Someone has pointed out that the Gregorian Calendar was adopted in Germany in or around Bessler's time and can we accept the date of the 6th June as applicable today?
As we know, the 6th June 2012, will be the 300th anniversary of Bessler's first exhibition of his so-called Perpetual motion machine in Gera, Germany. Some of Bessler's accounts seem to suggest that he first set the wheel in motion on the 6th June 1712,as in his Apologia Poetica, "For, in 1712, during his stay at Gera in the Voigtland, he hit upon the genuine Prepondium, and so it was that on 6th June of that year he set in motion the first model of his Perpetual or self-moving Mobile, three and a half Leipzig Ell in diameter and four inches in thickness, for the very first time."
Whether that was the date of his first exhibition or the day he actually discovered the secret and set the wheel in motion for the first time doesn't really matter as we only have the date of the 6th June 1712 available. What might be important in determining the correct date for our anniverary is to discover whether this date incorporates the so-called 'New Style' dating or the 'Old style' dating. In England, dates in the Julian calendar that occur before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1752 are termed Old Style. The initials 'O.S.' appearing after a date indicate it is in the Julian calendar. The initials 'N.S.' or the phrase 'Stylo novo', indicate the Gregorian calendar.
The Gregorian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar.It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582. Although it was slow to be taken up even by Catholic countries, it eventually spread across the world, the last European country to adopt it was Greece in 1923.
The motivation for the Gregorian reform was that the Julian calendar assumes that the time between vernal equinoxes is 365.25 days, when in fact it is presently almost exactly 11 minutes shorter.The error between these values accumulated at the rate of about three days every four centuries. This is the basis for the use of the leap year. Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100; the centurial years that are exactly divisible by 400 are still leap years. For example, the year 1900 was not a leap year; the year 2000 was a leap year.
Because of the Protestant Reformation, however, many Western European countries did not initially follow the Gregorian reform, and maintained their old-style systems. Eventually other countries followed the reform for the sake of consistency. So despite the prudence of Pope Gregory's correction, many Protestant countries, including England, ignored the papal bull. In the Protestant states of Germany it was officially adopted in 1700 and the day following 18 February 1700, became 1st March 1700. So despite the factthat Britain did not adopt the new calendar until 1752, it is clear that we can accept the date of 6th June as according with the new style calendar.
I note that there are 172 days left between today and the 6th June next year - or 5 months and 20 days.
JC
