Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-07-29
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ABOUT STANDARD TIME.
why the System Now Prevailing IN
This Country Was Adopted.


why the system Now Prevailing I'm
This Country Was Adopted.
The old railroad man sat behind the
counter of Chestnut street ticket Of
lice. enjoying a mild and meditative
cigar. A young man with an interroga-
ton point sort Of face leaned over the
counter and said: beg pardon, may
ask question? Thanks observe
that all railway time tables have con-
spicuously printed upon them 'East-
ern standard time suppose I'm an
awful ignoramus, but I'm blest If ]
ever met anyone who could clearly ex-
plain the meaning of that. Do you
know?'
81 rather think do" replied the old
railroad man. prior to 1883 the clocks
of this country were in confusion in
describable. Every city, town and vii
iage had its own local time, fixed by
solar observations. Then every rail-
road had its own standard of time, and
some of the large systems had several
different varieties of time, covering
their several divisions respectively. In
those days if you went into strange
town and asked one of its people the
time of day, he would reply with the
question: City time or railroad time?
the variation between the two being
in some cases nearly an hour. A man
travelling only from Boston to Washing
ton DESTROYS of keeping his watch even
with the time table would use no less
than five different standards of time.
He would start by Boston time, at
Providence he would reset his watch
to Providence time, at New London to
New York time, at New York--not as
one might suppose to the local time OF
the metropolis, but to Philadelphia
time, which was then just five minutes
slower than New York time. All the
way from New York to Baltimore his
train would be governed by our own
statehouse clock, but at Baltimore he
would have his watch back two minutes,
as the train there took Washington
time. Were he to stop off at Trenton
or Wilmington or some other inter-
mediate point. the situation would be
further complicated, for he would en-
counter local time as soon as he had
left the depot.
Now" continued the old railroad
man, relighting his cigar. "the enor-
mous dangers and Inconvenience OF
this system, or lack Of system, early be-
came manifest, and schemes for its bet
terment were under discussion for
years. Obviously. the ideal solution
of the difficulty lay in the establish
ment of geographical zones or belts.
defined by arbitrary lines running
north and south, the time Of some one
designated point within each gone to
prevail all over the territory within
it's boundary lines. Thus much agreed
upon, the real trouble began. The
smallest crossroads hamlet, as well as
the largest city, was willing that every
other community In its particular zone
should give up it's local time, but stren-
uously protested against changing its
own. After protracted discussion the
several national organizations OF rail-
way officials resolved to disregard all
local clamerings and agreed upon the
system of time standards now in use,
This. briefly stated, consists In di-
viding the country into belts of is der
grees of longitude each, and taking the
actual solar time of some important
place within each belt as the standard
time Of all other places In that belt. As
is degrees Of longitude are equivalent
to one hour of time, 1t follows that the
time of any given belt Is one hour earli-
er than that Of the belt west, and one
hour later than that of the belt east
of it. Eastern standard time IS that Of
places directly ppon the 18th meridiaA
west of Greenwich. and is consequent
ly just five hours later than Green
witch time. Roughly speaking, eastern
standard time prevails from Portland
on the east to Buffalo and Pittsburgh
on the west, and when it is Ave o'clock
p. m. at Greenwich, England, it is pre-
cisely 10 o'clock noon all over the area
thus defined. regardless Of the true OF
solar time.
Central standard time Is fixed by
the 10th meridian. If you start from
Philadelphia and travel west OF Pitts
burgh you must set your watch back
just one hour on leaving the smoky city,
AT Yankton, n. D., you strike mountain
standard time. and your watch goes
back another hour. # you go on to the
Pacific coast you win set It back a
third hour, for yeu win then be in the
zone of Pacific standard time, fixed by
the 120th meridian west Of Greenwich.
To sum it up. instead Of q Thousand
standards OF time, aR formerly, your
watch will show the exact and universal
time at every point In America by re-
setting the hands three times between
the Atlantic and Pacific Philadelphia
Record.