Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-04-22
Why 1t is a Given Date May Run Into
Three Days.
FOUR WAYS OF FIXING LONGITUDE
Efforts to Be Made to Unity the
Existing System.
CAUSES FOR CON SION
Written for The Evening Star.

| 1t is quite safe to say the people of this
country have looked into their biographies
oftener within the past twelve months than
| they have for many decades. and that just
| because our interests. which for so long
were centered right here in the continent.
| have passed into the Pacific and beyond
the line where tomorrow is born. Hereto
fore we have given ourselves but little con-
Germ about where other nations might wish
the day to begin, but now the matter is
different and it radically behooves US to
come to some sort of international agree
ment.
| To most of US the day seems an affair
arbitrarily regulated by nature through the
sun, and so, generally, it would be but for
the differing view points of nations and
| the confusion arising out of the divisions
| into the civil, the astronomical and the
nautical day. Most people would not be-
| lieve that any given date may extend over,
| or into three different days; but such is
the seemingly anomalous fact. Take, for
| example, Sunday, the I'D instant By as
| Economical and nautical reckonings-the
| days in each case beginning at noon-only
| half of this date is on Sunday; the first
| half of April the 23d. by nautical reckon
| irg is on Saturday. the 22d, while the sec
| ond half of the I'D, according to astronom-
| ical reckoning on Monday. April the oath.
| by civil time. This arises out of the prac-
! tice of beginning the nautical day at noon
| of the preceding civil day, while the as
| Economical day is born just twenty-four
| hours later. Again. if we take up Amer
| lean atlas, We shall find longitude reckoned
both from the meridian of Washington and
| that of Greenwich-one being at the top of
the map and the other at the bottom. If
we take French geography we shall find
the meridian of Paris assumed as the prime
while German map will generally show
the degrees east or west of the meridian of
Ferro, in the Canaries. AS the day or date
ri = Tx-ir ~. lfslFa
of $50 degrees distant from the accepted
prime meridian, the day must change at
differing points of pretty wide departure
and thus we see how the will of man has
very completely upset the regularity of
| reckoning, all by his several ways of cal
culating from his personal point of view
Former Effort.
| Fifteen years ago this government called
a conference of nations interested in the
| unification of time, and twenty-five other
| countries We're represented at the meeting
| in Washington, ID. c. The congress lasted
over a month, and the subject was elabo-
| ratey discussed by the chosen scientific
| representatives of each government. The
| five United States commissioners intro
| duced the resolutions finally adopted. by
| the conference. and the most important
| conclusions We're that from a date to be
| chosen in the future astronomical and nau-
| teal time should be Teckoned in unison
| with civil time, which begins at midnight.
| and that the zero meridian of Greenwich
| should be adopted universally as the prime
| meridian Governmental sanction was sub
| Sequently expressed by all but three cOun-
| trieS-twO remaining SILENT while the
| United States, contrary to the prior action
! of its commissioners, the spirit of Con-
| gresS and the concurrence of the vast ma
| jority of interested scientists. objected
| through the position taken by the then su-
| perintendent of the naval observatory and
| two of his assistants. The objections they
h.al 4 f.l
| conference in advance, and only unity of
| action and a chosen date of sufficient re-
| moteness was needed in which to make the
| required change of calculations. One of
| the assistants signing that Directing re-
| port was Prof. Simon Newcomb. then di-
| rector of the Nautical Almanac, the publi-
cation most directly affected by the pro-
| posed change.
| The widening reach of cables and the
| eVer-growing extension of rapid means of
| transportation land and on sea bring
| nations into touch in a way unthought of
| when the three-day system of time keeping
| seemed proper, while the narrow grounds
| on which diplomatic differences are based
| today make it essential that there be a
sons alone. Commercially and legally,
| where our interests reach far into the east,
| the matter is of uncommon importance.
| Favor the Scheme
| The subject has again been agitated and
| an effort is being made to herald in the
| new century with the universal unifcation
of time, and the majority of astronomers
| heard from and belonging to the following
| countries are in favor of carrying the
scheme into effect on the LIST day of Janu-
| airy, 1901. The purpose of choosing the adj
| vent OF new century is, of course to
make the date Of change in years to come
| one easy of remembrance, and the assent
! ing countries are Austria, Australia Bel
| GUM, Canada, Colombia. England France
| Greece, Italy, Ireland, West Indies NADIA
| gascar, Mexico. Roumania, Russia Scot
| land Spain and the United States Ger
many, Holland, Norway and Portugal are
unfaVorable. OF the shipping interests of
the world. counting by tonnage 50 per
| cent are in favor of the change, and the
| greater bulk of the interested navigators
| are the men commanding vessels without
| regular routes, and the very ones upon
whom the heavier burdens of skillful navi-
satlon Iall Astronomers are the more
| numerous obJectors, and one may reasona-
bly, question why they, with every faculty
OF quietude and convenience and without
the custody of life and treasure, should
nave preference over the navigator thread
ing his way ON the trackless. chanceful
deep.
Nautical AImanacs,
Ephemerfdes or nautical almanacs are
published by nine countries. and half of
| them are reckoned from Greenwich, while
| the others assume some chosen meridian
| IN their own country or elsewhere for the
Drought
Greenwich time to this country, and the
| nrst nautical almanac, printed I'D wears
ago, was published by the British govern
ment Six of the countries publishing ephe-
| merldes are in favor of the change, while
the United States officially and Germany
and Portugal by silence have failed to as
sent. The nautical almanac gives the nau-
tical day-of which official record ceased to
| be Kept in the log books of American YES
seis some time back in the thirties, and the
only excuse for its continuance is because
! OF It's easy adaptation with the astronomi-
| cal day, likewise beginning from noon. In
nguring out longitude on shipboard the very
Irst thlng almost is to reduce the time to
that of the civil day and the vast bulk of
the mistakes of youthful or careless navi-
gators is attributable to the confusion aris-
ing from these two divisions of time 1t
would require some time, of course to re-
arrange the tables of the nautical alma
macs, but once done, all ephemerides would
be IN unison, while all charts and maps
would have their meridians marked alike
and reckoned from a common prime
Meridian of Ferro
nj