Republican and other times again

Speaking of French Republican Time (below), Matthew Shaw tells me of an imminent symposium at the National Maritime Museum.

Matthew is the author of the fascinating thesis I mentioned. He has also published a book, Time and the French Revolution which I have not yet read but hope to soon. See it on Boydell and Brewer's website. They offer a Look Inside facility so you can see part of the book before buying.

French Republican clock

There are lots of pointless things you can do with Apple's iPad, but I was not expecting to find one so close to my interest in representing Time. It is French Revolutionary Clock by Miller Tinkerhess. It does very little – just displays a photographic image of a clock-face for a 10-hour day with the moving hands telling the correct time in Republican hours, minutes and seconds – but it does it well.

If you have an iPad dock, you can have a nice (expensive) Republican clock on your desk. Though not as expensive as buying a real survivor from the eighteenth century of course.

I mentioned the French Republican Calendar a couple of posts back. I am currently reading a fascinating PhD thesis on the subject, but more on that later.

The iPad clock is here.