Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1884-01-02
The New Standard Time.


On Sunday, the 18th day of No
vember of the present year, the clocks
in nearly all the United States and
Canada were set forward or backward
to indicate Standard Time. The
change was in no case more than hall
an hour. Nearly all the town clocks
in the country were changed on IT,
same day. This kind of time 'How
shown by all clocks and W. , ,.n. anu
very few people noti"- my o,''crvnce'
except that /, becomes dark little
oorl;or IA some places, and little
later in others.
In every circle there are 800 de-
grees, and as the sun is twenty-four
hours in completing the circle round
the earth, he nrust move fifteen de-
grees each hOur, or one-twenty-fourth
of The whole. At the latitude of
New York, which is not quiet half
way from the equator to the north
nol-,-~--. - '',csc degrees in about
sixty miles so THAI the 80 .,nor--
fifteen times sixty, or nine hundred
miles per hour, and in one minute he
travels one-sixticth part of this dis
lance, or fifteen miles-about fifteen
times as fast as the swiftest railroad
train.
If the sun is directly overhead
where you are, it is noon. One min
ute before he was fifteen miles east Of
you. 1t was then noon at that place,
and it then lacked one minute of
noon at the place where you are.
One minute after noon where you are
he will be fifteen miles west of you,
and it will be noon at that place. 1t
is easy to see that the time varies one
minute for every fifteen miles all along |
the line east and west around the
world. AT any point east of you the
time is later, and at every point west
of you the time is earlier-ffteen |
miles, one minute; thirty miles, two
minutes; forty-fvc miles, three min
utes, and so on.
AS the sun travels fifteen degrees
in one hour, when it is noon where
you are, it will be one o'clock fifteen
degrees east of you, and it will
be eleven o'clock fifteen degrees west
of you. 1t is easy to sec that the
time varies one hour for every fifteen
degrees of longitude all along the
line around. This has always been
the. GaSS; and some one may want to
what is the need of making any
change in the time to-day more than
there was hundred years ago.
People used TO travel but little.
They went on the land in carriages,
and on the sea in ships, eight or ten
miles an hour. We travel on land
by railroad forty and even sixty miles
an hour; OH the sea in steam ships
from twelve to sixteen miles. A
steamer starting at noon from Hall
fax may travel eastward at the rate
of 400 miles in twenty-four hours
it will be noon when she meets the
sun, but it will be only half past
eleven at Halifax for at the rate of
fifteen miles per minute, it takes the
sun thirty minutes after meeting the
steamer to reach that place. The
steamer must set her clock forward
half an hour; she has gone far enough
TO meet the sun half an hour before
he came round to Halifax. On the
return trip the steamer runs away
from the sun half an hour daily;
he does not overtakc "er I'LL nall past
Twelve; she must set her clocM oack
half an hour every day. Il
The same change in time happens
IN fast train. If the train start
rom New York at noon, and move I
westward at the rate of little less Q
han forty miles an hour for twenty $
our hours, it will be noon at New a
York, but only eleven o'clock at the d