The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1899-06-08
THE CALENDAR DAY.
Changes oI Time Thai Are Made IN Going ioross
The Ocean.

Many new subjects are brought prom
inently 10 the attention OF Americans
as result OF the operations OF the
forces OF the United states in The Phil
| ippines. one OF these, which Is con-
stantly recurring, is the determination
OF the relative position OF the Philip
| pines and the United States in the
matter OF time and day OF the month
| The dispatches printed in the Record
, ON the morning OF May in cluded re-
ports Of the engagements occurring
! throughout the day OF May L. This
presents the apparent anomaly of a de-
scrlption of battle published before
( the battle Is fought
The change from, say, Sunday TO
monday must be made at some nerd
Ian on the earth's circumference where
II VIII least inconvenience the world,
says the Chicago Record. Up to mid
night OF Sunday at that meridian the
whole world is keeping Sunday. Then
and there Mondays begins. The Gus
tom has been 10 make the change as
nearly as possible on the 1S0th meri-
d an from Greenwich, England, but IL
has been found inconVenient 10 follow
that meridian exactly. and so an inn
aginary line has been run, from point
10 point In the Pacific Ocean where
the day changes. Very few maps show
this line. In fact. il cannot be found
ON any maps in common use and the
method OF computing time is not cJar-
ly illustrated by the marginal notes
that are given in some late pubica-
tions. For instance, the lS0th meridian
is marked midnight. this being general
ly accepted as the date line. and $50 de-
grees east from Greenwich Is marked 2
"A nhf 10
m. assuming throughout the calcula-
ton that 1t is high noon a. the Englth
observatory.
II should be understood that the as
sumption that the date line and the
1S0th meridian are Identical is ncor-
rect TO beg n with. The date line dew
iates considerably from that meridian
at times. In order that American
mainland and islands may be consd-
cred all on one side, 1t is made to run
through themid die of Pehing Strait
and makes a sharp turn southwest to
l1O degrees east. thus clearing the Beh-
ring Island and the Aleutian chain.
IL then returns eastward TO the tS0th
meridian, and follows that line as far
south as the equator. Below this point
IL takes another wide sweep TO the
east, so as 10 clear the Fiji and otter
island possessions of Great Britain in
proximity to New Zealand and Aus
tral a and once more returns to tn.
1S0th meridian, which IL then follows
to the Antarctic. The intention i'm
making these variations in the course
of the date line is, of course, to give
the places which IL thus favors the
same calendar day as the countries
with which they have the closest COM
mercial connections.
The dateline was originally traced
through the Pacific simply in order to
avoid the confusion that must result
if IL had been made to traverse any
country or the Atlantic. BY the pres
ent arrangement a standard longitude
is fixed. upon which the lime of the
world may be reckoned conveniently.
If the present conditions were reversed.
and the date line traced through the
Atlantic. keeping Greenwich as the
standard. the entire commercial world
would be topsy-turvy, and all recogn-
lied standards would have to be aband-
oned or modified materially Monday
In London would be Tuesday I'm New
York, and Chicago. The wisdom OF the
plan now i'm force will be apparent upon
a casual glance at the map. as il is Ell
dent that such a line must be estab-
lished and that IL should not pass
any continent