Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1885-11-30
TWENTY-FOUR O'CLOCK:
Applying the New Time Notation to
Clocks and Watches.


tenn of time notation now in general
use, which divides the day into two
parts of twelve hours each, beginning
and ending at midday and midnight,
is altogether contradictory and con-
fusing, and is cumbersome, because
in noting the hours, which are repeat
ed every day, they have to be explain
ed as either ante meridian or post
meridian. The railway officials have
been most alive to this anomalous con-
dition OF things, because they have
found as great difficulty in making up
their time schedules as the public
usually have in deciphering them.
Railroad men, therefore, would be
unit for the adoption of the twenty
four hour system. At the meeting of
the American Society of Civil Engin-
eers, on the 21st of last January, the
Committee on Standard Time reported
that since the June previous they had
communicated with large number
of prominent men in all parts of the
country, and found 92 per cent of
them decidedly of the opinion that
the hours should be counted in a sim
gle series, from to "a. Replies from
railway officials representing over 50,-
600 miles of road were also received
favoring the change. The telegram
interests were also reported to be in
full sympathy with the new system,
and the President of the Western
Union Telegraph Company was given
as authority for the statement that,
besides reducing the number of errors,
fully 100000 letters would be
saved annually in TRANSMISSION if it
were adopted. The proposed change
has been widely discussed, both in
this country and in Europe, and in
both sections there is to be noted a
growing sediment in its favor. Scien-
tifc men have used the 24-hour system
for their special purposes for long
time, and this year the observatory at
Greenwich, England, changed their
astronomical time from beginning the
day at II o'clock noon to II clock
at night. In other words, the day at
that institution begins now at mid
night, counts up to y o'clock noon,
and then forward to "a o'clock at mid
night One of the practical difficulties
of making the change to the proposed
24-hour system is that our time pieces,
both in mechanism and system of
notation, are all based on the 12-hour
system. Various devices have been
suggested to adapt the proposed sys-
tenn to the present style of watches
and clocks, all of them more or less
ingenious or simple. One of the very
best which has so far been shown has
recently been patented in this country
and Europe, and may, therefore, be
decribed, though it has not yet been
put upon the market. 1t is so simple,
so direct acting, SO free from COM
plicated mechanism, and is operated
by the main spring, which runs the
works, that its advantages and sim
plicity are at once apparent. 1t con-
sists of series of twelve radial posts,
running outward from ring, which
tit around but DO not touch the barrel
on which the hour hand is secured, to
an outer ring or peripheral band-the
first ring representing the hub, the
posts the spokes and the outer ring
the felly or rim of a wheel. Each of
the posts carries two oblong blocks,
one being very much smaller than the
other-the small one being about mid
way between the hub and the outer
block, and into which four pins are
are inserted on the four faces. The
outer blocks or disks would resemble
dice, only they are oblong. Four of
their six sides have on them the Rom
an numerals and Arabic figures, each
kind being or opposite faces, as, for
example, the block that comes after
the meridian block has the Roman
letter on two sides, and the figure l3
on the other sides. In the same way
the meridian block has XII on two OPP
posite sides, and "a on the other OPP
posite sides. The posts are pivoted