The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-06
AS TO HoRAL NOTATION.

On the LIST day of May Belgium entered
upon the use of the twenty-four-hour sys-
tenn of notation in all railway, telegraph
and postal service. Belgium is the second
country to adopt this system, Italy having
done SO several years ago. In Canada the
railroads have adopted it FOR the time
tables of the extreme eastern and western
ends of their transcontinental railway. In
none of these countries has the system
been made obligatory on the people. 1t is
simply adopted for government, official and
railway purposes, leaving the people to fol-
low or not, as they choose. AS it possesses
the merit of convenience and common sense
there is reason to believe it will eventually
be adopted. not only by the people
of the countries named, but generally
throughout the civilized world. 1t con-
sists in a progressive notation Of the hours
of the day from one to twenty-four. This
would do away with the explanatory pre-
fixes or suffixes a. m. and p. M, and the
hours would run straight along to
tWenty-four. The old system would
be translated into the new by leaving
off the appendage p. m. and adding twelve
for example, o'clock p. m. VIC ul1 be II
o'clock, o'clock p. m. 21 o'clock, and so on.
Similarly the new system would be trans
lated into the old by subtracting twelve
and annexing the appendage p. M, that is,
Is o'clock under the new system would be
o'clock p. M, % o'clock would be II
o'clock p. M, etc. The advantage claimed
for the tweny-four- hour notation is that it
would do away entirely with the vexatious
a. m. and p. m in all printed matter in
railway time cards and in everyday life.
Eleven O'Clock would be understood without
adding a. M, because there would be no
II o'clock p. m. Half past 10 o'clock could
only mean one thing, as there would be no
10 o'clock at night There would be
confusion between u O'Clock noon and -
o'clock midnight, because the latter would
become "a o'clock, indicating at a glance
the end of the day. The change is opposed
to tradition and custom, yet not more so
than was the adoption of standard railway
time, which is now universally adopted
throughout the country. Such changes
come slowly, but if desirable and based on
they are pretty sure to come in time About
800 years ago the yearly calendar was found
to be ten days in error. An arbitrary edict
of the Pope corrected the error in Catholic
countries. In 1852, more than hundred
and fifty years later, when the error had
increased to eleven days, the British Par
lament ordered that the correction be made
by calling Sept. 8 the 14th, thereby jumping
eleven days; but the people in a mob fol-
lowed the Ministry with sticks and stones
calling out, Give us back our eleven lost
days" They never got them back The
error has now increased to twelve days
and Russia is the only country in the world
that adheres to the old calendar-"old
style" as it is called. Shortly after 1900
she will be thirteen days behind the rest
of the world in her dates. 1t is almost in
evitable that she must fall in line with
other countries eventually. The twenty
four-hour notation is not necessary to cor
rect an error, but it would save confusion,
frequent explanations and occasional seri-
OIlS mistakes.