Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-09-22
STANDARDS OF TIME.
THE DAY BEGINS AT SUNSET IN MO-
HAMMEDAN. COUNTRIES.

THE DAY BEGINS AT SUNSET IN MO-
HAMMEDAN COUNTRIES.
Any Sort Of Time II 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 Mohammedan countries is from sunset |
to sunset. 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, IL he has one, backward
or forward, according to the season. or
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, a midday gun is fired
by the time shown on a 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
time signal from Greenwich, and is
the time standard for all the telegraphic
business. But the merchants and the
street car company keep gun time, and
the railroad trains do not seem to re-
quire time table ut all, as they seldom
start 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 at Lagos and the gold coast, West
Africa, the local time is checked daily
by telegraph from Greenwich and trans
mitted to all telegraph Offices in the colo
MES. The time at Acera is only 46 sec
onds slower than that Mt Greenwich and
is the time used throughout the gold
coast.
Most any sort of time is kept in China.
As rule the Chinese use an apparent
sun time, ohtained from sun dials The
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 Tien-tsin, with 100000 inhabitants,
the time is determined by the municipal
chronometer, which is the town hall
clock. 1t is supposed to be regulated
every Saturday, when the community
may set their watches, but 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
being given from churches, treasury
/ 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,
ence between Madras and local time for
/ all the government telegraph Offices in
(. India.
\ Not few countries constantly use two
standards of time This is not trouble
sonle ut all when we consider that, be-
4 fore the adoption of the hour zones, the
& ployed about 20 standards of time in
making up their time tables. Railroads
aud telegraphs throughout Spain use
4 Madrid time but for all other purposes
the local time is determined by the me-
4 ridian Of each locality. Throughout Rus
sia st. Petersburg time is used for tele-
i graphic purposes, and each place has its
4 own local time besides. In Portugal the
country towns keep their local time very
roughly, but Lisbon and the railroad and
telegraph service have the time of the
Tapada Royal observatory. There is con-
siderable confusion in the Netherlands,
4 and if ones watch does not agree with
n the town clocks as he travels through
the land it doesn't follow that he has u
poor tinekeeper. In the railroad stations,
i telegraph and postoftices the exact time
of the Greenwich observatory will be
found. In many towns Amsterdam time
is in use. and it is about % minutes
faster than reliable clocks in many other
towns that use Greenwich time and still
other towns use their own local time, Sc
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 rs cable station. For local pur
poses this little town employs local time
Every day it receives a signal from Lon
don giving the Greenwich time, and as
the difference in time between the two
points is 3 hours, 33 minutes and SO sec
onds it is only necessary to keep the
local clocks TINT much slow on Green
wich time to have the exact local time
But in the cable Office all foreign bushes:
is transmitted with Greenwich time.
In Great Britain Greenwich NEAR
3 time is the standard and is used for al
i purposes nearly everywhere. Among tn,
few exceptions is the city of Canter
) bury, which uses n time about four min
3 utes fast on Greenwich, and clocks at +.
I few railroad stations are kept one o
: two minutes fast. Ireland uses the tim,
r of Dublin, and so all the clocks in TIL
S island are % minutes and % second
i slow on Greenwich time.
9 The official time throughout Argentine
. is that of the city of Cordova. which i
telegraphed every day to control tn
: timepieces in the various cities. 1t i
). used everywhere in the railroad and tele
graph offices, bnt many citizens in tn
! provinces prefer to use local time 0
doubtful accuracy. The people of tn
Hawaiian Islands try to keep their time
$ pieces 10 hours and 80 minutes slowe
y than those of Greenwich and call thi