The Portland daily press., 1881-08-15
International Time.

To the Editor of the Press.
In recent issue of the PRESS proposed
that all the world should keep Greenwich
Mean Time, subtracting the nearest hour of
longitude, to be prefixed when necessary as
a Roman numeral; for example, that all the
Atlantic States of the United States should
set theirc locks four minutes slow of New York
and 40 seconds fast of Philadelphia and when
necessary, for scientific or other purposes, pre-
fix v; showing that the addition of V even
hours would give Greenwich time. L am told
that this does not differ essentially from the
proposition of Leonard Waldo, astronomer at
New Haven, Conn; and, if so, l am glad to
have his practical and practiced judgment
agree with mine.
The proposal has brought to me three letters
of criticism. One says, "The scheme works
well enough in Great Britain where local time
no where differs more than % minutes from
Greenwich but would not answer in large
country like ours" But if it works well in
country requiring in some places 25 minutes
difference from local time, why not where it
required 80 minutes? And 80 minutes is the
largest difference from local time which my
scheme requires for any part of the habitable
globe.
Another says, "Your scheme is far less
simple and thorough than one proposed in the
International Review, viz: to have the same
moment of absolute time called II o'clock in
all parts of the world at once, without regard to
the position of the sun with reference to your
meridian or horizon. If we have the trouble
of change at all let us have simple and
thorough change" He certainly does not ex-
press himself very simply; all that he says may
be put into very much fewer words; thus:
"Why not adopt Greenwich Timer" And an
swer that do propose to adoptG reenwich Time;
only propose in ordinary business intercourse
to subtract the nearest even hour of longitude.
thus get every single advantage of his
scheme, without the disadvantage of making
Quixotic attempt to induce civilized people to
adopt reckoning of time which would make
the hour have in different countries reference
to different parts of the day. The scheme of
the International Review writer, commended
by my correspondent, has not one single argu-
ment in its favor; it is purely whimsical
fancy, awkwardly expressed; mine is pract-
cal scheme, which with Barnaby Bates to
engineer it, might be brought into practical
operation within five years; and which would
result in thousand practical advantages.
Thirdly, a correspondent writes that it
would be dangerous scheme and lead to
many railroad accidents. "No railroad would
venture to propose it, he says. How in the
world this would happen, L cannot imagine.
Each railroad has a standard time. The New
YorkCentral runs by New York time; even in
Buffalo, where New York time is half an hour
fast. The Pennsylvania road, in the same
manner, runs by Philadelphia time; even in
Pittsburg. How could it endanger travel if
the roads centering in those two great cities
ran by one and the same time, the New York
roads four minutes slower, the Pennsylvania
roads 40 seconds faster than now? Both sets
of roads when they cross the Alleghanies con-
meet with roads running by Columbus time 45
Or 80 minutes different from their own. How
could it endanger travel to have those roads
running by Peoria time, 60 minutes different
from the Eastern, instead of As or 80?
1 remember in my boyhood the obstinacy
with which many persons refused to adopt
clock time. They considered it either blasphe-
my or insanity to say that the sun comes to the
meridian sometimes more than fifteen minutes
before twelve, sometimes not till nearly
fifteen minutes after twelve. But reason, and
clock time prevailed. The introduction of
railways and telegraphs requires now that
clocks, all round the world, should differ only
by even hours from Greenwich. Reason viii
again prevail. THOMAS HILL.