The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1898-05-12
Apparent Trick of the Calendar.

AFpAlGut LIiGh OF LnS NutSuuHI'
The following will pay you to read
lit:
The battle of Manila occurred on
Sunday forenoon, while Madrid got an
intimation OF it earlier on Sunday
morning although the report was not
sent Immediately after the fight. II
the transmission Of the news had been
instantaneous Madrid would have
heard of it several hours before sunrise,
( in local time, on Sunday morning,
while the United States would have
heard of it on Saturday afternoon.
This, at first thought is difficult to
understand It is hard to grasp the
fact that the occurrance of a thing can
be known before it takes place, There
fore, if the result of the battle of
Of Manila, which seems to have been
finished around or s o'clock on Sunday
forenoon, had been learned on Saturday
evening in the United States it would
look as if the calendar had been playing
some trick on this country.
And yet if tins had happened that
is, if the transmission Of the news had
been instantaneous and we had heard
Of Dewey's victory the day before the
battle was fought-the calender's verac-
ity would not have been open to indict-
ment The discrepancy would be sim
ply due to the difference in local time.
In the earths rotation eastward on its
axis every point on it's surface has the
sur. on its meridian at l2 o'clock noon.
approximately, each day, and the day
at each particular point begins twelve
hours earlier or at midnight. Thus,
in appearance, the sun makes q com
plete circuit Of the earth, $50 degrees,
every twenty hours, or at a rate Of
- degrees every hour Points 15I
degrees Of longitude east Of st. Louis !
have noon an hour earlier than ST. |
Louis, or when it is II o'clock in the
forenoon here Places Is degrees west
Of ST. Louis have noon an hour latter
than we do, or at o'clock in the after
noon Of our local time.
This will furnish a key to the Manila |
battle puzzle st Louis is about 80
degrees west Of Greenwich, the con
ventional prime meridian, which the
Philippine islands are approximately
t20 degrees east of Greenwich. Thus
the Philippines are about 2tO degrees
east Of St. Louis, looking toward
Greenwich, and the sun is in their
meridian IA hours earlier than it is In
ours The meridian Of 1870 degrees
from Greenwich east or west, which is
in the Pacific has been fixed upon for
as the date line. Persons
sailing west across that line lose twenty
four hours in local time II it is Sun
day noon to them when the bow Of the
boat touches the $50 degree meridian it
is Monday noon, or a few seconds after
ward when their vessels stern is across
t. The opposite is the case with those
sailing across that line eastward To
persons travelling westward the Philip
pines are west Of the date line. The
new day Sunday, Monday or what
,yer else it may be strikes them earlier
han il does Europe, and still earlier
han it does America It strikes the
philippines, for example, approximately Z
ourteen hours earlier than it does st. I
.ouis Thus when Dewey's shot that Z
vas heard round the world was fred at {
o'clock On Sunday morning in Philip ?
inc Islands time, the local time in st a
.ouis was 3 o'clock Saturday after e
con.