The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-11-13
THE LeNGTH OF A DAY.
It Is Forty-E ght Hours and Week Is Fou
Tim as Long.


Prof. F. II. Bailey makes the statement
in the Boston Journal Of Education that the
day contains exactly forty-eight hours, and
that the week, though seven times as long
as the day for any one locality. is, upon
the earth as a whole, only four times as
long 1--WE readily PERCEIVE he SAYS,
that the natural day travels around the
earth with the sun aud never ends, it
being day or daytime continuously on the
half of the earth toward the sun and night
on the opposite half. The date, or almanac
day, travels the same way and with the
same speed. and il il had no place for be-
ginning or ending it would always be the
same date.
ave will commence with the beginning
of the first day Of the year. 1t is the mo-
ment Of noon, Dec. 81, on the meridian of
Greenwich, forenoon over the western
hemisphere. and afternoon over the east
ern. The mean sun is exactly in the south,
and at this moment, the first day of the
new year is born. Where? Not at Green
wich. The civil day begins at midnight,
and il is midnight on the lS0th meridian
at this moment, and there New Years day
begins AS the sun travels westward from
Greenwich across the Atlantic and Amer
lea, New Years marches westward across
the Pacific and Asia, conquering the earth
at the rate of one twenty-fourth part every
hour. BY the time the sun reaches the
Mississippi valley it is evening of the last
day of the year in England, but Jan.
holds sway over one-fourth of the earth
that lying between the Doth meridian east
OF Greenwich and the lS0th.
''Six hours later, when the sun has trav-
eled bali way around the earth and is over
-
reached Greenwich and sways one-half the
earth. In another six hours the bells of
the Mississippi valley are ringing in the
new year, but it has been on earth eighteen
hours. And i'm six more the sun is again
over the meridian of Greenwich, and New
Years exists for a single moment over the
entire earth. But Mother Earth does not
stop her Waiting nor Old Sol his west
ward journey, and the ID day of January
puts in his appearance where the LIST did
twenty-four hours before and Immediately
commences chasing his elder brother
around the earth at the rate of more than
1000 mics an hour the chase continuing
for exactly twenty-four hours, during
which the portion of the earth under the
sway OF Jan | is continually decreasing
and that OF the Cd increasing.
Another method of presenting the same
facts may be considered better. Think of
the days past and future as threads each
wound upon it's own spool and OF suffi-
cient length to reach, when unwound,
around the earth at the equator The
spools are kept at the lS0th meridian
those bearing past dates have been used,
future dates awaiting their time, and al
ways two in use at once. When it is noon
at Greenwich on the S1st OF December,
the spool bearing that date is empty and
its thread girdles the earth. Beside il,
rotating about the same axis (the lS0th
meridian). is the spool dated Jan. /; and
at that moment some power capable of
travelling 900 miles an hour SEXES the
end of the thread and flies westward
the thread unwinds. The other spool 70.
tates at the same velocity, but is winding
up the thread of Dec. 81, dragging il
around the earth. the free end keeping ex-
actly even with the advancing end OF Jan.
! l. Each thread is exactly twenty-four
hours unwinding and the same winding
up again, and the portion of the earth W.
! ing north and south of the unwound Iart
of each thread bears its date. consequently
each date exists upon the earth for forty.
| eight hours, or a little more than two com
/ plete rotations of the earth upon its axis.
II is evident that the thread of any day
| has been unwinding seventeen hours when
| it reaches the 10th meridian west of Green
witch, that it is twenty-iour hours dragging
itself across the line, and that it will De
seven hours longer before it is entirely
wound upon its spool and the date il
past for the entire earth