Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1894-11-14
free gress.
W. W.B. GALLAHER, Editor.
NoUena6er II. 1894.
When the Day BcgiIIS.

Time is reckoned by means of meridians
of longitude which are represented as i'm
aginary lines extending from pole to pole
on the earth's surface. Whenever the
sun is directly over one of these meridians
it is noon at all places through which the
line passes. OF course railroad" or
"standardd" time must not be confouDded
with actual time, for by this arbitrary
though very convenient system there are
only four different times from one coast 10
the other, whereas, according to real or
actual time, every town, village and city
throughout the Union has different time,
except those that happen to lie in the
same meridian. As the earth is constant
ly revolving from west to east, it is con-
tinually bringing different meridian un-
der the sun, and as each passes beneath it
the time of every place upon the meridi-
an changes from noon to afternoon, or
from meridian to postmerilan, and the
father away it travels the later the time
becomes until it arrives at point direct
ly opposite the sun, when it is midnight.
From this point, then, the meridian be-
gins to travel towards the sun, and the
time changes to anti.meridian until after
of "A hours it again reaches the noon
point, and so on to the end of time.
For the convenience of making the cir
cumference the earth is divided into $50
equal parts, known as degrees, and the
meridian passing through the observatory
at Greenwich in London is chosen as the
centeror starting point for the numbering
of these divisions of longitude. Hence
the meridian of Greenwich is known as
longitude npught, the first degree to the
east being called longitude one degree
east, andthe first degree to the west being
known as longitude one degree west, and
so on. BY the time we cross the Atlantic
and reach Philadelphia or Washington
we have got beyond Greenwich to a dis
tance of, roughly speaking, % degrees, or,
in other words, Washington is said to be
in longitude 70 degrees west. If, on the
other hand, we travel across Europe into
Asia for a similar distance, we reach a
point 70 degrees east.
One degree of longitude is equal to four
minutes of time, or in other words, every
Is degrees are equal to an hour, so that
when a meridian has passed beyond the
sun for distance of 80 degrees it is 2
o'clock in the afternoon at all places on
that meridian, or it is 10 o'clock in the
morning if the meridian has sill 80 de-
grecs to travel before reaching the point
directly beneath the sun.
Supposing it Is midnight on July in
London, longitude naught, we will find
that in St. Petersburg, longitude 80 de-
| grees east, it is 2 o'clock in the morning
of July 4. Fifteen degrees father east, or
longitude 10, it is o'clock in the morn
ing. A longitude 60 degrees east it is I
o'clock, and so on. Every fiftsen degrees
we find it an hour earlier, until finally,
arriving at longitude $50 degrees east, we
are exactly y hours earlier than London
and on the other side of the earth directly
opposite longitude naught. In other
words, when it is midnight Of July at
London it is - O'Clock noon Of that day
on longitude 1s) degrees east. 1t might
be stated, by he way, that what we call
noon is in real the beginning of the day,
and all astrouo ners s. re kon.- Washin-
ton Star.