New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-07
WHERE THE DAY BEGINS.
AsCURIoUsLY CROOKED INTERNATIONAL
DATE LINE
THE PRACTICE OF THE NAVY DIFFERS. FROM
LOCAL USAGE ON THE ISLANDS OF THE
PACIFIC THE AMERICAN AND
AsIATIc SYSTEMS.
AsIATIc SYSTEMS.

Iarly accurate timepece were to station himself
in one spot in low ATTITUDES and carefully note
the succession OF day and night for exactly
720 hours ne would say at the end Of the
period that precisely thirty days had elapsed.
Then were he to repeat the experiment, while
journeying eastward at such speed that he could
so completely around the world in that interval,
he would say that thirty-one days had PASSED
The sun certainly would have crossed from his
shifting eastern horizon to his shifting western
horizon that number of times while he was
the way. And If this was his only method
OF reckoning he would daIe his arrival one day
later in the week and month thar his stay-at-
home friends did.
Finally, IL he varied the test by travelling
westward instead of eastward and managed to
return to his starting point just TO hours from
the moment of his departure. he would have ob-
served only twenty-nine passages Of the sun
overhead In each of these three instances the
earth would have rotated its axis just thirty
times; hut when the man was on tie wing, going
either toward or away from the sunrise he would
witness one more or one less transit of the orb
of day through the heavens than II he had been
stationary and the day itself would be COR
respondngly heightened shortened.
This difference in time. which amounts to an
west did not come to be a stumbling block 10
mariners until century or so ago. So long
the Phenicians kept inside the Mediter-
ranean. or essayed only few hundred miles
beyond the Pillars of Hercules they had little
occasion TO notice the phenomenon. When
Caesars legions having invaded Gaul. pushed
into Britain they carried the days of the
week and year that were recognized in Rome
Into their dominons. Whether the mer-
chants Of ancient Europe invaded India. by land
sea, they experienced no inconvenience on
this account They may have discovered that the
days seemed to be a trihe shorter while they
were journeying eastward, and longer while
going west But no matter where they went
there confusion in the reckoning of time
in consequence Of change of longitude merely.
Even Columbus and his followers carried the
calendar of Europe to America and made II
connect directly with that Of the Old World.
When, however yenturesome navigators
crossed the Pacific Ocean they encountered a
problem that had not been faced before. Sail
ing westward from Valparaiso or San Fran
cisco. they found that the Chinese. Japanese
and East Indians were a day ahead of the
Americans; and sailing eastward they found
that America was a day behind the Asiatic
almanac. 1t thus became necessary. every time
they crossed the ocean, to correct their logbOokS
and scheme of dating letters it, in those old
days. they undertook to write letters at all.
Thus by degrees grew up the custom Of
setting the calendar back day when going in
one direction and setting it forward when going
the other way. In one case there would be a
skip from Monday. May s. to Wednesday, May
10, for instance. and in the other case there
would be Monday. May 8, of double length
OfI rvitt dc
divided the Pacific very nearly in the middle.
that line was adopted as a convenient guide for
the change That is to say, vessels of the
United States and English navies, in crossing
the ocean from America to Asia, in coming
this way. always change their reckoning at
that boundary, no matter how far north or
south. The practice OF the merchant marine
conforms in general to this programme. The
ship might be going from Cape Horn TO Vladi-
yostock from San Francisco to Manila, or from
Vancouver to Melbourne, but in any case the
lSOth meridian would be the line at which the
reckoning would be changed.
A new phase OF this subject is presented by
the fact that there hundreds Of islands In
the Pacific well scattered over the ocean There
is a general concentration of dots in the south
western portion Of this vast expanse, but the
islands are not confined to that region by any
means Now, civilization has advanced far
enough on some Of these GASES in the desert Of
waters for the natives TO keep track Of time.
and their calendars are therefore adjusted in a
general way 10 that Of the rest of the world
But il has become necessary for the inhabitants
of these isles Of the sea to choose between the
dates that prevail simultaneously In America
and Asia
ciali which