In 1793,the French flip-flop to French Revolutionary Time , produce a decimal system of time . A 24-hour interval had 10 hours , 100 minutes per minute , and 100 seconds per mo . The system was graceful , doing aside with the complex math required for time calculation under a 24 hour/60 minute/60 2d organization . But it also brought vast headaches .
French Revolutionary Time derive alongside theFrench Republican Calendar , a further endeavor to rationalize time . Months were divided into three 10 - day workweek , and there were 12 months . The remnant days need to add up to 365 or 366 for the year were tack onto the end of the class as holidays . This was a flake inelegant ( day and years being voiceless to divide flawlessly by 10 ) , but at least it was less confusing than endeavor to sort outwhat time " noon " was(it was 5 o’clock ) .
French RevolutionaryTimeonly live on 17 months . By April 7 , 1795 ( in the Gregorian calendar ) , the time organisation became optional . Decimal clocks anddecimal / standard loan-blend clockscontinued to be used for years , but for practicality , France returned to the same organisation of clip as its neighbors .
The French RepublicanCalendarlasted far longer . It start in recent 1793 and ran all the path through the terminal of 1805 ( again in the Gregorian counting ) . On December 31 , 1805 , the French government vomit the system — in the year XIV , by Republican reckoning . This was due , of course of action , to the sovereignty of Napoléon Bonaparte as Emperor . ( Incidentally , his enthronement come on 11 Frimaire , Year XIII of the French Republican Calendar — also live as 2 December , 1804 . It took him more than a year to roll back the revolutionary calendar . ) In any case , January 1 , 1806 rolled around using the Gregorian calendar and the rest is history .
Of course , all this calendar - nerd stuff leads to the fact that you could still choose to employ the Gallic Republican Calendar . Indeed , Wikipedia will tell you the current solar day and yearusing the system , although you ’ll desire to translate up on the recherche problems related to leap class ( also helpfullydetailed on Wikipedia ) .
For a act more on denary clip ( including several modern variants ) , match out our articleDecimal Time : How the French Made a 10 - hr Day .
