Evening star., 1883-10-24
THE NEW TIME STANDARD.
me system Which 1t Is Proposed TO
Iake the Place Of the Present Time.

| Take the Place Of the Present Time.
| FOUR STANDARD TINES FOR THE ENTIRE coUN-
TRY-THE HOUR BELTS WHICH WILL. SIMPLIFY
| RAILROAD TRAVELLING AND PREVENT MIS-
| TAKEs-THE RAILROAD OFFICIALS ADOPTING
| THE NEW T1ME--ITg PROBABLE INTRODUCTION
ON THE 18TH OF NOyEMBER-wHAT Is sAu
AT THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY AND AMONG
RAILROAD OFFICIALS AND WATCH MAKERS IN
THIS CITY.
Peopie who travel, and there are but few in
these days who do not. feel the Inconvenience
Which arises from the difference in time betw cen
Tue various places. watch which the owner
mas perfect confidence in at home becomes a
source of uncertainty as soon as railroad train
| Is bearded. Its familiar face and trusty hands
inspires as much perplexity in the mind as il
the first was covered all over with Egyptian
hieroSiyphics and the latter pointed due north
ahd south. There is very good ground for this
perpiexity in the multiplicity of times, which
prevails on all the railroads that nterlace the
continent. 1t is said that there are at present
nall hundred time systems in vogue In this
country. fair example of the confusion thus
occasioned is presented by Buffalo. where some
of the trains are run on Buffalo time.
4
Philadelphia time. some on Columbus time.
some on Detroit time and some on Hamilton
time Trains run out of the New York Central
depot on four different kinds Of time. Those
| out OF the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia
on three. The confusion is so Great that il ia
next to impossible for the railroad people, to
say nothing of the travelling public, to keep
track of it.
THE TRIALS OF TRAVELLERS
Ira traveller attempts to depend upon his own
timepiece. he must either change at every point
where different time prevails, or he must be
posted in the geography of the country well
enough to determine whether he has Travelled
east or west in going from one place to another,
and how far. This is not such a simple matter
as it seems, and many well-informed person
would be puzzled to decide off-nand whether.
for instance. Baltimore was east or west of Wash
fngton. and how much. Everybody knows that
i'm travelling west. faster than the sun. YOU gain
time. and in travelling east you lose it, as com
pared with the time of the place of departure.
But Knowing the points of the compass suffi-
GENTLY well to determine the direction, in order
that this information should be of
value. the traveller must further know
the difference in time between the several local-
ties In country like this. where you can take
a berth in sleeping-car and wake up the next
morning in Pittsburg or New York, and then
travel Tor days, it becomes rather complicated
matter. The traveller to New York from Wash
!ngfOn would find that his watch was IL min
utes and IL seconds slow, and if he went to
P1ttsburg that his time was IL minutes and 56
seconds faster than his Washington time As
ne travelled further, especially on the branch
rOads and at the country towns, his efforts to
keep his watch in agreement with the prevail
Ing time would almost be maddening in their
results.
THREE TINES IN WASHINGTON.
Here in Washington we have three times
There is first the Washington time which is
furnished by the Naval Observatory, based upon
the passage OF the sun over the Washington
meridian. Then there is the time of the Penn
syiyana railroad, which is Philadelphia time,
seven minutes and thirty-four seconds faster
Tne Baltimore Il Ohio trains are run on Bati-
more time. which is one minute and fOrty-fYe
seconds faster than Washington time This is
merely sample of the condition of affairs all
over the country. There is in every
city and town the local time and the
railroad time-the latter being the
time of some central place in the local rail-
way system II this difference is source Of
confusion to the individual. what must it be to
the railroads themselves. especially as on all
the railroads OF consequence the trains are
started. run and operated generally By tele-
graph? A corps of experienced operators, VINO
are governed by a time regulator. give the time
TO the conductors and watch them from station
TO station. and from division to division keep
ing them and their trains at certain distances
apart and holding them back in case of a block
or an accident on one of the other divisions.
obviously standard time would greatly SIM
pity this SYSTEM and lessen the danger of ac-
cdents.
WHAT IS NEEDED.
1t is generally admitted that what is needed
is uniform time standard recognized through
out the country. In England there is but one
time, that OF Greenwich, but a few years ago
there was no uniformity in this respect and the
ann0yances and dangers were So great that the
change to standard time was effected with but
little opposition.
OUR BIG COUNTRY.
Owing to the extent of the territory OF the
United States where the difference in time from
the extreme eastern border to the western
limits is more than three hours, the adoption of
one time standard would be impracticable The
railroad time convention has therefore adopted
modification Of the system proposed by
the late Prof Benjamin Peirce, OF Harvard col
lege. which divides the country into hour
belts By means of this system all the people
within given section extending from the
farthest point north to the farthest point south,
and fifteen degrees wide will have the same time
standard conforming to the time OF the meri-
dian. which divides the section in the center
The officers of IS 900 miles Of railroad have con-
sented TO alter their time tables. and run trains
upon this uniform standard of time. 1t is believed
that all the railroads in the country will come
into this arrangement, and when the 18th of No
vember arrives, the time fixed for the introduc-
fion of the new system. the entire time of the
country, both local and railroad will be changed
to the new standard or standards. The system
Is such practical one. and the advantages aris-
ing from uniformity so great and so manifest.
that there is but little doubt of its general adop-
ton.
LOCATION OF THE HOUR BELTS
The first or eastern section in which Wasbnc-
ton is located will be governed by the time of
the seventy fifth meridian. Taking map and
tracing this meridian down it is found that It
runs little east of the following places:
Ottawa, Canada Utica. New York; Scranton.
EastOn, and Philadelphia, Pa. and little west
of Cape May. New Jersey, where it runs into
the Atlantic ocean.
AS the earth In Its revolution causes the sun
to pass over Is degrees of the earth's surface in
one hour, the next line Of the time standard is
placed in the ninetieth meridian or Just one
hour distant in point of time. This will be
called the central district and the line as traced
on the map Ia found to run through the western
part of Lake Superior, the center of Wisconsin,
the extreme western part of Illinois. then
SiiONtIv NJ