376 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1216 



The New Er.^ Calendar 



January July 



April October 



Sun. Moil. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. 



[Y] 1 2 3 4 5 6 



7 8 9 10 11 12 13 



14 15 16 17 18 19 20 



21 22 23 24 25 26 27 



28 29 30 * * * * 



February 



May November 



Sun. Mon. Tue. "Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. 



12 3 4 



5 6 7 8 9 10 11 



12 13 14 15 16 17 18 



19 20 21 22 23 24 25 



26 27 28 29 80 * * 



March 



September 



June 



December 



Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. 



1 2 



3 4 5 6 7 8 9 



10 11 12 13 14 15 16 



17 18 19 20 21 22 23 



24 25 26 27 28 29 30 



31 [L] * 



THE MONTHLESS OE EXTRA DATS 



[Y] — The Year-Day precedes January 1 every 

 year. 



Bule: Divide number of year by 7; if the 

 remainder is 0, the Year-Day is Year- 

 Saturday; if the remainder is 1, Year- 

 Sunday, etc. (Example: In 1904 Year- 

 Day is "Year-Saturday.") 

 1919 — ^Year-Sunday 1922 — Year- Wednesday 



1920 — Year-Monday 1923 — Year-Thursday 



1921 — Year-Tuesday 1924 — Year-Friday 



[L] — The Leap-Day precedes July 1 every fourth 

 year (excepting the years 1700, 1800, 1900, 

 2100, 2200, etc.). 



Bule: Divide number of year by 28; if re- 

 ' mainder is 0, the Leap-Day is Leap-Sat- 



1 urday; if remainder is 4, it is Leap- 



Sunday; if 8, Leap-Monday, etc. But 

 there are no Leap-Days in years divisible 

 by 100 and not by 400. (Example: 

 There is no Leap-Day in 1900; in 1904 

 Leap-Day is "Leap-Saturday.") 

 1920 — ^Leap-Wednesday 1928 — Leap-Friday 



1924 — Leap-Thursday 1932 — Leap-Saturday 



tory this is interesting. But is it fitting that 

 the modern world should be put to serious in- 

 convenience, merely to commemorate the 

 g-lories of the Augustan age? 



Several suggestions have recently been made 

 for a reformed Calendar. The "New Era 

 Calendar" is original, I believe, in one par- 

 ticular. It proposes to take the first day of 

 the year (the Year-Day) and the extra day 

 in Leap Tear (Leap-Day) out of the regular 

 order of week-days and make them up into 

 weeks of their own. In this Calendar, Tear- 

 Day belongs to no month at all; it comes in 

 between December 31 and January 1. In 

 years exactly divisible by 7, the Tear-Day is 

 Tear-Saturday, the next year it is Tear-Sun- 

 day, etc. Leap-Day comes between June 31 

 and July 1 once in 4 years (except in century 

 years). In years divisible by 28 it is Leap- 

 Saturday, 4 years later it is Leap-Simday, etc. 



Thus in 1919 the first day of the year is 

 Tear-Sunday, in 1920 it is Tear-Monday, and 

 so on — ^though the thirty-first of December is 

 Sunday every year and the first of January 

 is always Monday. The extra leap-year day 

 in 1920 will be Leap-Wednesday, in 1924 Leap- 

 Thursday, and so on. But June 31 is always 

 Sunday and July 1 is always Monday. 



Attempts to standarize the calendar so that 

 each date would always fall on the same week- 

 day have hitherto met with considerable op- 

 position from church authorities and devout 

 persons of many different creeds. They in- 

 sist on scriptural grounds that the seventh 

 day must always be set apart as a day of rest 

 and religious observance. The present scheme 

 provides for this exactly. There are 52 Sim- 

 days (and Saturdays) in each year, with one 

 additional Sunday (and Saturday) once in 

 seven years, and one more Sunday (and Satur- 

 day) once in seven leap years. This seems to 

 meet fully the requirements of the church and 

 of scriptiu'e. 



In other respects the New Era Calendar 

 copies an earlier Swiss^ proposal. It is simple. 



1 By L. A. Grosclaude, of Geneva. Virtually the 

 same scheme has been worked out (perhaps inde- 

 pendently) by several persons of different nation- 

 alities. Camille Flammarion proposed something 



