Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-09-18
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PARTRIDGE 8 Opp. Post Office.
TO-DAY, YESTERDAY OR TOMORROW.
HoW . Conflict Of Dates Is Settled In One
Part of the Pacific Ocean.

Part of the Pacific Ocean.
A question which has often been asked
but rarely answered satisfactorily Is how
far one would have to go around the earth
moving east or west and supposing no time
lost In transition, before one would reach
the point where today changes into yester-
day or tomorrow. Evidently there must
be such point somewhere, for an hour is
lost every Is degrees one goes to the east
and an hour guined every Is degrees one
goes to the west.
To put the question in anotherway: Sup
pose it is one minute past midnight in Paris
on the morning Of Oct. 1, what day is it
at that same moment at the antipodes OF
Parish Is it the LIST of October or the 30th of
September
Apparently one can prove that it is either
Of these days by making an instantaneous
journey half way around the earth either to
the east or to the west
Going east at the moment the Paris
clocks point to a minute past midnight
it is approximately l O'Clock in the morn
ing of Oct at Vienna, 2 O'Clock Of the
same day at Sebastapol, 3 O'Clock at
Astrakhan, o'clock at Bokhara, Z O'Clock
at Sagion, O'Clock at Yokohama, II o clock
at Pine island and noon at Fortune island
list of October at every point.
On the other hand, going westward one
finds that it is 10 o'clock in the evening of
Sept 80 at the Azore islands. s o'clock in
the evening at Buenos Ayres. O'Clock at
New York, 6 o'clock at New Orleans. 3:l5
at Mexico City. O'Clock In the afternoon
near the Aleutian islands and noon at For
tune island--the date being Sept 80 in each
case.
Thus one has demonstrated that it is
noon of Oct. and noon of Sept. 30 at the
same place and ut the same time
This would certainly be embarrassing to
the good people Of Fortune island, and in
order to avoid such complications and re-
lieve well meaning islanders in the Pacific
from mixing up their Saturdays and Sun
days in hopeless fashion an arbitrary line
separating To-Day from yesterday or tomor-
row has been q greed upon by the navigators
of civilized nations. This line has been
drawn to avoid touching land. No one can
be exactly sure of the moment of passing it,
but the line runs just east of the New Heb
rides and the New Caledonia groups and
passes near the Marion islands and the
Caroline islands. Captains of vessels, judg-
ing by the positions of the islands men
toned. can fin the date within q few min
utes.
Vessels sailing from west to east on pass
ing this imaginary line simply repeat the
day before on their logbooks, which con-
sequently show two days bearing the same
date. On the other hand, ships going in the
opposite direction from west to east skip
the tomorrow and lose day entirely. In
the first case the sailors get an extra day s
pay; in the second case they lose days
pay.
The conclusion of the whole matter is
that when the Paris clocks indicate min
ute past midnight on Oct. / it is Oct. GO
ing east as far IL the imaginary line Just in
dicated. while it is Sept. 30 going west up
to the same line. II would be possible the
oret;caliy, therefore, for man swimming
in those waters to have one Of his legs in
Saturday and the other in Sunday at the
same MISUNDERSTANDING MoTett in Chi
cago Inter Ocean.