National Republican., 1883-04-13
RAILWAY TIME.

RAILWAY TIME.
Plan for Universal Schedule for Rum
ming Trains i'm all Parts OF the Country
No More Difference I'm Time.
The now system of railway time adopted by
the general railway time convention just held
in st. Louis, and noticed in st. Louis dis
patch published yesterday, has for a number
of years past been discussed and earnestly adj
vocated by various scientific associations,
the pioneer among which was the American
Neurological society, which meets in New
York in May and December each year. At
the first meeting of the body last named,
permanent committee was appointed to con-
slider and report upon the subject
of the adoption of standard of
time practically uniform throughout
the world, but having more immediate refer
cnce to what could be accomplished in the
United States. The most active members of
this committee have been Prof. Cleveland
Able, of the signal service, and Prof. Il. b.
Elliott, of the Treasury department, govern
ment aotuary by whom the reports of the
committee have been prepared An extensive
correspondence has been carried ON with
scientific and practical men in this and other
countries and valuable reports have been
made and adopted at the various stated meet
ings of the society.
The inconvenience arising from the variety
of time standards in use, numbering over
seventy on the railways Of the United States,
must have been felt by all who have had
occasion to travel by rail. In the same town
or city.it often happens that besides its own
local time there are from two TO six other
local standards in use OH the railways pass
ing through It, these standards differing from
each other by just such number of minutes
and seconds as may happen in any given case
to express the difference of time between two
places whose local time standards are in use.
In such cases IL is often next TO impossible to
keep in mind the exact difference between
local time and the timo of each particular
railway.
To obviate difficulties of this class the COM
mittee above mentioned recommended the
| adoption of standards which should absolutely
agree as to minutes and seconds for the entire
country, and, so far as the system may be eX-
tended, for other countries as well. The cs-
sential feature of the system recommended is
the reckoning of time for all purposes requir-
ing other than merely local standard from
meridian lines fifteen degrees Of arc, or one
| hour of time apart, so that the time OF each
| meridian adopted may extend about ~ de-
| grces of arc or thirty minutes of time on each
side of it. The meridians recommended as
standards for the United States were the 10Th,
| Goth, 105th, and 120th west of Greenwich,
| and these are the meridians adopted at tho
national railway time convention on We'd
| nesday, and from which railway time will be
reckoned after the thirteenth proximo. The
effect of this change will be that at any given
place there will be but one standard of rail-
way time, however numerous may be the
ways entering there and If the new system
| is strictly applied the railway time will never
| differ by more than thirty minutes from the
mean local time of the place; and such diff
ference as there may be- being the same for
| all the different roads, and unchanging from
year to year, will be easily kept in mind.
A uniform time standard, that of Washing
ton, d. c., was adopted for the through mail
routes of the postal railway service, under the
efficient tsuperintendence of Mr.. w, b. Thomp-
son, in September, 1882, since which time 1t
has been in force. An advance of about
eight minutes from themean time of WASH
| ington to that of the seventy-ffth meridian
will bring through-route postal time into
conformity with railway time as just agreed
| upon at the st. Louis convention, and this
change the postal authorities will probably
find it convenient to make.
The same system of time reckoning will
in all probability be early adopted by the au-
thorties controlling the signal service, the
sphere of whose observations extends directly
throughout the entire territory of the United
States and indirectly over u much wider
area, and to which precision in respect to the
absolute time of phenomenon observed is
of the utmost Importance.
Prof. Elliott has in his possession a watch
which some five years ago he had modified so
as to illustrate the system of time standards
under consideration, which he had already
f6r some years been advocating. Tho modi-
tication made in it consisted in supplying it
with additional hour hands, one for each OF
the four meridians to be reckoned from in
the United States, and also one for
tho meridian of Greenwich. One minute
hand suflices to indicate the minutes for the
several time standards represented by the
different hour hands Thus when 1t Is 9:20
a. M, Pacific slope time it is 1920 a. M. Rocky
mountain time 11:20 a, m. Mississippi, or Cen
trail time, l2:20p. m. Eastern time, and 5:20 p.
m. Greenwich time. The hour hands for the
United States are indicated by the letters d.
+, +, and G. d indicating Pacific slope time
and being chosen for that purpose as the
fourth letter of the alphabet and as represent.
ing the fourth hour meridian east from NhC
submeridian of Greenwich, which passe;
through eastern Kamschatka near Behring
strait