The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-01-22
A Simplified Time Table.

"A 4AUACs
THE Chillicothe (O.) Gazette presents
to the railway managers of the country
the following suggestions for simplifed
| form of timetable:
The railway managers of the country
are the live, active men of the day, and
are not as rule those who carry dead
weight because their fathers did. Yet,
in their time-cards, they all carry an
incumbrance that positively confuses
the uninitiated Not one man in fifty
can take an ordinary time-card and, in
the multiplicity of a. ms and p. m. IS
dittoing as they do from the top and the
bottom of the card, figure out the time
from New York to st. Louis or Chicago
without becoming confused and uncer-
tain, and from New York 10 San Fran
cisco it becomes positive impossibility
with many more. Not only this, but
the railroad companies pay thousands
of dollars every year for the setting up
of these letters by the printers, and for
the cardboard and paper on which they
are printed, besides making their time
cards large and cumbersome.
1t is within the power of the COM
panies to get rid of these letters. They
now furnish the standard time to the
whole country. There is no more rea-
son why there should be two twelve
o'clocks in one day than there is why
there should be two twelve mile pos
on twenty-four mile railroad. Praa.
tically the day commences at midnight,
consists of twenty-four hours, and ends
the next night at midnight. BY &C
knowledging that fact and dividing the
day into hours and minutes, pdmbering
consecutively up to twenty-f0ur hours,
the record of time would be greatly
simplified. Thus, instead, of saying
1915 a. M, we would give the time as
fifteen minutes, written .15, showing
that it was the fifteenth minute of the
day. Instead of saying 1880 a. M,
80, or in the same manner for any
number of minutes up to l o'clock,
which hour would be written l instead
of q. m. The same rule would be fol-
lowed up, emitting the a. m. and p. m.
up to u so. What we call o'clock p.
m, under the new system we would call
thirteen O'Clock or thirteenth hour;
l 80 p. m. would be $50; 2
o'clock p. M, IA, and so on up to
twenty-four.
The system might sound a little odd
at first, but the ear would soon become
accustomed to it, and it has the positive
convenience that any figures which may
be written can designate but one time
of day, and that is certain as soon as
you see or hear them, without searching
or inquiring whether it means a. m. or
p. m. The only disadvantage it has is
that all the watches and clocks are adj
justed and figured for the twelve-hour
system, but with a person not absolutely
stupid at figures it would be no trouble
to make the calculations mentally, or
watch and clock dials could have the
additional figures marked in an inner
circle to those already on the dial. But
it would be but little while until all the
numbers would be definitely fixed in
the mind, and to say eighteen o'clock
would convey a certain meaning to the
mind just as much as when we now say
six O'Clock p. m.
AS we said before, the railroad mana
gers of the country have the matter of
time in their own hands. They fix it
for the country, can introduce this sys-
tenn, and greatly simplify their time
tables, besides reducing the cost of
printing them, and give them in more
compact form. We have suggested such
change to number of our railroad
friends, and while they all appear to
wonder that time-cards can not be
readily understood by the public, they
quickly concede that the system above
described would be simpler and not lia-
BILE to be misunderstood, and that the
adoption of it by one of the great
through lines of the country would bring
it into general use at once. The COM
panies, too, could count upon the active
cooperation of all the printers in max
ing the public familiar with the change,
for these a. ms and p. ms cause no
end of swearing every time a time card
is set up in every Office in the land.