THE BROOKLYN EAGLE VOLUME XIX. JANUARY, 1904. No. 1 OF EAGLE LIBRARY. HOME OF THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE HE enlarged Brooklyn EAGLE Building will be opened early in 1904. The completion of the new addition will more than double the floor space to be occupied by the EAGLE, making it one of the largest newspaper plants in this country. The newspaper presses will be in the sub-basement in plain view of pedes trians. The Business office will remain on the first floor. The Executive office and Information Bureau I will be located on the fourth floor. The fifth and sixth floors will be occupied by the Job Printing Department, the seventh floor by the Editorial and Reportorial staffs, the eighth floor by the Composing force, and the ninth floor by the Art Department. THE ART PRESERVATIVE TN none of the arts is the advance of the beautiful more pronounced than in that of the art preservative of arts. And it is by a return to the past, idealizing the typography of the Fifteenth Century, that the highest form of the beautiful has been attained. Within ten years the greatest changes for the better have been made. William Morris, of the noted Kelmscott Press. is quoted as saying in 1890 that no good book printing has been done since the middle of the Sixteenth Century, and that the degradation of the art had been largely due to mean types. He urged the use of better types, a tolerance of quaintness, and the revival of medieval methods. The adverse criticism of 1890 does not hold good now. A revolution has taken place in ten years from the over-ornate to the attractive and restful in typography. America has not been behind in this regard. The Jenson type is, perhaps, the best-known illustration. Between Nicholas Jenson and the American Type Founders' Company stretch nearly 450 years. It was in 1458 that Jenson, an engraver of the Paris mint, was sent to Mainz, by Charles VII., King of France, to learn the new art of printing. He studied for three years, and returned to Paris. In 1471 Jenson printed four books in Venice. He remained in that romantic city to the end of his life, in 1481. It is said that he was not the first printer to make Roman types, but that he made them better than did his rivals. In honor of this old typemaker the Jenson type of to-day is named. Like the French pioneer of the craft, the American type founders excel in their time in making the best faced type. On reflection, however. it seems strange that this handsome Roman letter, used ir Venice in the Fifteenth Century, reached in the highest degree the necessary qualities of legibility and purity of line, and that the Twentieth Century can do no better than borrow its beauties for to-day's readers. From the inception of printing from movable types, the masters who have handed down the honorable calling have taken pride in their work like all true artists. Pierre-Simon Fournier, in his Manual Typographique, wrote: Type-founding is not like other arts, in which imperfect workmanship may find a use proportionate to its relative value. Printing should tolerate nothing that is bad, nor even that which is mediocre, since it costs as much to found and print bad types as it does to found and print perfect ones." It is safe to say that the time will never come when the handicraft of the type-founder will be a lost art. The demand for the artistic in type, as well as in the other finer fancies of the age, is growing, and is being met by "the founders," by which appellation the printers of the entire country designate the American Type Founders' Company, embracing the best-known and oldest established concerns of a dozen cities. This Company is the originator of all the leading type designs, and has unequalled facilities for supplying everything required in printing offices. It has lately issued very attractive specimen books, which cover the widest range in type faces in both plain and original designs. Among the new faces are the Jenson Condensed, the Abbott, the Tiffany Text, Engravers' Italic, and Arlington Italic. Additional specimen sheets are constantly being issued from the office, corner of Rose and Duane streets, New York City, showing the new faces as soon as they are brought out for the public verdict. ASTRONOMICAL CALCULATIONS, 1904. Prepared for EAGLE ALMANAC BY BERLIN H. WRIGHT, PENN YAN, N. Y. ECLIPSES. There will be two eclipses this year; the least number possible, and as must always be the case when this occurs, both will be solar. This may happen at intervals of 4, 7. 11 or 18 years. Each eclipse is one of a series of from 48 to 77 that first touches the earth at one pole and leaves at the other, requiring about 1,000 years for the completion of its history, and when so completed does not recur for nearly 125 centuries. Each recurring eclipse will be visible about 120° further west than its predecessor, hence it will take three recurrences or saros periods-54 years, for the eclipse to again be visible in the same approximate part of the world. The eclipses for this year are: 1. An Annular Eclipse of the Sun March 17, invisible in the United States, except in the Philippines and Guam. Visible in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans, Southern Asia and Eastern Africa. The path of the Annular phase extends through Philippine Islands, Siam, Northern Sumatra to the coast of Africa at Cape Delgado, II. A Total Eclipse of the Sun September 9, invisible in the United States, except in Hawaii, Visible quite generally in the Pacific Ocean, and at sunset on the west coast of South America. MARS OCCULTED. The planet Mars will be occulted by the Moon December 2. The immersion will take place at 2.15 A. M., and emersion at 8.16 A. M., Eastern Standard Time. The limiting parallels are 57° north and 13° south, between which the occultation will be visible wherever the bodies are. The point of first contact will be at 4, and the planet will reappear at B, having apparently traveled from east to west behind the Moon. This is due to the more rapid orbital motion of the Moon from west to east. CHURCH DAYS AND MOVABLE FEASTS. Dominical Letter. Lunar Cycle (Golden Number)...5 Mohammedan Year 1322 begins March 18. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday after First Sunday in Lent ...... THE SEASONS (Eastern Time). .February 24, 26 and 27 ..May 25, 27 and 28 .September 21, 23 and 24 December 21, 23 and 24 89d. Oh. 38m. .92d. 19h. 53m. .93d. 14h. 49m. 89d. 18h. 29m. .365d. 5h. 49m. Tropical year. PLANETS BRIGHTEST OR BEST SEEN. MERCURY, as an evening star, setting shortly after the Sun, Jan. 1-4 (a); April 6-9; Aug. 22 (b); Dec. 13-16; also as a morning star, rising shortly before the Sun, Feb. 1-4 (a); July 2-5 (b) and Oct. 1-5. VENUS, not this year, but will be bright at the close of the year. MARS, not this year, but will be bright at beginning and close of year. JUPITER, Oct. 18. SATURN, Aug. 10. URANUS, June 19. NEPTUNE, Dec. 28. Planet. PRINCIPAL MARS, until May 30. JUPITER, until March 27 and after July 21. SATURN, until Feb. 1 and after May 11. URANUS, from March 20 to Dec. 22. NEPTUNE, until June 27 and after Oct. 1. PLANETS EACH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR. Jan. Feb. Mar. April. May. June. July. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. EXPLANATION-↑ Aries. × Taurus. II Gemini. Cancer. Leo. Virgo. Libra. In Scorpio. ↑ Sagittarius. 5 Capricornus. Aquarius. Pisces. The place indicated for the Planet is for the first, second. third, fourth and fifth Sundays of each month in the order named. NOTE-The phenomena of the satellites of Jupiter are not visible from Feb. 21 to April 26, Jupiter being in conjunction with the Sun March 27, and the planet itself invisible for some time before and after that date. The rings of Saturn will be best seen in the early part of the year. |