Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 93, August 9, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 93, August 9, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
I beg to ask whether the existing knowledge of the details of Saxon
architecture substantiates Selden's view; and whether this bell was also
the alarum-bell of the castle, hanging in an outside turret?
Many thanks to my correspondent, and to "NOTES AND QUERIES" for the
introduction to his notice.
ALFRED GATTY.
Minor Queries Answered.
_Cycle of the Moon._--Can any of your correspondents inform me in what
year the new moon last fell on the _1st of January_? I am no astronomer,
but I believe the moon's cycles is a period of _nineteen years_, and
that whenever the new moon falls on the 1st January, the cycle begins.
BENBOW.
Birmingham.
[The above matter is made the more puzzling to all who are not
astronomers, by the pertinacity with which popular writers persist
in speaking of the moon's motions as if they were regular.
There is no particular beginning to the cycle of nineteen years:
anybody may make it begin when he pleases. What it means is this:
that in any set of nineteen years, the new and full moons
generally (not always) fall on the same days as in the preceding
nineteen years. For instance, in 1831, the 14th of March was a day
of new moon: go on nineteen years, that is, to the 14th of March,
1850; most probably, not certainly, this must be a day of new
moon. It happens, however, otherwise; for in 1850 the new moon is
on the 13th. But in the Aprils of both years, the new moons are on
the 12th; in the Junes, on the 10th. All that can be said is, that
where any day of any year is new moon, most probably _that day
nineteen years_ is new moon also, and certainly either the day
before or the day after. In that cycle of nineteen years, which is
called the cycle of the _golden number_, there is an arbitrary
beginning, which has something to do with the new moon falling
_near_ the 1st of January. The cycle in which we now are, began
(that is, had the year marked 1) in 1843.
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