Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 81.djvu/590

584 On page 757 Professor Chamberlin advocates giving plenty of time to a careful study of a possible new calendar, but suggests that the best arrangement would probably be twelve months of four weeks each and four extra weeks, one placed at the end of each of the seasons. These intercollated weeks, as we might term them, would be used for closing up accounts in business and school-work, taking short vacations, etc. The 365th day he would make New Year's Day, with a leap-day added every four years. He proposes special names for the extra weeks, as, for instance, Christmas, Easter, Julian and Gregorian.

On page 917 Dr. Hopkins criticizes Professor Chamberlin's scheme and suggests instead, the adoption of eight 4-week months and four 5-week months, the latter to be 3d, 6th, 9th and 12th of the year. To avoid any greater space than seven between Sabbath days he advocates running all weeks consecutively and having every fifth year an extra so-called leap-week. This leap-week would be omitted each forty years, save the 10th and each 20,000 years except the 10th. This, he figures, would bring everything out all right in the long run, but he doesn't suggest how many of us will live to see that it goes through properly.

In volume XXXIII., page 64, Professor Barton analyzes the Chamberlin and Reininghaus schemes and objects to starting winter as late as the first of January, and also to so-called quarter-years having an odd week appended as making it awkward for the future timing of contracts, etc., especially those which are based on monthly periods.

On page 688, the late lamented Professor Webb recommends, as a temporary matter, that the years from 1918 until 1924, inclusive, shall each consist of 52 weeks or 364 days, and that we then shall commence a system of having each fifth year a long one containing 53 weeks, or 371 days. Subsequent to the last date mentioned he would abolish the term "month" and have as units only weeks and days, numbering all the days of the year consecutively and knowing them by such numbers. The inaccuracies of thus counting consecutive weeks indefinitely onward would be corrected by omitting the long-year in year dates divisible by 50, except at different intervals about 400 years apart.

On page 690 Professor Kent regards favorably the usual four quarters and twelve months, but would, in common years, give February 30 days by robbing two of the present 31-day months, and would give February an extra day in leap-year.

On page 690 Mr. Clifford has referred to the movements for reforming the calendar in France, Holland, Switzerland, etc., which have been going on for more than twenty-five years past without exciting much attention in this country. The general consensus of opinion abroad seems to favor the simple scheme of four quarter-years each with two 30-day, and one 31-day months, with a non-week day at the end of common years, and two of them in leap-years, the second one to be at