The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-11-19
BY MERIDIAN NINETY.
The New Standard Time Went Into
Effect at Noon Yesterday.
The Watches and Clocks at the Rail.
road Offices Set Back Nine
Minutes.

United States adopted the new central OF
standard time, and before long it will be
in general use throughout the entire
country. The central time is based upon
that of the Goth meridian, which is nine
minutes slower than Chicago time. All
the railroads running into this city, with
the exception of the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St, Paul, adopted the new time yes
terday, and that road will fall
into line next Sunday. The operators
at each of the Offices, were in their seats
ready for the word Time, which arrived
exactly at 12 o'clock. Besides the rail-
roads, the hotels. manufactures,
business places, and private individuals
regulated their time pieces. Mayor Mott
also gave orders to Superintendent Kerr
to regulate the water works whistle in
accordance with the new.system, so it will
be seen that standard" time is now in
general use throughout Rock Island. The
engineers and conductors of all trains that
left the city were required to register their
time, to see that it was exactly right.
THE INNOVATIONS HISTORY.
The number of people who understand
what this innovation is and who have fol-
lowed its Importance is not large. Those
who have most considered the matter saw
that as convenience in public business
the adoption of the new time standard
will tske rank with the American ;nyen-
tien OF the decimal system of currency.
The confusion OF time standards id
country with domain so broad as this
and such intimate commercial and indus
trial interests as exist longitudinally here
has been the source of degree of annoy
ance which can be better estimated when
it is wholly removed, as it win be grad
ually by the new standard. The remedy
occurred TO the scientific mind of Prof.
Cleveland Able, of the signal bureau at
Washington, a graduate CT the college of
the city of New York, and his plans were
espoused and elaborated by DR.. F A. P.
Barnard, of Columbia college, who, as a
delegate TO the international congress at
Liverpool last year, laid the foundation
for the eventual extension of the system
to Europe and the east Prof. Able pro
posed his plan as early as the year 1878 at
meeting of the American Meteorological
society.
THE IDEA MADE PLAIN.
A homely but apt illustration of the
idea of the new standard is furnisheds;.,.
the following; Let us G back to our n
- ~ y lays and recall the answer we were
accustomed to vociferate when the teacher
asked, What is the shape of the earth?
Round, ike an orange Now, let us
take this descriptive little ball of fruit,
and, stripping it of its rind, imagine that
nature has divided the inside white coated
sphere into twenty four sections, instead
of the eight or ten which we find it made
up or Ii these sections are of equal width
they will represent to us precisely the
twenty four sections into which the sur
face of the earth is supposed to be divided
to secure the basis of the system of stand
ard time-the standard in each section
being an even hour prevailing as the time
all over the area of the section. In the
circuit of the orange-or the earth, if you
please-the twenty four sections will thus
occupy successfully each and all of the
twenty four hours of the day. Suppose
next, that midway between the seams of
the sections of the orange, we draw with
ink twenty four lines-from to POLE as it
were-and conceive that one of these
black lines coincide with the longitude OF
Greenwich. Then the twenty four black
lines, which in the revolution of the earth
are just an hour apart in coming vertically
beneath the sun, will represent the twenty
four arbitrary meridians, each of which.
starting at Greenwich, is to give the time
to the country half way each side of it,
or, in the case of the orange, to the space
between the seams.
STANDARDS FOR THE UNITED STATES.
A glance at the map of North America
shows that about all the land is contained
between the 50th and 130th degrees of
west longitude. The hour meridians are
Is degrees apart. Prof. Able started
with the meridian Of 60 degrees west from
Greeuwich-or the four hour meridian
and proposed that it should give the time
to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick and all the maratime provinces
of Canada. His next meridian, the one
70 degrees west of and five hours later
than Greenwich, was to denominate New
England and the middle states, and Que.
bee and Ontario in Canada. The third
was the meridian of 80 degrees, the six
hour meridian being the longitude of New
Orleans, and was to fix the time for the
Mississippi valley. The fourth, that of
Denver and Pixies Peak-namely, 105
degrees, seven hours later than Green
wieh-was to govern the time of
the Rocky Mountain station, and the
fifth, that of Santa Barbara, California
1870 degrees-the eight hour meridian was
to be the standard of the Pacific slope.
To these he gave respectively the designa-
tions, Eastern time, Atlantic time, Valley
time, Mountain time and Pacific time. 1t is
only fair to another scientist to say, that
at about the same time that Prof Able
brought forward this plan one almost
precisely similar was proposed to the
Canadian Institute at Toronto by Chan
cellor Sanford Fleming, of the Queens
University, who, during his previous ca
reer as chief engineer of the Canadian
Pacific railway-an east and west line
had his attention directed to the necessity
of uniform time schedules.
Perhaps the most valuable feature of
the new time standard is found in this.
While the hour hands will differ from
section to section of Eastern, Central
Mountain and Pacific standard time, the
minute and.second hands in every rail
road office in the country adopting the
standard will point to identically the samt
figures. For instance. when it is fiftee,
seconds past some hour in Boston, it vii
be fifteen seconds past some hour in ever
city in the country. IF the hour nbe IL ii
Boston and New York, it. will be II il
St. Louis, 10in Denver and 8 on the Pa
citic slope
1T MAY GO ABROAD.
The adoption of the new system bid