The morning call., 1892-08-31
TIME THE WORLD OVER.
Various Standards Used In Many Parts
OF tho Earth.

Nature.
At the poles where ali meTidiaus converge
there can be no natural standard time, for
it is every hour of the day at once but the
regulation Of time at these singular points
has not yet become a burning question.
Were the system Of time reckoning recon-
mended by the Prime Meridian Conference
carried out in its entirety, the minutes indi-
Gated on all well regulated clock dials
throughout the world would be the same at
a given instant, but the hours would differ
at each 10 deg. of longitude by steps OF one,
"a standards encircling thu globe. Thus
for example, at % minutes past noon of the
prime (Or rather the ZerOl meridian, clocks
90 deg. east would show 6:25 Z. NJ QSh
: 25ml; those 80 deg. west. 90 A. NJ. (6h.
25m.). and those OF $50 deg, % minutes
past midnight. The zero meridian adopted
by the Prime Meridian Conference is that
OF Greenwich; and definite time standards
based on the hourly intervals from this
starting line have been used since 1883 on
the railways of North America. That con-
tiueIt is divided into strips OF Is deg. in
width, in each Of which separate time
standard prevails, from the Gulf of Mexico
to Hudson Bay. Atlantic time in the East
ern Province of Canada and in Newfouud-
land shows A. NJ. at Greenwich noon !;
. Eastern time in the Atlantic States of the
Union marks A. NJ. AZ the same moment,
while central, mountain and Pacific time in
dictate respectively o. and 1 A. NJ. The
meridians which set the clocks across
America are those of GO. IS, 90, los and 100
deg. west
The conditions in Europe are more COM
piicated than in America. Each small,
closely peopled country, with its national
observatory, naturally tends to adopt
throughout its particular national time,
although even this is still desideratum In
some. In the difficult subdivisions of I'M
perial Germany especially, the number of
independent and unrelated standards was
grievous obstacle TO the Interpretation of
through railroad timetables
The British Islands, lying at the extreme
west oil Europe. should logically keep time
of the zero meridian, which interseets
Greenwich Observatory, while the Russian
Empire On Europe. at LEAST was, by its sys-
TEN OF central government and State con.
troll OF railroads. equally committed TO the
time OF ST. Petersburg. But PulkOva Oh
seryatory lies two hours east of Greenwich,
plus one minute and quarter. and the al
teration required is so small that il may be
said already to constitute east European
time, two hours in advance of Greenwich,
| or the standard time of Yves: Europe
| The meridian of Is deg. east, run
ming through Norway, Sweden, Germany,
| Austria and Italy, corresponds to Central
European time. ono hour in advance
Of that OF Greenwich; and il national preju-
dices and local inertia are overcome, the
| time OF Europe would be placed on simple
| footing by its adoption. The railways of
! AustrO- Hungary have used Central Euro
| pean time on this system since October /,
! 1891. More than 30 towns in the monarchy
have since then regulated their clocks to
correspond. Vienna being the only notable
| exception, where local time Is used for local
| purposes. Servian timetables have been
assimilated to those of Central Europe and
| Bulgarian 20 Eastern Europe. while Turkey,
| pulled two WAYS, yields on both sides, fo-
| lowing Central European time on the Salon.
| lea railway and eastern time on the Con-
/ stantinople line.
| ~ In Sweden railway time has been that of
| Central Europe Q5 deg. easO since 1879,
| and in South Germany the change TO the
| same standard took place April l, 1892, a
| fact OF much greater importance, because a
| feat very difficult to accomplish. The four
| standards of Bavaria, Wur,emberg, Baden
| and Alsace-Lorraine were previously In use
| coneurrently, and the change involved re-
| tarding the nominal hours of all trains
| from 10 minutes in the case of Bavaria to "a
| minutes in the case of Rechsland. Luxem-
| burg came into harmony with the rest of
| Central Europe at the same date, losing 36
| minutes.
By decision of the Federal Council in
May last mean solar time of the fifteen tn