion
shows only a general change of weather with a tendency towards rain. If Dr.
Forster's theory be true, it is decidedly one of the minor instances, as
far as London weather is concerned.--It will take a good deal of evidence
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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