Evening star., 1940-02-22

Notebook Of Science Progress.
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.
George Washington, 1t IL recorded in
the family Bible now ut Mount Yer
non was born ye 18th day of Febru-
ary. 17sl/ /s2."
He was 81 years old on February %,
1853. Today, February % is the uni
veysally accepted anniversary of his
birth.
1t is generally recognized, in explana-
ton, that at some time between WASH
ingtons birth and the present the
calendar was changed, but 1t remained
for Representative Sol Bloom OF New
York, authority on Washingtoniana and
chairman Of the Washington Bicen-
tennial Commission, to delve into the
records of Parliament and find Just
what happened to cut II days out of
the life of the first President.
The difficulty goes back to julius
Caesar. With the help of learned
astronomers of his day he set up a
calendar. dating from January l, 4e
B. c. 1t assumed a year-the period
OF the esrth's rotation around the sun
of 1865 and a quarter days. To avoid
confusion. the Emperor decreed that
every fourth year should consist of
1856 days and every ordinary year of
365 days.
1t SO happened that Caesars wear
was II minutes and IA seconds too
long. This means an error of a whole
day in about 1913 years. 1t raised havoc
With the movable feasts of the Christian
church, such as Easter BY the time
OF Pope Gregory in 1882 the situation
had become intolerable. Also more was
known about astronomy.
S WV AoAicO u commission OF
scholars, the chief of whom was an
Italian named Luigi Lilo Ghiraldi. to
revise the calendar with days cor
responding in length more closely to
the time OF the earth's annual revolu-
ton. The result was the Greporian
calendar, still in use. Gregory ordered
that 1t be adopted in all Catholic coun.
tries.
BY that time, however, the Reforma-
ton had spread over half of Europe,
There was naturally intense distrust
OF any meddling with the calendar.
especially since it was necessary to
eliminate the eleven days excess time
which had piled up since Caesars day.
To many it seemed that eleven DAYS
was being cut out of their lives Added
10 this was the distrust in Protestant
countries of anything originating from
Rome. The authority of the Pope was
sufncient to force the adoption of the
new calendar. officially, throughout
Catnohc Europe. Protestant Europe
clung tenaciously to the calendar of
julius Caesar, although the superiority
OF the Gregorian system of reckoning
time was obvious.
The Julian calendar had been the
popular one In all countries. Some.
including ENGLAND, reckoned time Of
ficially by still another calendar, accord
ing to which, the year started on
March Is. close to the beginning Of
spring.
Events were recorded according to both
calendars. Thus, as was recorded in the
Washington family Bible, the father of
his country either was born in 1871 or
1882, according to whichever calendar
one preferred. According to the legal
calendar the year 1882 would not have
started until the 25th Of March after his
birth, although according to the Julian
calendar it had started the 1st of January
before his birth.
All this led to intolerable confusion.
especially in relations between a Pro-
testant country like England and Cath
olic country like France. To add to the
confusion, Scotland was oficially on the
Julian calendar. So in 1751 Parliament
adopted the Gregorian calendar for
Great Britain and its colonies, including
the Virginia of George Washington. This
required considerable juggling of dates.
The legal year 1751 had begun on March
Is. 1t was arbitrarily ended by this act
of Parliament on December 81, thus de-
priving it of nearly three months. Thus
Washington's Goth birthday was thrown
into the year 1852, instead of 1751. It
was still, however, on February II.
But it was necessary to make 1852 q
short year also to make up for the time
the year had gone awry through the
known error in Julius Caesars calendar.
So, as it was decreed in the act of Parlia-
ment, the text of which has been found
by Representative Bloom, "the natural
day following the I'd of September shall
be called the 14th of September, emitting
for that time only the II intermediate
nominal days of the common calendar;
and the natural days following the said
14th of September shall be numbered
foreward in numerical order from the
said 14th of September, according to the
order now used in the present calendar"
In other words the day Immediately
following Wednesday, September 2, 1852.
was Thursday, September IA, 1852. So
Washington did not actually become 81
years old until February %, 1853. The
anniversary has been on February %