PERPETUAL CALENDAR

U. S. Patents 1,718,314 and 1,784,177

June 25, 1929; December 9, 1930

In US Index of Patents, 1929, 658-660; 1930, 638 - 640.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE

__________________

WILLIAM JAMES SIDIS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PERPETUAL CALENDAR
Original application filed December 15, 1927, Serial No.
240,214.
Divided and this application filed June 13, 1929. Serial No.
370,713.

This application is a division of my application No.

240,214, filed December 15, 1927, Patent No. 1,718,314, June
25, 1929.

The invention relates to perpetual calendars in which

week-days can be found directly for any given date whatever;
and its object is, first, to provide a means by which all such
week-days can be looked up in a direct, simple and easily
understandable manner; secondly, to avoid the cross-reference
tables or complex mechanism, one or the other of which have
hitherto generally been features of perpetual calendars
providing means to look up the week-day of any given date
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whatever; thirdly, to provide a perpetual calendar which, once
the calendar is adjusted for any given year, a complete and
condensed calendar for the year is at once plainly visible;
fourthly, to simplify the parts and their interrelation by the
elimination of indicators or pointers which add both to the
difficulty and expense of manufacture and to the derangement
of the operation of the calendar.

The invention is illustrated in the two figures of the

accompanying drawing, the front sheet or card being
represented in Fig. 1, and the disk forming the remainder of
the calendar being represented in Fig. 2.

The essential features of the calendar are a front sheet or

card (see Fig. 1), and a disk (see Fig. 2), these two parts being
attached to one another by means of a pivot or other rotating
device whereby the disk may be made to rotate freely about a
suitable fixed point of the front sheet.
The said disk consists of two concentric sections, the
center being the pivot or axis about which the disk rotates;
these two sections are the month-section (1) and the year-
section (2).
The month-section consists of twenty-four or more
sectors, each containing the name of a month or a set of such
names. At least thirteen of such sectors shall contain the
names of months arranged in the cyclical order of the week-
days on which they begin in leap-years; and at least thirteen of
such sectors shall contain the names of months arranged in the
cyclical order of the week-days on which they begin in non-
leap-years; when several months in a leap-year, in a non-leap-
year, as the case may be, begin on the same week-day, all
such months are in the same sector.
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 The year-section (2) shall consist of a group of leap-
years (3) in seven sectors, and a group of non-leap-years (4) in
seven sectors, the sectors comprising each the same angle
about the common center of the disk as the month-sectors.
These sectors correspond to the month-sectors separated
from them by the same angle of the disk's arc that separates
the initial edge of the year-slot (5) from that of the month-slot
(6).
All the years within a definite period (in this case 1900 to
1956) are placed in one of the fourteen sectors mentioned in
the preceding paragraph such year being placed in the leap-
year or non-leap-year sectors according as it is or is not a
leap-year; and each year further being placed in the sector
corresponding to the months beginning in that year on the
week-day (Sunday in the instance illustrated) found in the first
row and first column of the week-day group (7) on the front
sheet.
The front sheet (see Fig. 1) of the calendar has two
perforations, a month-slot (6) under which the month-section
(1) of the disk rotates, and disclosing seven sectors of said
month-section; and a year-slot (5) of such shape and size that,
when properly adjusted, it discloses just one sector of the
year-section (2) of the disk, said sector being that
corresponding to the first month-sector visible through the
month-slot.
Upon the front sheet of the calendar also is a group of
week-days (7) arranged in seven rows and seven columns so
that in each row and in each column the seven days of
the week appear in the cyclical order in which they occur, and
so that the continuations of the seven rows fit the seven
month-sectors visible through the month-slot (6) when
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the disk is properly adjusted; also a group of date-numbers (8)
from 1 to 31, occupying the continuation of the seven week-
day columns, the said numbers being listed in succession, row
by row.
In addition, the front sheet of the calendar should contain
a conversion-table (9), stating how many years have to be
added or subtracted in order to use the calendar for years not
listed in the year-section (2) of the disk.
The pivot (10), or any other similar rotatory device,
furnishes a means whereby the disk may be rotated behind the
front sheet so that the year desired will appear through the
year-slot (the conversion-table being used in the case of years
not within the period covered on the disk). When this is done,
the months appearing through the month-slot, and the week-
days and date-numbers on the front sheet, constitute a
complete and condensed calendar for the year in question, the
week-day for any date appearing in the same row as the
month, and the same column as the date.
I claim:
The combination, in a perpetual calendar, of a disk
containing the months properly grouped in sectors and the
years occupying sectors of the same disk in a concentric ring;
a front sheet with two slots making visible respectively the
month-sectors and a year-sector, and containing week-days in
seven rows and seven columns, and date-numbers occupying
a continuation of those seven columns; with a pivot by means
of which the disk may be rotated at will with reference to the
front sheet.

WILLIAM JAMES SIDIS

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112 W.119 St.,
New York, N.Y.,
August 23, 1930.
Commissioner of Patents,
Washington, D.C.
Dear Sir:-
Re Patent Application No. 392,411, for
Perpetual Calendar, filed September, 13,
1929, by William James Sidis.
In reply to your examiner's letter dated
March 17, 1930, rejecting the above-named
application for letters patent.
Amendments are enclosed herewith to meet the
objections stated in the first two sections
of your examiner's letter, namely, that
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pertaining to the sliding device and that
pertaining to the alternative wording of two
claims.
I hereby submit that your examiner erred in
rejecting the claims on my former patent
No.1,718,314 (June 25, 1929), for the reason
that the present application differs from
that described in the claim of the patent
mentioned in more than the mere change in
structure from a disk to a sliding form. The
claim in Patent No. 1,718,314 specifies as
an essential part of the device claimed
therein "an indicator...rotating with the
disk, which can be made at will to point to
any year listed on the front sheet." The
present application describes a calendar
with this part eliminated, thus not merely
changing the structure from disk to sliding
form, but eliminating an important part of
the device.
I similarly submit that your examiner also
erred in rejecting the patent application on
Ross, for the following reasons:
(1) The Ross calendar denotes the years by a
combination in tabular form of century
figures and final figures. This device is
replaced in the previous application by a
listing of a number of years, with a
reference-table for directions to handle
years not listed. It is submitted that this
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change, in combination with the other
general features of the calendar,
constitutes the device in the present
application an invention distinct from the
Ross calendar.
(2) The tabular form for week-days in the
Ross calendar is one disclosing twelve rows
and seven columns, each row corresponding to
a month. In the present application,
however, the tabular form is one of seven
rows and seven columns, thus amounting to an
improvement over the Ross calendar whereby
all months beginning with the same week-day
are consolidated into the same row (or
column) of week-days on the calendar.
(3) It is submitted that the reversal of
parts itself is more than a mere reversal of
parts in the present instance, inasmuch as
the specification in the Ross patent
discloses that the arrangement adopted in
the Ross calendar necessitates a special
treatment of leap-years, the said special
treatment as disclosed in that specification
being a double entry of each leap-year, one
entry applying to January and February, and
the other to all other months. In the
present application, no such special
treatment of leap-years is required or used,
the calendar being operated for leap-years
in exactly the same manner as for other
years, the operation thus being simplified
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so that no such caution is required of the
user of the calendar. The elimination of
this special treatment of leap-years is thus
a simplification amounting to an improvement
over the Ross calendar which, it is
submitted, constitutes novelty.
An amendment is enclosed adding to the
purposes of the invention as stated in the
specification, which will bring out this
point more clearly.
Respectfully yours,

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