Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1883-11-24
Ra,iroao Time and Sun Time.

EDITOR OF CHRONICLE Will
you make room for a few words
about the change of railroad time
just adopted That it will be OF
great service towards establishing
uniformity of time in the running
of trains | have no doubt, and am
satisfied that the travelling public
will be the gamers, both in safety
and convenience. On the other
hand, 1 very much doubt the expe-
diency of changing the local time
in towns and cities for the purpose
of conforming to the new arrange
ment.
To make my reasons clear | will
commence with brief statement
of the new time system adopted by
the railroad companies throughout
the United States
The United States are by the new
arrangement divided into four Ion
gitudinal belts, each of the width
of fifteen degrees Of longitude. e.,
from east to west. The longitude
nal centres OF the respective belts
are the meridians OF Is, 80, 1O5 and
100. Each belt, therefore, in order
to comprise its allotted width of Is
degrees, must extend seven and
half degrees east and west of its
central meridian. The greater part
of Tennessee is situated within the
second belt, whose central meridian
is that of 80 west of Greenwich. 1t
extends eastward to $3.50 and west
ward to $3.50. Its central meridian
passes very near Memphis; its east
ern border passes through Jones'
boro in this State, and its western
border through about the centre of
Indian Territory. Now by the new
arrangement the railroad time for
the whole of each belt is to be the
sun time of its central meridian.
So that on the meridian of so
watches set by the sun and those
set by the railroad time will be to-
gether Not so Oh the borders of
the belt. A place on its western
border will have to set its watches
half an hour fast, and one on the
eastern border half an hour slow,
in order to. accord with railroad
time.
Now let US illustrate the effects of
this: Memphis being nearly on
the central meridian of our belt
will feel very little difference, its
clocks will have to be set two min
utes fast to accord with railroad
time; our clocks bave been set back
eleven minutes, and generally for
every degree east of 80 they will be
set back four minutes until, when
we arrive at the eastern limit of our
belt, the clocks will be half an hour
behind the true time. But further
than this, if you cross the eastern
limit of our belt you will suddenly
find yourself in a district where the
clocks are half an hour ahead of the
true time, so that in stepping over
the meridian of $3.50 you find the
clock half an hour fast-in other
words, your watch if set according
to our belt will be an hour behind
the time as soon as you cross the
meridian.
To make the matter still palmer !:
Jonesboro, Tennessee, lies a very
little beyond the eastern boundary
of our belt, no doubt it has suburbs
within our belt. The clocks and
watches therefore in the city will be
set according to the time of merid-
ian, rs Chat of the first belt), and
those OF the suburb according to
meridian 80, and there will be an
hours difference between them. A
person, therefore, who lives in the |
western suburb will start at six in |
the morning to catch a train in |
town, and as soon as he gets there |
will find that it is after seven and
the train has been gone an hour.
Now this dividing line between
the two belts passes through some
of the most populous districts in the
United States, the centre OF Ohio for
instance, and, if the people agree to
set their clocks and watches accord
ing to railroad time and not by the
sun, the confusion liz time arising
between towns and villages east
and west of the line will be incalcu-
liable.
To return to GAINESVILLE. 1t has
been seen that the error in railroad
time is least near the central merid-
ian of a belt and greatest on its
eastern and western boundaries.
We are a little over two and half
degrees east of our central meridian,
and the error of railroad time is
eleven minutes here. To accord
with it our city time has been put
back eleven minutes. What the
gain has been by placing our clocks
and watches that far wrong L can
not see. Our city time has always
been different from railroad time
w it'll no inconvenience to our citi-
zens. They have always known
that city time was eight minutes
behind railroad time, and they
would have known equally well
that it was eleven minutes ahead
of it if city time had remained un-
There would have been some rea-
son for setting our clocks that much
wrong if there were probability of
its being done all over the United
States. but it certainly will not. In
West Tennessee where the differ
ence will be very slight it may be
done, but in East Tennessee it will
not, especially near the
of JOnesboro, where it
would make an hours difference
between a mans clock and that of
his next neighbor. Whether the
change that has been made in !
was made by order of
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