Travelers can visit the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile—one of most famous monuments in Paris and a center of celebration during French National Day (Bastille Day)—during Grand Circle’s The Seine: Paris to Normandy River Cruise.
Answer: What country formally adopted a 10-hour day decimal clock—and then formally abandoned it 17 months later?
Answer: France
By 1789, the American Revolution had passed—and now France was ready for theirs. People were hungry, the nation was bankrupt, and the French no longer considered their king and queen divinely ordained. So, when an angry mob of Parisians stormed the Bastille—a symbol of the king’s tyranny—on July 14 of that same year, the French Revolution began. Over the next ten years, a tumultuous sequence of events led to the fall of the monarchy, the establishment of the republic, and the radical transformation of French society.
The goal of the revolutionaries wasn’t just to topple the monarchy, however. They wanted to completely sever ties to the past—especially from the clutches of the Catholic church. One step taken by the new government to eliminate traces of the ancien régime was the creation of a new calendar—because the Gregorian calendar and its association with saints and religion simply wouldn’t do. Remember, this is a time when French philosophers like Diderot were running around saying: "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." The new French Republican calendar featured a 10-day week with 30 days in each month—with the five or six remaining days at the end of the year designated as national holidays.
This overhaul of how France would measure the passage of time in the new Republic went a lot further than that. On November 24, 1793, France adopted "decimal time," with all clocks and watches showing ten hours instead of twelve. Now there would be 10-hour days, 100 minutes per hour, and 100 seconds per minute. With every hour now more than twice as long as an hour of standard time, one can imagine the confusion that ensued—and the appointments missed.
The switch over to decimal time shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise, however. The idea had been floating around France for a few decades prior to the Revolution—at least since 1754, when the mathematician Jean le Rond d’Alembert argued that it would be both easier and more convenient to calculate times that were divisible by 10 (maybe for mathematicians, but what about the rest of us?). But the French revolutionaries embraced the concept as it aligned with their goal of shedding ties to the past.
Such a radical transformation of the way we measure the passage of time was never going to be easy. But however confusing and burdensome it would be to French society, it’s not like anyone was going to complain about it. The Reign of Terror was in full swing at the time, and thousands of people were losing their heads to "Madame Guillotine"—often for crimes as small as sharing a negative opinion about the revolution. The basket filled up with heads of monks and magistrates, doctors and lawyers, farmers and artisans—and, of course, Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette.
Even with the introduction of new clocks and watches that displayed both decimal time and the "old" time, it was still far too confusing. But the deeply unpopular shift to decimal time would become a moot point when Napoleon declared himself emperor in 1804. After patching things up with the Vatican he ditched the French Republican calendar and reinstated the Gregorian calendar. And on April 7, 1795—just 17 months after it was introduced—the novel concept of French Revolutionary (or Decimal) Time was no longer mandatory. So, while France returned to boring 24 hours a day, 60 minutes an hour, and 60 seconds minute time, digital time would be relegated to the dustbin of history.
Yes, decimal time in France was a spectacular failure. But before the snickering ensues, consider another system of measurement introduced during the French Revolution—one that was not only a resounding success in France but throughout the world. Prior to the French Revolution, weights and measures varied greatly from nation to nation—and even within nations. In France alone, it is estimated that some 250,000 different units of weights and measures were in use at the time—making trade with other nations next to impossible. That all changed with, wait for it … the metric system. And it didn’t take long for the metric system to become the official system of measurement for every country in the world. Well, every country except for three—Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States.
Perhaps the concept of decimal time wasn’t so revolutionary, after all …
- Once upon a time in China: Decimal time had been used in China for millennia with days divided into 100 parts called ke. It was abandoned in the 17th century when Jesuit astronomers brought them the European duodecimal system, or "Western time," with its twelfths.
- French decimal time—part deux: A hundred years after the revolution, France decided to give decimal time another shot. In 1897, the Commission de Décimalisation du Temps announced plans for a 24-hour day with 100-minute hours, and 100 seconds per minute. The entire proposal was scrapped in 1900.
- A Swiss decimal clock? Now that’s just cuckoo: And a hundred years after that, in October of 1988 the Swiss company Swatch proposed switching over to "Internet Time". Similar to "French Revolutionary Time," days were to be divided into 1,000 "beats" and there would be no more international time zones. You had to purchase their Swatch, of course. But even then, the concept was too confusing, and it failed miserably. But Swatch insists that the project is not dead—just in a "quiet ghost" state, whatever that is.
- Where no clock has gone before … The original Star Trek series used a kind of pseudo-decimal system of date and time measurement called Stardate. Based on the Julian calendar, it used values of four digits plus one decimal (Captain’s Log; Stardate 5743.2). But it was never meant to be accurate and was mostly used because "it sounded futuristic."
- Decimal time wasn’t completely decimated: Decimal time didn’t come to a screeching halt in France on April 7, 1795. Even though it was no longer mandatory, cities such as Toulouse, Marseille, and others soldiered on and continued using it for several years. And thanks to advancements in astronomy using fractional days by the renowned French mathematician and astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace—who fashionably sported a decimal watch—decimal time lives on in astronomical circles up to the present day.
Learn all about the French Revolution and visit its iconic landmarks during your free time to explore Paris on Grand Circle’s The Seine: Paris to Normandy River Cruise.
