854 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 857 



REFORMED CALENDAR 



A CALENDAR project which ignores the im- 

 mutable character of the week has slight 

 chances of being adopted because the week 

 is fixed by religious observance in all christian 

 nations. The calendar here proposed is based 

 on the week as a fundamental unit. It is 

 closely similar to the calendar recently pro- 

 posed by Dr. C. G. Hopkins, but differs in 

 that it consists of a year of thirteen months, 

 each four weeks in length, instead of Dr. 

 Hopkins's twelve months divided into quarters 

 of three months, each quarter containing two 

 four-week months and one five-week month. 

 Dr. Hopkins's reason for retaining twelve 

 months is that the quarters of the year may 

 be even months, but the value of the quarter 

 year as a unit of time is incomparably less 

 than the value of the month. It is highly 

 desirable to have all the months the same 

 length for the reason that salaries, wages, 

 rent, board and many other ordinary affairs 

 are counted in months. The advantage to be 

 gained by having months of uniform length is 

 one of the most marked advantages to be 

 gained by a reform of the calendar. 



In the present project the new month is 

 inserted between June and July. This is the 

 month in which the summer solstice occurs in 

 the northern hemisphere and the winter sol- 

 stice in the southern hemisphere, hence it 

 may properly be called " Sol " — the month of 

 the solstice. 



In the new calendar the quarters are easily 

 found, as each consists of thirteen weeks. 

 The four quarters would end on the following 

 dates : first quarter, April 7 ; second quarter, 

 Sol 14; third quarter, September 21; fourth 

 quarter, December 28; and these dates would 

 all be Sunday in the new calendar. The 

 present project therefore contains all the ad- 

 vantages of Dr. Hopkins's project, and the 

 additional advantage of having all the months 

 the same length, as well as multiples of the 

 week. 



Other advantages of the new calendar are: 

 the year always begins on Monday; every 

 month begins on Monday; the same day of 

 the year always occurs on the same day of 



the week; the same is true of the days of the 

 month. Thus, the first, eighth, fifteenth and 

 twenty-second of every month would fall on 

 Monday; the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first 

 and twenty-eighth of every month would fall 

 on Sunday. 



If desired Sunday may as well be taken as 

 the initial day of the week, month and year. 



An additional advantage is that a calendar 

 for one year is good for all future time, as 

 the years are all alike in all respects except 

 that every fifth year has an extra week added 

 to December, with exceptions noted below. 



The details of the project are as follows : 



Common years consist of thirteen months 

 of four weeks each, namely, January, Febru- 

 ary, March, April, May, June, Sol (the month 

 of the solstice), July, August, September, 

 October, November and December; 



Long years differ from common years in 

 having an extra week added to December; 



Years divisible by five are long years, with 

 the exceptions noted below: 



The extra week is omitted from years 

 divisible by 50. It is also omitted in the year 

 '25 following centennial years divisible by 400, 

 and in the year '75 following centennial years 

 divisible by 25,000. This makes a calendar 

 good for more than 300,000 years. 



In order to cause less confusion, this cal- 

 endar should be adopted in a year that begins 

 on Monday. In the near future these years 

 are 1912, 1917 and 1923. 



In order to secure the adoption of a re- 

 formed calendar, we must secure the appoint- 

 ment of an international commission with 

 representatives from all civilized nations. It 

 seems to me that our present duty is to begin 

 a serious attempt to secure the appointment 

 of such a commission. Can we not form an 

 organization for this purpose? 



W. J. Spillman 



Washington, D. C. 



QV0TATI0N8 



THE SCIENCE MUSEUM AND THE NATURAL 



HISTORY MUSEUM 



During the past few weeks we have printed 

 letters from several distinguished correspon- 



