Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-05-26
UNCLE SANS TIME.


HOW TITS COMPUTED OVER HIS
WIDESPREAD DOMAINS.
What the Chronomsters at Manila, Guam. Ha.
wai, Cuba and Porto Rico Indicate at High
Noon at the National Capital international
Date Line-The Filipinos Get Up Thirteen
| Hours Ahead of the Inhabitants of Gotham
Other Peculiaritiss of the Earth's Revolution
on Time.
The time of day-in other words,
what o'clock it isis a simple matter,
well understood and easily compre-
hended by everybody in city or in
approximately the same locality. But
when people are separated, some being
| to the east or the west of the others,
the simplicity of the answer to the
question, What time is it, is by no
means so apparent.
Indeed, confusion has so often arisen
in consequence of the difference be-
tween clocks, say, at New York and
Chicago, that it has been found de-
| cidedly advantageous to divide the
United States into time districts, each
district differing from the adjoining
one by just one hour of time. The
railroad companies were the inaugu'
rators of this admirable system, which
business men and finally the govern
ment shortly adopted.
Thus in the United States to-day
there are Eastern time Corresponding
to the 18TH meridian of longitude
west from GreenwicD, Central time
Corresponding to the Goth meridian
west from Greenwich), mountain time
Corresponding to the 1O5th meridian
west from Greenwich), and Western
time corresponding to the 12Oth me-
ridian west from Greenwich.
Owing to this simple arrangement it
therefore follows that when it is high
noon in Eastern time at New York,
for instance, it is IL o'clock in Central
time at Chicago, 10 o'clock in Noun.
tain time at Denver, and 9o'clock in
Western time at San Francisco This
division OF time, though not astronom-
ically correct, is sufficiently 50 for all
practical purposes, and one can read
lily understand how greatly business is
thereby facilitated.
For instance, the longitude of the
City Hall of New York is 20 deg. "a
sec. west. This converted from arc
into time gives four hours 56 minutes
1.6 seconds. But the time of the
clocks in New York and throughout
all the Eastern time section or district
is five hours from Greenwich, which
is the time corresponding to a longi-
itude of Is deg. west. Since the
adoption Of standard time, as these
times into which the mainland of the
United States is divided are called, the
dominion of the country has been ex-
tended. 1t now comprises islands in
the Atlantic ocean and islands in the
Pacific Ocean. Havana, most people
have the idea, lies to the eastward and
southwark of New York. Instead, it
is situated nearly south of Key West,
in longitude 50 deg. 81 min. 30 sec.
west, or 5 hours, 20 minutes 26 Sec
onds from Greenwich, about midway
between Eastern and Central times.
Undoubtedly Eastern time will be the
time to which the Cuban clocks will
eventually be set.
San Juan is situated in longitude 66
deg. 7 min. % sec. west. This re-
duced from arc to time by dividing by
Is gives hours "a minutes 30 Sec
onds. Here again, perhaps, Eastern
time will be adopted when trade be-
tween these West India Islands and
the ports along the Atlantic seaboard
has increased TO the great volume
which is sure to come with peace and
prosperity.
Now for the great West. San Fran
cisco lies 8 hours. 8 minutes and 3S
seconds distant in time from Green
wich, though, according to our adopt
ed standard time, it is regarded COM
mercially as only hours distant.
Honolulu, in the Sandwich Islands, OF
the United States, is distant by sun
time 10 hours, 81 minutes and 36 Sec
onds from Greenwich. 1t would GER
tainly be more convenient to drop the
minutes and seconds and consider the
Hawaiian group as round ten hours
distant from Greenwich, or two hours
from San Francisco, or five hours from
New York.
So far, this question of time has
been plain sailing, as the nautical
men say. We have been following
the sun to the westward taking our
date and day with us, the same with
which we started from Greenwich or
New York but after we shove off from
the Sandwich group and head for our
tight little island of Guam we en-
counter difficulty that is decidedly
puzzling to the landsman, and even
the nautical man has to sit down and
work it out.
The difficulty lies in the adding to
or dropping from our calendar of an
entire day, according as we may be 60