Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-02-06

Sun, Are the Disturbing Factors-No
Watch Is Perfectly Reliable.
Ii there Is one single scientific problem
upon which more than another people
appear to get mixed that problem is
Time. Standard time local time, sun
time are exceedingly difficult problems
for the public to puzzle over, and when
ndereal time enters the calculation the
case is hopeless indeed have fire.
quently of late seen so many letters ad-
dressed this and other journals. all
touching upon one or the other of these
chronological questions, that have CON
cluded short note explaining the main
points of difference would be, at any
rate, timely. If it only suggests to the
young men in the business offices the
idea of going to work at a. M, local
mean time, and leaving off promptly at
4 p. m, Pacific standard time, the dues-
ton will have been shown to possess a
practical side. The application of it.
however, is purely matter of taste.
Well, to come to time, the great chro-
nometer and regulator in chief to the
business, social and scientific world is the
earth itself. Turning upon its axis in the
period which we divide into twenty-fonr
hours, the sun appears TO cross the me
rldian OF each place on the globe once in
that interval The moment at which If
crosses the meridian of any place Green
wich), for example, is termed local an
parent noon" at that place. This would
be all very well if the earth and sun re-
manned fixed in their relative positions;
or If the earth, completing, as it does. an
annual revolution about the sun, did so
uniformly in perfect circle and that
circle were in the same plane with the |
motion of daily rotation. Then the suc- |
cessive intervals between the meridian |
passages of the sun at Greenwich would [
all be equal, and a perfect thermometer
set at IL hrs, 0 min, 0 Sec. when the
sun transited today would indicate pre-
cisely the same instant for apparent
noon" at every date
MOTIONS OF THE EARTH.
But the earth's path around the sun is
not perfect circle; it is an ellipse, and
the motion in one portion of the ellipse is
more rapid than in another, and this
causes slight variation in the intervals
between the solar passages. Again, the
plane of the earths path around the sun.
or the elliptic, is inclined 23I5 degs. to
the plane of the equator in which the
DAILY rotation takes place, and conse-
quently twice year the intervals of
apparent noon" are each about twenty
seconds greater and twice year about
twenty seconds less than twenty-four
hours, To explain just why this results
would require more of an investigation
INTO astronomical principles than is here
but it is So nevertheless.
and any text book will elucidate the rea-
sons. A combination of the two effects
causes the sun to be apparently slow !
fourteen minutes in February and fast :
sixteen minutes in November But in b,
he course of year the average comes :
nut all right, and therefore a 'mean
oiar day" Of exactly twenty -four hours E,
5 adopted in the almanacs and used for E,
III purposes. This accounts for the diff !.
erence between mean time and sun time. =
\ regulator keeps the former; a sun dial
indicates the latter
A few years ago (or prior to 1891 every s
arge city in the United States had its .
WI local time, and this was for each a
lace the true mean solar time, obtained :
s above indicated .
REGULATING TIME. .
Consequently, man travelling west. =
Eard from Washington would find his u
'atch fast, as follows; At Chicago, AZ y
finutes at Omaha. hour is minutes: u
Denver, hour 90 minutes; at Salt u
axe City, hours 20 minutes, and final .,
Z, at San Francisco, 3 hours minutes. -
Will readily be recalled how much I.
annoyance was occasioned by all these
arious corrections, both to trainmen ~
nd travellers About the year men a.
oned great reform was inaugurated. ~ ~
owadays traveller going westward -
Ids his watch fast from time to time, az az
Ut only the hour hand is in error. All ~
le clocks in the country indicate the W
mute and second of Greenwich mean v
me, but the hour is changed for each e.
dogs. of longitude Washington time l"
hours slow Of Greenwich: Chicago
hours; Denver, hours In San Fran
SEQ we are hours slow of the prime -,
erldlan. All the intermediate cities g.
Id towns are run on one system or an -
her, according to their location in p,
ngitude, the standards being eastern, w. w.
ntral, mountain and Pacific time. All -
e time pieces on the coast are set by 70,
lcihc standard time. which is 8 hours w
wv of Greenwich mean time There 70
re, watch which Is set at San Fran ~
'co solar time by means OF a corrected -
n dial is still . minutes AZ seconds -
w of Pacific standard time clock, 10
cause we are that much in longitude -
st of the f21th meridian. which forms a.
, eastern boundary Of northern Cali '''
mia and on which only * the Pacific
ne" coincident with local mean time. n
'an Francisco Examiner -
Lord in Ditch. -
Iord Mulgrave was distinguished by a.