A HUMAN CELENDAR

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11955, 27 May 1933, Page 9

A HUMAN CELENDAR

up: KNOWS 1.500,000 DATES

J have* always. yearned- 'o meet a man like .Mr. .lames P. Giltics, of Mitcham (writes a s *'l'it-J/ii ’ rnan). You have, heard., perhaps, of men who ran write the Lord's' Prayer in a

circle the size of a three-penny hit, (.y dance the Charleston without abreak, or recite a Shakespeare plat backwards.. Their achievements are nothing to those of Mr. Gillies, who can tell you ih o day of .the week on which any date fell, from the year 1 A.D. to the year 4099 A D.! For five minutes -1 shot questions at him to which he jerked hack replies'almost'before T had completed the query. For instance:— • • “On what day did July'lst fall in 731 A.D.?” '‘Sunday.’’ LEAP YEAR TRAPS. “On what day of the week will. December 4th fall 14.63 years from now?’, “That’ll be a Sunday, too.” In questions like these it was impossible to verify his replies, so f. tried him with the date of my own. birthday. In a flash he remarked, “ Wednesday's child is roll of wo®. His remark was a gross libel on my happy lot, but the day he gave was certainly correct. One of the law days I prided.myself on remembering was that of the outbreak of war. “What day was August lib. 1911 S'* t asked. “Tuesday.” “Wrong-—Monday! I said, triumphantly. “No. it was a Tuesday/’ he insisted. And a Tuesday it proved to he when we consulted the calendar. Mr. Gillies, who was hern at Highbury and now works at a Mitcham factory, began to memorise the world’s calendar sixteen years ago. The task took him many years, hut to-clay lie has pigeon-holed .n his brain over one and a-ha If million dates which he ran recall in a twinkling. “Don’t think it was merely a matter of working hack from the presentday right through the centuries, writing the days down, and then committing them to memory.” he said. “Anyone, who did that would obtain a list full of inacciirac-ics. Epr in-

stance. how many people know that in ] 752. when the now-style calendar was introduced, eleven guvs—the -3rd to the 13th inclusive—were omitted, the. new calendar jumping the date from the 2nd to the 1-ith . of the month? That little fact alone would upset most people’s calculations. “’Then consider the Leap A ears. In 4.1 P>.C’ Julius Caesar decided to add one day in every four years to make the calendar year level with the astronomical years. Even then there

was three minutes a year difference, and this was adjusted by occasionnlly ,nissing what would ordinarily have been Leap Years.

III? SF/T.F.T. "‘Talking of history," T put in. r ‘°n what, day did the- of January fall in the year 13 A. 1).: T had hoped'to* catch him off his guard, hut without a seconds thought no il- - ‘Thursday!" I asked hint how he did i"'. ‘‘.ln the first place. I have a, mathematical formula of my own invention which 1 apply to any date you men non. But that formula changes when dealing with different counui, s. so that when. 1 hear a date montion-d l have to try it out in several ways before I can arrive at the true -o- --" Ve- he does it all in a <winkling. He is as quick when reversing Guv process. If you ask him on what nay the second Friday in November will fall this year, be will flash back at vnu, "The ninth