The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-02-04


Furthermore, this cosmopolitan time
will soon come into use for inter-
national lines by railroads and
steamers, without superseding the
use of local time in common life,
which is necessarily regulated by the
sun, (for the inhabitants of the earth
will never work or sleep at the same
absolute time). AS an illustration,
we read in the London Times that
message dated Simla, III. som, We'd
nesday, was received in London at
11h. Ann. Pm. on Tuesday. "Whyr'
said the receiving clerk, "this mes
sage was sent tomorrow"
The expression cor other standard
timen refers to the efforts made in
certain countries to reduce the null
tiplicity of local times to a minimum.
For example, in the British Isles
there are but two kinds of local time
employed, Greenwich time and Irish
time, and in Sweden and even in
France there is but one national time
employed. But in countries like
Germany, Russia or the United
States, which extend over several
hours of longitude, the system of
standard national hours would be inn
practicable The system of hour sec
lions now in successful operation in
North America, in which number
of sub-standards, each equally re-
lated to the common standard, are
employed for local time, is probably
the best solution of this difficulty.
Messrs Fleming and Allen each read
papers advocating the division of the
globe into twenty-four honr sectio 3,
! starting from the prime meridian.
On this plan the minutes and seconds
of all clocks would agree, and it
might be possible that a single cen
trail clock beating seconds should
regulate the local time of every city
in the world. Mr.. Fleming proposes
| to designate these hour sections by
the letters of the alphabet, emitting
J and U, and to use the same letters
for the hours of the Cosmic Day. The
Conference, however, considered that
this matter of local or standard time
had better be left for settlement by
the various nations or communities
concerned. Europe is not ready for
it. Countries like France are con
tent to use a national hour.
An elaborate paper was read by
GyldeD, of Sweden, in favor of stand
ard meridians, separated by inter
walls of 10 minutes of time. as he con-
sidered the hour intervals too great.
Gen. Strachey stated that there has
been established an interna tiona-
telegraph congress, which meets
every two years to settle questions o.
international telegraphy, to which
the particular manner in which uni
versal time may be adopted to tele
graphy would properly be left. The
resolution as offered was carried al
most unanimously.
The next resolution, offered by Mr.
Rutherford, was as follows: "That thi
universal day is to be a mean sola
day; is to begin for all the world a
the moment of mean midnight of TIN
initial meridian, coinciding with tn
beginning of the civil day and dat
} of that meridian: and is to be countet
from zero up to "a hours" Part 0
the delegates, who were bound b.
their instructions, offered as al
amendment the resolution passed b.
; the Roman Conference, which make
, the universal day begin at noon c
, Greenwich, coinciding with the pre-
sent so-called astronomical day. Prof
Adams made a clear and forcibl
. speech in defence of Rutherford
resolution. He said that the astrou
omers are accustomed to employ
/ day which begins at noon, in order t
= avoid the necessity of changing tn
) date In the course of the night, whicl
is the time of their greatest activity
: AS they generally observe accordin
: to sidereal time, a calculation Nigh
/ sometime have to be made to deter
! mine whether certain observation
! were uldOC OS1O1S Va S&AbCI
or the moment of change of date
! But this advantage is small whe
: compared with the inconvenience c
, having toVo conflicting methods of rec
: koning dates. 1t is plain that it is h
astronomers who will have to yield
: They are few in number, and ca
, make the change without serious in
t convenience, while in civil life,
would be simply impossible t
: change the date in the middle c
l the working hours of the day. Prot
} Adams said that this change coul
; easily be made. AS the Nautica
Almanacs are published several year
f in advance, there would be plenty {
: time for navigators to become fami
lar with the proposed change befor
they were called upon to employ 1t i
: their calculations. a letter was rea
, from Professor Valentiner, Director
the Observatory at Carlsruhe, strongl
, supporting these views. Mr.. Faye, {
{ the Paris Observatory, had advocate
the same in the Roman Conferenc,
Mr.. Strive, in the name of Russi;