'Metric' Time (was: New Here)

On Mon, 5 Mar 2001 12:56:44 -0800 (PST) Ethan Dicks <ethan_dicks(a)yahoo.com> writes: Actually, this idea of 'metric' time is nothing new. There exists watches from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, whose dials read *ten* hours, divided up into 100 minutes of 100 seconds each. Most of these came from France, as a government decree made them necessary, as per this quote from: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rkeulen/watch/metric.html "During the Revolution, the French tried to reenforce the 12 months/ 360 days - year, using a decimal timescale, adding 5 days of festivities at the end of the year. A day consisted of 10 hours of 100 minutes. Minutes were devided in 100 seconds. 10 days made a "week", called a "dekade". There were 30 days in a month. The republican calendar was not a succes and lasted only from 1793 till 1805." It appears that 'metric' timekeepers (and timekeeping) were unpopular even in their own day. (Aren't you glad?) OB Classic (to keep this even remotely n topic): The Jacquard Loom was developed at the end of this period, the worlds first programable piece of manufacturing equipment. (Perhaps those 9-day work-dekades were beginning to piss him off . . . .). ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.