Demystifying science | The impossible reform of the calendar

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There have been many proposals for calendar reform in recent centuries.

Some have aimed to change the way we count years so as not to mention Jesus Christ (such as the expression “common era” to replace “after Jesus Christ”). But most aimed to rationalize the division of weeks and months to make the calendar simpler.

One of the proposals that had the most impact in the 20th^e century is Canadian. It is the work of accountant Moses Cotsworth, from British Columbia.

“Cotsworth is an important name in the history of calendar reform,” says Thomas Allen, a University of Ottawa English professor who wrote a chapter on Cotsworth in the book. Material Cultures in Canada, published in 2015. “Its goal was to standardize the calendar to facilitate financial reporting by companies. The Cotsworth calendar was used internally by Kodak, whose founder was very active in calendar reform until the 1980s.

Cotsworth’s “Fixed International Calendar”, proposed in 1902, provided for 13 months of 28 days, with a new month, called “sol”, in midsummer.

“And at the end of the year, there was one day off, two in leap years, which was not cataloged, so that we arrive at 365 or 366 days,” says Mr. Allen. Seen from 2024, it’s a bit weird. This made monthly reports easier for firms, but it complicated quarterly reports. So there was only Eastman Kodak as a big company that took this approach. The Cotsworth calendar was also called the “Eastman plan”. »

Easter

Cotsworth’s other desire was to have a fixed date for Easter, again to make business planning easier. “But it offended many religious people, who wanted Easter to continue to be determined in the traditional way. » The day of Easter was fixed by the Council of Nicaea, in 325, on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring.

Born in England in 1859, Cotsworth first worked for the railways before being hired in the early 20th century.^e century to reorganize the civil administration of British Columbia. He died in Vancouver in 1943 and his archives are held at the University of British Columbia. “It was a clause in his will, so I think he saw himself at the end of his life as Canadian,” Mr. Allen said.

It is no coincidence that Cotsworth developed a fascination with measuring time after working for the railways. “It was with the railways that we had to harmonize the measurement of time, to plan departures and arrivals and avoid accidents,” says Mr. Allen. The time zones were also decided at a major conference in Washington in 1884, where another Canadian, Sandford Fleming, the chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway, played an important role. »

Another Cotsworth whim was to prove that the pyramids were built by the Egyptian pharaohs to measure the passage of time, with their shadows.

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