The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1886-12-09
Universal Time.

An address on Universal Time delivered at
the Royal institution Of Great Britain. March
-, lSsh, by W. H. NJ. Christie. +. II. :. AS
tromoner Royal, and published in the Nctohpr
number of the Popular Science Monthly. con-
tainS much Of interest TO those Who arr called
upon TO decide between local and standard
time. The faIlacy Of the i.a that under
local time we 20 hy the sun is lir>t Shown, ;>
the movements Of the sun "arc characterized
by sun,lry irregularities to which wclI-ordrr-
cd clock refuses to conform" Mr.. Christie
says, further: "The sun i at the beginning Of
November more than sixteen minutes fast, and
by tie middle of February fourteen and a half
minutes Slow, having lost tlirty-onc minutes
or more than half IN hour in the interval. In
passing, it may be mentioned a> 4 result Of this
that the afternoons in November are about
half an hour shorter than the mornings. while
in February the mornings are half IN hour
shorter than the afternoons. In view OF the
Importance attached by some astronomer, TO
The use Of cXart local time in ci;i life. it
would be Interesting to know how many vii
layers have remarked this circum>tauc
Moreovei It is shown HAT local time i, rarely
accurate. varying from half an hour to am hour
and further that there is al irrrgularitl about
the SUMS movements Which makes him a very
unsafe guide in any but tropical countries He
sleeps more in winter than people can do who
have to work for 4 living, and in summer rises
mconvenicnty early and rctire> Hate Thus:
persons whose employment requires daylight
Il nnrnsSorjl, I,I.
according to the season of the Year, while those
who can work hy artificial light are practically
independent of the vagarie> o. the sun. Those
who work in colleric>, factories, or mines,
would doubtless be unconscious of Il difference
of half an hour or more between the clock
aud the sun, while agricHlturi>t> would practi-
cai|y be unaffected by it, as they cannot have
fixed hours of labor in any case"
In England, France, Austria, Hungary. IT.
ally Sweden, ctr., uniform time has gradually
taken the place of local time. The history Of
standard time in this country /, given in brief,
and the wisdom of adopting the five time
standards commenced Mr.. W. r. Allen, see
retary Of the General Railway Time Conycn-
ton, stated in October, 1854, that these times
were already used on ninety-seycn and half
per cent. of all the miles Of railway lines and
that nearly eghty-ive per cent. Of the total
number Of towns in the nitcd States Of over
ten thousand inhabitants had adopted them.
Standard time is now b>tantalIy universal
throughout the country.
Now the necessity for universal or world
time is advocated. The credit of originating
the idea is given to Mr.. sanford Fleming, the
constructor of the Intcrcolonal Railway of
Canada and engineer-in-chicf of the Pacific
Railway. Nh Christie says: "'rhc question
for the future seems to be whether it will be
found more troublesome to change the hours
of labor, sleep and meals once for all in any
particular place, or to be continually changing
them in communications from place to place.
whether by railway, telegraph or telephone.
The introduction Of universal time
would practically involve the adoption of the
system of counting the hours in one series
from to n, instead of in the two series from
Q to II A. NJ. and L. NJ, for, as applied to uni
vcrsal time, the terms dnte-merjdjcR and
post-meridiem would be meaningless except
for places on the meridian of Greenwich. The
use of the 2l-hour system on railways and tclc-
graphs would materially assist in breaking the
spell of habit which associates noon and mid
night with twelve o'clock Some of the for
eign telegraph companies already use the 24-
hour system to avoid mistakes of tecgraphing
A. NJ and p. NJ, and to save telegraphing these
unnecessary letters, and the President of the
Western Union Telegraph has stated that the
adoption of the 2i-hour mode of reckoning
would, besides materially reducing the risk of
error, save at least $50 900 900 letters annually
on the lines of his company. 1t is also note
worthy that ninety-eight per cent. of the rail
way managers in the United States. represent
ing 10000 miles of railway, have expressed
themselves in favor of the adoption of the
simple notation from 0 to q hours.