Arizona republican., 1898-05-15
TIME DIFFERS.
Curious Complications in Computation
 of Time East and West.

Washington, May 14-Manila is
 both east and west of Washington.
 Longitudina1ly it is east In actual distance it is to be considered as west
 The computation of relative time de- pends solely upon which of these di- rections is to be adopted If Washing ton were permitted to count geo graphical distances from the basis Of it's own meridian of longitude Manila would reckon her time, as we see the case, later than Washington There fore it would be about II o'clock last night in Manila when it was o'clock this morning here. But happily for
 the sanity of the dwellers on earth
 civilized man has devised a plan f or
 preventing each loeality from consid-
 ering itself the center of the world,
 and has provided that the nations
 agree upon some fixed spot as the com
 mencement of all calculations. Green wich, England, is that point, which is now recognized by most nations in
 computing time differences. The rapid
 development of the worlds wilder nesses has made some such device ab- solutely essential. Thus Washington relinquishes her right to regard Manila
 as lying west and as taking her time
 from the Washington basis and con-
 sents. to consider her as lying east and
 taking her time from the Greenwich
 basis. On this foundation it is 10 o'clock tonight in Manila when 1t is g o'clock this morning here the diff ference being approximately thirteen hours.
 Of course there comes a place on the globe where the days do not adjust themselves to the arbitrary schedule adopted by the moderns. Naturally this lies exactly opposite Greenwich,
 or longitude 180, west CT east, accord ing to the point of view. It is the only
 meridian that can be called both west and east. When that line is reached travellers must reorganize their calen-
 dars. Fortunately this line falls in
 midocean throughout it's length, only striking one of the Fiji islands and perhaps few other small projections from the surface of the Pacific. Hence the annoyance of the misadjustment is reduced to minimum and con- fronts only the transoceanic travellers
 who journey over this imaginary
 boundary. Going west 1t is necessary to drop a day out of the week, the month and the year. Going east it is just as necessary to add a day Thus the west-bound tourist finds himself minus a Sunday, or Thursday, ac- | cording as he encounters the line. | Coming eastward he doubles the l length of the day on which the merid- | ian is crossed. On reaching shore he picks up the routine of civilization once more and proceeds without con- | fusion.
 A curious fact is recorded concern | ing the time difference as it affects the Philippine islands, now SO point \ edly the center of world wide interest Those islands were discovered by Spanish voyagers sailing westward around Cape Horn. BOrneo, a short distance to the west, Was discovered
 by the Pornugese going around Cape
 of Good Hope eastward. Consequent
 ly for many years these two regions.
 so close in actual distance and yet sep
 arated by almost the circumference of
 the globe as regards time, had differ ent schedules, and the Philippine ls- flanders held their Sunday on the day
 that was Monday to the inhabitants of
 Borneo. Recently this error was cor
 rected, and these two contiguous coun- tries are now on the same time basis Were it not for this correction the
 battle of Manila would have been fought on Saturday instead of Sunday. 1 the islands thus lying longitudinally as we'll as geographically west oi Washington.