Bonne Année

Happy New Year! Be it your wristwatch, phone, tablet, kindle, computer, or even kitchen clock, they are all battery-powered and as we move into 01/01/2016, we go also back 140 years to 1876, when Gustave Trouvé obtained his very first patent: for an electric almanac and calendar:

“I am placing, on the pendulum, or clock, an electric contact which is made just at Midnight, every day, and whose current is transmitted by two wires, to an electromagnet placed in the almanac or calendar, and which has as its function to make pass or advance from 1/365 the strip, or disc, or paper, or other material, on which the days of the month are written, and as need be the lunar and astronomical tables, feast days and other ordinary indications of almanacs. It is understood that the battery will be placed somewhere in the electric circuit, either in the body of the almanac, or below in the apartment.”

Then we also note in our calendars, how in nine months’ time, September 2016 if all goes well, the long-awaited plaque will be inaugurated on the wall of the building where he had his workshop for 40 years: 14 rue Vivienne. Date for your diary….