Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-07-31
Time Around the World.

WE have received of late sundry queries
from correspondents relative to the gain
or loss of time in demonstrating the
globe. Those who have not found answers
in the columns devoted to such pur
pose will receive general response in
the following rather amusing discussion
recently carried on between two grave
and learned French sayants on the same
rather aradoxical topic. III. Jules Verne,
Of the French Geographical Society, has
written a book entitled "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 NJ. Verne
with the following conundrum CA 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 invariably answered.
Noon" He then inquiries "what day of
the week is its' At Brest "Thursdav'' 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 a 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 a
continent habited by civilized people
speaking the same language and that
there should he two neighbors separated,
say by 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 hour?"
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
circle around he.earth. This is so real
=
ton of the French navy gives a 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 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
made and a day gained or lost uncon-
sciously. Through an international 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 it 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 in
sailing round the globe to the east has
gained day in his reckoning; hence
both disputants are right, two SUNDAYS
have come together, and the happy de-
nouement follows.-,Sctentiic american.