Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1912-12-26

time of the year
az we know It
now. Little more than twenty centu-
ries of the earth's annual celestial
tours have been tailed with the year
as the unit of time. This innovation
is credited to Eratosthenes, mathe-
matician and philosopher, who held a
Job as librarian for one of the Ptol-
emys at Alexandria about 254 years
before Christ. Eratosthenes no doubt
found delight in devising a system by
which future ages could eat their
meals and go to bed and get up again
without having to first run out into
the yard to see where the sun or
moon or some starry constellation
might chance to be.
We all know that the year is the
period in which the sun makes a COM
plete circuit of the heavens and re-.
turns to the point in the zodiac
whence 1t started, but we never stop
to question how or why. 1t Is enough
for us that calendars and almanacs
are thrown u way for the asking,
wherein we find each day Of the
month and of the year carefully num-
bered.
Our years are Of the Christian era
n extend from January l to Decem-
Der 81. This era was first used by
Dionysius Exigus in A. D. 533. 1t was
more than a thousand years before
the year was begun on January l by
many nations. Before the days of
Eratosthenes there seems to have
been no crying demand for a precise
plan of counting time. In one city
the reckoning was by a succession of
kings, in another by a succession Of
magistrates or priests. Even after
the adoption in European countries of
the Christian era there were SO many
methods Of dating-national, provin-
cial and ecclesiastical-that only con
fusion could result. Mythology long
had held a higher place than astron-
omy.
Peoples of Egypt and Babylonia are
said to have been wiser than those
OF other nations that figure in the CEN
turtles following them. Sages of those
olden times yer familiar with the
heavens, but the Greeks who followed
them could not calculate the advent
of their moons in conjunction with
the sun. The Hebrews before going
down into Egypt and the Arabians
before the time of Mohafdmed calcu-
lated time only by the moon. They
figured IL lunations or 354 days as
the duration of the year. On that
basis the New Years day returned to
the same season once in SO years.
Moses is said to have obtained all of
his chronological knowledge from
the Egyptians who learned the length
OF the tropical year by observing the
rising Of Sirius, the dogstar.
Some troubles Of the Jews in keep
ing their calendar straight are told in
the Jewish encyclopedia. In early
times an extra month was thrown in
every two or three years. Calcutta
tons Of the relative length of the
solar and lunar years were handed
down by traditions in the p%atriarchial
family. 1t raj possible also to Judge
by the grain harvest. II the month
of Nissan arrived and the sun was SO
far from the vernal equinox that 1t
cpdid not reach 1t by the 18th of the
month, the month was not called MI
san, but Adar Sheni (second).
The country people and the inhab-
Qts of Babylonia were informed of
beginning Of the month by fire
signals, carried from station to sta
IN in the mountain country.
Under the p~atriarchate of Rabbi
Dab L." says the Jewish encyclo-
la, the Samaritans, in order to on
the Jews, set fire signals at i'm
Ter times and thus caused the
8 to fall into error with regard
the day of the new moon. Rabbi
5ah accordingly abolished the fire
Signals and employed messengers"
The Jewish calendar reckons the
days from evening to evening in &C.
cordance with the order observed in
the biblical account of the creation.
The Jewish cycle In nineteen years
exceeds the Gregorian by 2 hours, s
minutes and 1853 seconds. This makes
a difference in a hundred cycles
(1,900 years) OF 8 days, 81 hours, AZ
minutes and 5 seconds. The assumed
duration Of the solar year Is 6 min
ptes 80 1857 seconds in excess of the
astronomical value, which will
70 the dates Of the commencement
ssuture Jewish years, that are 30
mated, to advance from the equi-
g6x a day In error In 216 years.
ALI European countries borrowed
civil calendars from the Romans. The
year began with March and that ac-
counts for the present Of the
last four months Of the year. In the
reign Of Numa two months were add
%, January at the beginning and Feb
ruary at the end. In 642 B. G. Feb
ruary vas given It's present place. At
at time the months had twenty-nine
a thirty days alternately, SO that
year had 345 days; to make this
2 fortunate under the old super
Ion that Tuck lies In odd num-
one day was added. The moon
akes q revolution In about twenty
ne and one-half days and twelve lu-
atons form a period Of 1854 days. To
e the civil calendar even with the
oihr year Numa ordered an addition
month to be inserted every second
ear between the zSrd and Gath OF
february consisting Of twenty-five