The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-12-01
CHANGE In NOTING TIME
One Of the Innovations the New
Century viii Bring
Hours of the Day wiz BE Reckoned
From One to Neutrality-suspicious.
ence Held in washington :n 1891
Attended by Delegates Repre-
senting Tyventy-xeven Nations.

changes. but perhaps none OF sucE every
| day Importance as the prop sed new
/ method of time-keeping. One Of toe most
| practical results viii be that noon at
| Greenwich will u O'Clock all over The
World At present each day is spread
over forty-efght (aEd in some instances
ffty-fveJ hours in different places. With
! the new system it will have its begin
ming and end within twenty-fOur h~uls ali
ever the globe The hours on our watches
! ard clocks, too. will be run from l to -.
Ii would seem odd for a while to order
theatre carriages at half past p in place
| CT half past 10.
The waggish reply, "a quarter Fast Is, =
made b. the policeman in The Bah Bal
lads. VIII become the correct way Of in
dicating y quarter past l." But after
all. this VIII only be an enlargement Of
what Was actually begun IS IA back as
1886. when the time fer all through
trains on the Canadian Pacific Railroad
was first reckoned IN hours running from
l TO q.
The fixing OF universal prime meridian
viii do away with the ambiguity when,
! as railways and telegrapns become multi
piled. leads TO such confusing :OI1plica-
tons in social and commercial anairs,
to errors in chronology, to litigation IN
connection with succession TO property,
insurance matters, contracts, elc- The
present variations OF time are readily
demonstrated by selecting points in four
regions about 50 degrees apart; for in
stance, Japan Arabia. Newfoundland. and
Alaska. On Sunday al midn4 ght 10 Japan
il is noon in Newfoundland, and on two
distinct days, namely, Sunday AID Mon
day.
To explain this apparently contradicto-
~ statement note that Arabia, being west
Ct japan, the time there tat midnight IN
Japan. would be p. n. Sunday, while IN
Alaska, being east OF Japan, 1t would be'
a. m. on Monday At D. m on Sunday
in Arabia it must be Sunday noon in New
foundland and at a m. on Monday noon
in Alaska it must be Monday 80 degrees
farther east-tbat Is, in Newfoundland also.
Thus 1t win be seen By tracing time both
east and west from given point 10 its an
tipodes, The clock on the one hand be-
cones twelve hours slower. and on the
other hand twelve hours faster. As there
fore it follows, as already stated, just when
il is midnight on Sunday In Japan. at pre-
cisely that same moment il is noon at New
foundIand on TWO distinct days, namely,
Sunday and Monday
II IS only another application CT tbs
which gave rise to the following incident.
i teIegTaphic message dated rSinlla, 100
q. m. Wednesday" was received in London
at l1:4T p m on Tuesday The clerk very
naturally exclaimed, why. this message
was sent OF tomorrow" The same per-
picking problem has been presented by
imagining a car suspended from the sun.
and II the car a man who enquiries the
day and time as d town rolls eastward be-
meath him The answer Twelve O'Clock
noon. Monday is given Presently anOth-
Ct town comes under the car. The man
asks the same question and receives the
same reply for OF course IL must always
be neon. the town being Immediately be-
reath the sur Now comes the question:
When viii the man In the car first receive
tie answer Twelve o'clock noon Tues
d.y?" The solution is found in the fact
tAat in travelling across the Pacific from
VEST to east one day has 10 be repeated
before reaching the American coast. II.
for example. the correction be made on
Saturday July ( there Will be two Sat
urdays IT the same week and two days OF
the month. dated July J.
It is this variation OF time. too. which
forms the pivotal point OF the play
Around the World in Eighty Days" in
which the traveller, who wagered at his
London Club that he could go around the
world and be back at the club in eighty
gotten this difference of day. and
| thought that he had completed his journey
! fwenty-fours TOO late
Does anyone ask: What is going to
straighten this ont and bring about order
out Of the Existing chaos? The answer is
by simply putting into operation the re-
suits of the deliberations of the Interna-
tional Meridian Conference, which met in
Washington at the invitation of President
Arthur in October, 1884, for the express
purpose Of establishing prime neridisu
AID a universal day. This matter was
freely discussed at the time by navigators
| and astronomers, and the hope was every
where expressed that the change would
be effected on January l. 1901. At any
rate, 1t does not seem possible that the
adoption of the new system can be de-
ferTed very 1cng after the commencement
of the twentieth century.
This conference met in the Diplomatic
Hall Of the Department of State and held
eight sessions between October ! and No.
vember l. Delegates from twenty-seven
nations were present. The chairman OF
the United States delegation, Admiral c.
r. P. Rodgers, L. s N, was elected presi-
dent Of the conference The following
resolutions were offered and adopted:
1t is the opinion of this Congress thai
it is desirable TO adopt single Prime nc
ridisn for all nations in place of the null
tipIieity Of initial merIdians which now
exist
The conference proposes to the Gov
eTnments here represented the adoption
Of the meridian passing through the CEN
ire CT the transit instrument at the OBJ
servatory of Greenwich as the initial me-
ridian for longitude.
From this meridian longitude shall be
coGated in two directions up to $50 de-
grees, east longitude being plus and west
longitude minus.
THE conference proposes the adoption
of universal day for all purposes for
which il may be found convenient. and
which shall not interfere with the use Of
local or other standard time where de-
sirabIe
This universal day is to be a mean
solar day; is TO begin for all the world
at the moment of mean midnight of the
initial meridian. eoinciding with the be-
ginning of the civil day and date of that
meridian, and is to be counted from zero
up 10 twentyfour hours
The conference expresses the hope that
as soon as practicable the astronomical
and nautical days will be arranged every
where to begin at mean midnight
The conference expresses the hoEe that
the technical studies designed to regulate
ard extend the application of the decimal
system to the division of angular space
and % lime shall be resumed so as to
admit the extension Of this application to
all cases in which it presents real advan-
tages.'
A notable Improvement in time-reckon-
ing was devised for the Pennsylvania
Railroad system in 1853 by s P. Langley.
the present Secretary of the Smithsonian