The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1899-10-06
He EGIS AND INTELLIGENCE.
BEL AIR ND. OCTOBER 6, 1899.
STANDARDS OF TIME.
THE DAY BEGINS AT SUNSET IN MO-
HAMMEDAN COUNTRIES.

Aay Sort of Time Is Kept In China,
While In Africa They Keep Very
Good Time - Some Countries Use
Two Standards of Time.
The ordinary method of reckoning time
in NOhammedan countries is from sunset
tc sInsct. Twelve O'Clock is at sunset,
and this is the beginning of the day.
Two periods of u hours then pass till
the next sunset. whereupon everybody
sets his watch if he has one, backward
or forward, according to the season. OF
course accurate time is impossible I'M
der such system. The telegraphs and
railroads in Syria, for example, keep
anything but exact time, though it might
be procured from the observatory at
Beirut, which issues its mean time. In
Teheran, Persia, n midday gun is fired
by the time shown on dial and this in
spite of the fact that the correct local
mean time might be procured at the tele-
graph office. which is regulated daily by
q time signal from Greenwich, and is
the time standard for all the Geographic
business But the merchants and the
street car company keep gun time, and
the railroad trains do not seem to re-
II
sturt until full or required to start by
government order.
There are out of the way parts Of the
world that keep very good time, because
their clocks are regulated by telegraph
from Greenwich, and then the Greenwich
mean time is reduced to local time, ac-
cording to the longitude differences.
Thus ut Lagos and the gold coast, West
Africa, the local time is checked daily
by telegraph from Greenwich and trans
rlitted to all telegraph offices in the colo
MES. The time at Acera is only 46 sec
onds slower than that at Greenwich and
is the time used throughout the gold
coast.
Most any sort of time is kept in China.
AS n rule the Chinese use an apparent
sun time, obtained from sun dials. The
foreigners ~ the ports on the coast use
an approximate local time calculated
from the Shanghai time, supplied by the
telegraph companies. In the great city
of Tien-tsin, with 100000 inhabitants,
the time is determined by the municipal
thermometer, which is the town hall
clock. 1t is supposed to be regulated
every Saturday, when the community
may set their watches, Lut it has been
known to be in error at least three min
utes.
In India the standard of time for the
whole of the peninsula is the mean time
of the Madras observatory, and this time
is used on through lines of railroad and
in recording the time of sending tele-
grams to foreign countries. Local time
is, however used in most towns and vii
lagos, and it is announced by clocks strik-
ing, gongs, bells and guns, the signals
frnn
buildings, forts and telegraph offices. The
local clocks are set daily by the time
telegraphed from Madras, and each tele-
graph office has a closely printed table,
filling about so pages, giving the differ
ence between Madras and local time for
all the government telegraph Offices in
India.
Not a few countries constantly use two
standards of time. This is not trouble
some at all when we consider that, be-
fore the adoption of the hour zones, the
railroads across our own continent en-
ployed about 10 standards of time in
making up their time tables. Railroads
and telerraphs throughout Spain use
Madrid time, but for all other purposes
the local time is determined by the me-
ridian of each locality. Throughout Rus
STA st. Petersburg time is used for tele
graphic purposes, and each place has its
own local time besides. In Portugal the
country towns keep their local time very
roughly, but Lisbon and the railroad aud
telegraph service have the time of the
Tapada Royal observatory. There is con-
siderable confusion in the Netherlands,
and if ones watch does not agree with
the town clocks ais he travels through
the land it doesn't follow that he has
poor timekeepar. In the railroad stations,
telegraph and postoffices the exact time
of the Greenwich observatory will he
found. In many towns Amsterdam time
is in use. and it is about 20 minutes
faster than reliable clocks in many other
towns that Use Greenwich time, and still
other towns use their own local time, so
the Netherlands do not lack for variety
in time standards.
Every place in Newfoundland uses st.
Johns time for all purposes, excepting
Hearts Content, which has special priv
! ilegeS as a cable station. For local pur-
; poses this little town employs local time
Livery day it receives a signal from Lon
! don giving the Greenwich time, and as
I the difference in time between the two
points is 3 hours, 80 minutes and SO sec
onds it is only necessary to keep the
, local clocks that much slow on Green
| wich time to have the exact local time.
But in the cable Office all foreign business
IS transmitted with Greenwich time.
In Great Britain Greenwich mean
time is the standard and is used for all
purposes nearly everywhere. Among the
few exceptions is the city of Capter-
bury, which uses a time about four mir
utes fast ON Greenwich, and clocks at
few railroad stations are kept one or
two minutes fast. Ireland uses the time
of Dublin, and so all the clocks in the
island are % minutes and % seconds
slow on Greenwich time.
The official time throughout Argentina
is that of the city of Cordova, which is
telegraphed every day to control the
J timepieces in the various cities. 1t is
! used everywhere in the railroad and tele
/ graph Offices, but many citizens in the
provinces prefer to use local time of
Z doubtful accuracy. The people of the
! Hawaiian Islands try to keep their time
pieces 10 hours and 80 minutes slower
4 than those of Greenwich and call this
standard time. At Belize, British Hon
duras, the clock over the courthouse,
which furnishes the time for the town,
is usually regulated by the time kept by
l the ships in the harbor.
We have plenty of time variety in our
1 own country. For example, any town
l that happens to be on the dividing line
1 between two of the hour time zones will
l the railroad station there will be two
1 times, differing by an hour, one for the
| west and the other for the east bound
4 trains.-Washingto Times.
business Proposition.