Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-07-22
VERY FAST TRAVELLING.
News of the Hanging of Deeming in
Australia OutraD the Sun.

h News of the Hanging of Deeming in
Australia Outran the Sun.
An interesting instance of the magic of
the telegraph, an Illustration of the way it
can annihilate space, outrun the sun and
perform mystifying jugglery with old
Times hour glass and with the calendar,
and an object lesson in everyday science
are afforded in connection with the execu-
ton of the sentence of Murderer Deeming
in Australia. Deeming was hanged at
1901 a. M, and the news and details of the
execution were read by the readers of
morning papers at the early breakfast
table, and even before daybreak that day.
If the execution had been on any other day
the news would have been printed in the
evening papers the day previous to that of
the execution, for the news of Deeming's
death was received in New York before 9
o'clock on Sunday evening, apparently
thirteen hours before he was hanged. The
news was in San Francisco soon after 5
o'clock Sunday evening, having been sent
by way of Montreal. The telegraph beat
the sun by almost a whole day.
The message had to travel the course
.traversed by the sun, too, and did not
make the gain by cutting across lots or
doubling back and stealing a lap. With
a cable under the Pacific the message
might have doubled on the. suns track
and gained a day in a minute or so. Tel
egrams from Australia must take the
western or sunward course, and make the
full circular tour. The message left Mel
bourne, on the far side of Australia, very
soon after 10 o'clock Monday morning,
travelled about 5000 miles, was retransmit-
ted thirteen times through as many differ
ent stations and different lengths of cable,
and reached New York at S:5Op. m. Sunday,
The difference in time between New York
and Melbourne is fourteen hours and forty
minutes, so that when Deeming was on
the gallows it was 7:2O Sunday evening in
New York, and the message Travelled the
$4,000 miles in the remarkably quick time
of less than an hour and a half.
Thls was the route, the message passing
from one cable and one set of instruments
to another at each station. From Mel
bourne across the Australian continent by
land line to Port Darwin, thence to Banioe-
wangie, in Java, to Singapore, to Madras.
across India to Bombay, under the Indian
ocean to Alden, in Arabia, under the Red
sea to Suez, along the Suez canal to Alex
andria, under the Mediterranean to Malta,
Malta to Marseilles, across France and
under the channel to London, thence to
Ireland, under the Atlantic to Cape Canso,
Nova Scotia, and then down the coast, via
Coney Island and the Brooklyn bridge, to
Broad street, New York. The time occu-
pied by a cable message in reaching any
distant point is taken up by the number of
transmissions, the actual electrical trans
mission through any one cable being in
Simultaneous. Taking that into considera-
ton, the news Travelled remarkably fast.
1t might seem from the foregoing that
by travelling around and around the earth
one might have the same day and date for
an indefinite period, provided he kept pace
with the sun. But the day must end some
where, and end very abruptly, and the
point where the old day dies and the new
one is born is out in the Pacific ocean,
about midway between San Francisco and
Yokohama, and running due north and
south. That line of demarcation in the
calendar runs through Behring sea, cuts
across and among the Fiji islands, and
just scrapes the end of New Zealand, but
for convenience sake, and not to have il
Sunday midday on one side of the street
and Monday noon on the other in some
islands of the Pacific, the line has been
crooked so that it does not cut any island.
AS the earth turns before the sun, midday
of Sunday would advance around the
world until it struck that line, when it
must p~erforce change or every day would
be Sunday. The change is really made at
midnight. It may require a little thought
to straighten out the subject, but it will
come straight eventually,-New York SIM.