"Robert J. Chassell" wrote:
> According to Fernand Braudel, 308 years ago today, on 3 February 1695,
> ....
> `At the king's table the wine and water froze in the glasses.'
Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> asks
Which calendar were they using? When did France switch calendars?
Being Catholic, the French were using the Gregorian calender.
(England did not make the switch until 2 September 1752.) Pope
Gregory XIII issued his bull establishing the new calendar on 24
February 1582.
According to http://serendipity.magnet.ch/hermetic/cal_stud/cal_art.htm
The Gregorian Calendar was adopted immediately upon the
promulgation of Pope Gregory's decree in the Catholic countries of
Italy, Spain, Portugal and Poland, and shortly thereafter in
France and Luxembourg.
Most books I have seen say that the switch took place in October 1582;
The day following (Thursday) October 4, 1582 (which is October 5,
1582, in the old calendar) would thenceforth be known as (Friday)
October 15, 1582.
but perhaps only Italy, Spain, Portugal and Poland made the switch on
the day following 4 October 1582.
Incidentally, that Web site says that
Sweden adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1753, Japan in 1873,
Egypt in 1875, Eastern Europe during 1912 to 1919 and Turkey
in 1927.
Moreover,
CE is also an abbreviation of "Common Era". The Common Era
Calendar is the same as the Gregorian Calendar except that instead
of numbering years BC/AD the astronomical system of year numbering
is used ....
Astronomers designate years prior to 1 A.D. by means of zero and
negative numbers, according to the sequence of numbers ..., -2, -1, 0,
1, 2, .... Between the year 1 and the year -1 there occurs the year
0. Thus astronomers adopt the following convention:
1 A.D. = 1 C.E. = year 1
1 B.C. = 1 B.C.E. = year 0
2 B.C. = 2 B.C.E. = year -1 and so on
As for fireplaces,
> This was the combined result of the little ice age and poorly designed
> fireplaces.
Were these poorly-designed fireplaces the norm, or did someone goof in
building the palace (maybe worrying more about looks than function)?
Poorly-designed fireplaces were the norm. Braudel says that over the
next 25 years, the design was improved; on the page after the previous
quotation, he says:
The hearth of the chimney was made narrower and deepened, the
mantel lowered, the chimney shaft curved, as the straight chimney
had has a persistent tendency to smoke. .... With a better draught
it was possible to heat reasonably-sized rooms -- not the
apartments in Mansard's palaces, but certainly those in the town
houses built by Gabriel. Chimneys with several hearths (at least
two, said to be in the style of Popelini�re) even made it possible
to heat the servants' quarters. A revolution in heating thus
belatedly took place.
As far as I know, the king sat at one end of the table with his back
to the fire, and was quite warm in all circumstances. The person at
the other end of the table was also warm. In the middle of the long
banquet table, people froze.
I don't know whether the fireplaces in the Hall of Mirrors ever were
improved. In any event, over the decades, the climate improved, so
the people around the Regent and the next king enjoyed warmer
temperatures.
The Franklin stove, which I think Franklin invented round about 1740,
was even more efficient than the new fireplace design, with less heat
going up the chimney.
--
Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
http://www.rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.teak.cc [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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