Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1873-07-11
Time Around the World.

WE have received of late sundry queries
from correspondents relative to the gain
or loss of time in circumnavigating the
globe. Those who have not found answers
in the columns devoted to such pur-
pose will receive a general response in
the following rather amusing discussion
recently carried on between two grave
and learned French sdoants on the same
rather paradoxical topic. M. Jules Verne,
of the French Geographical Society, has
written book entitled a "Tour around
the World in Twenty-four Hours" What
the nature of the contents of the volume
is, we know not; but at all events it excited
NJ. j. Bertrand of the Academy of
Sciences, to attempt to pose M. Verne
with the following conundrum "a per-
son, supposed to be furnished with the
necessary means of transportion, leaves
Paris at noon on Thursday; he travels to
Brest, thence to New York, San Fran
cisco, JeddO, etc, returning to his starting
point after twenty four hours that is, en-
circling the globe at the rate of $50 of
longitude per hour. AT every station, as
he passes on his journey, he asks "What
time is it?" and he is invariabl Sanswered
"Noon." He then inquiries "what day of
the week is it?" AT Brest, Thursday is
the reply, at New York the same; but on
his return, supposing he passes Paris from
the east and stops at Pontoise, town
some 10 miles to the northwest of that
city, he will be answered Friday"
Where does the transition happen? Or
when, if our traveller is good Catholic,
should he consider Fridays abstinence
| from meat to begin? at is evident" con-
tinues the questioner, "that the transition
must be sudden, and may be considered
to take place at sea or in a country where
the names of week days are unknown;
but" he continues, suppose the parallel
at which it happens should fall on
continent habited by civilized people
speaking the same language, and that
there should lie two neighbors separated,
say by a fence on this very parallel
Then would not one say it was Thursday,
at noon, while at the same moment the
other would assert it to be Friday, at the
| like hour9"
NJ. Verne answers as follows 1t is true
that, whenever person makes the tour of
the globe to the east, he gains day, and
similarly when travelling to the west he
loses like period, that is to say, the
twenty-four hours which the sun in his
apparent motion occupies in describing a
circle around the earth. This is so real
and well recognized that the administra-
tion of the French navy gives supple
mentary days ration TO vessels which,
leaving Europe, double the Cape of Good
| Hope, while it retains on the contrary a
similar provision from ships rounding the
| Horn. 1t is also true that, if a parallel
existed, such as above described, across
an inhabited region, there would be COM
plete disagreement between the people
adjacent thereto; but this parallel does not
exist, for Nature has placed oceans and
deserts in our path where transition is
scf6dsyyn f6a ynd hff59GEgF f9E Fapea All S RPe9R con-
vention, the point for making the days
agree has been fixed at the meridian of
Manila. Captains of vessels, under the
same rule, change the dates of their log
books when they pass the 18th meridian.
Edgar A. Poe, if we are not mistaken,
avails himself of this apparent puzzle, in
one of his desultory sketches, to point the
story of an individual whose would be
father-in-law refuses him the hand of his
adored, with her concomitant of an agreea-
bly, large dowry, until that time shall hap
pen when 1.-TWO Sundays fall in week."
The luckless lover in despair goes to sea,
sails round the world, and returns to re-
new his suit exactly one year from his de
parture. In the course of events discus.
sion takes place between himself and the
stern parent relative to the present day OF
the week, in which he insists that 1t is
Monday, and the old gentleman is equally
positive that it is Sunday The one pro
duces his diary, kept since his departure
the other falls back upon the calendar
Finally it transpires that the traveller il
sailing round the globe to the east ha:
, gained g day in his reckoning; hence
both disputants are right, two Sundays
have come together, and the happy dc
lOIement follows.-Sctentifc american.