The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-06-18
WAYS OF RECKONING TINE.
TIE DAY BEGINS AT SUNSET IN
MOHANMED1N COUNTRIES.

~
Very Good Time in Afrion IL There 10
n Telegraph Limo to Grrcnwich-Four
Kinds of Railroad Time In FL Paso.
The ordinary method OF reckonin! time In
Mohammcdan countries Is from sunset to sum
set Twelve o'clock Ia at sunset and this 10
the beginning Of tho day. Two periods OF
twelve hours then pass till the next sunset.
wbereupon everybody sets his watch. II he
has one, ackward or forward. according TO
the season. or course. accurate time Ia inn
possible under such a system The telcgraphs
and railroads in Syria. for example. Keep any
thing but exact time. though it might be pro-
cured from the observatory at Berrout which
uses its mean time. In Teheran. PersIn. .
midday gun Is fired by the time shown on
dial. and this In spite OF the fact that the corr
rect local mean time might be procured at tho
telegraph office. which Is regulated daily by
time signal from Greenwich and IL the timo
standard for all Geographic business. But the
merchants and the street car company keep
gun time. and the railroad trains do not seem
to require n time table Mt all. as they seldom
start until full or required to start by Gov
eminent 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 according to longitude difference.
Thus. at Lagos and the Gold Coast West
Africa. the local time is checked daily by tele-
graph from Greenwich and transmitted to all
the telegraph offices in the colonies. The time
at Accra ia only forty-six seconds slower than
that OF Greenwich. and Is the time used
throughout the Gold Coast.
Most any sort OF time Is kept in China. As Q
rule. the Chinese use an apparent sun time
obtained from sundas. Tho foreigners at
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 Tientsin. with a million inhabit-
ants. the time is determined by the municipal
chronometer. which is the town hall clock. II
is supposed to be regulated every Saturday,
when the community may set their watches.
but 1t has been known to be in error at least
three minutes
Last December was tho time when all the
towns in Colombia we're expected. thereafter,
to use the time OF Bogota. the capital. With
this responsibility upon them 1t Ia hoped that
the public clocks OF that city will improve In
their timekeeping. for visitors at Bogota say
1t Is nothing unusual for the public clocks to
disagree by fully quarter Of an hour.
In India. the standard time for the whole Of
the peninsula is the mean time OF the Madras
Observatory. and this time ia used on through
lines OF railroad. and In recording the time Of
sending kilograms to foreign countries. Local
time is. however. used in most towns and vile
lagos. and 1t Is announced by clocks striking.
gongs. bells and guns the signals being given
from churches. treasury buildings. forts and
telegraph Offices. Tho local clocks are set
daily by the time telegraphed from Madras.
and each telegraph office has a closely printed
table. filling about fifty pages giving the diff
ference between Madras and local time for all
the Government telegraph offices in India.
trin NIL txro
standards OF time. This Is not troublesome at
all when we consider that. before the adoption
OF the hour zones the railroads across our own
continent employed about seventy standards
OF time in making up their time tables. Rail-
roads and teleEraphs throughout Spain use
Madrid time. but for all other purposes the
official time is determined by the meridian Of
each locality Throughout Russia st. Peters,
burg time is used for telegraphic 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
and telegraph services have the time OF the Ia
pada Royal Observatory. There ia considerable
confusion in tho Netherlands, and II ones
watch does not agree with the town clocks as
he travels through the land It doesn't follow
that he has poor timekeeper In the rail-
road stations. telegraph and post offices tho
exact time OF the Greenwich Observatory will
DO found. In many towns Amsterdam time is
in use. and it is about twenty 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. executing Hearts Con-
tent. which has special privileges as a cable
station. For local purposes this little town
employs local time Every day it receives
signal from London giving the Greenwich
time. and us the difference in time between the
two points is 3 hours. 80 minutes and 80 Sec
onds. it is only necessary to keep the local
clocks that much slow on Greenwich 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 Ia
the standard and Is used for all purposes
nearly everywhere Among the few excep-
lions is the city OF Canterbury. which uses q
time about four minutes fast on Greenwich
and clocks at n few railroad stations are kent
one or two minutes fast. Ireland uses the
time Of Dublin. and 80 all the clocks in the
island are Is minutes 81 seconds slow on
Green witch time.
The official time throughout Argentina Ia
that of the city OF Cnrdova which is telegraphed
every day to control tho tmepicces in the
various cities. II Is used everywhere in the
railroad and telegraph offices. hut many citi-
%ens in the provinces prefer to use local tina
OF doubtful accuracy The people Of the
Hlwahn Islands try to keep their timepieces
10 hours 30 minutes slower thnn those Of
Greenwich and call this standard time Al
Belize. British Honduras. the clock over tina
Court House which furnishes the time for the
town. is usually regulated by the time kept by
the ships m the harbor. The town Of Nuku-
n'ola. which furnishes the time for the entire
Tonga group. is in west longitude. hut because
all business relations. except with Samoa. are
with places in east longitude. the east ongi.
tude time for the day Of the week and month
is kept.
we nav" plenty Of time variety in our own
country For example. any town that happens
TO be on tho dividing line between two OF the
h"nr-tn" zones will have its own time and in
addition. ~ ~" railroad station there will he
TWO tunes, differing hy nn hour, one for the
q tt. e hon.