Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-19
NEW YEAR GREETING
Will Be Sent Forth From the
Naval Observatory
TO ALL THE WORLD
AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT ON
THE THIRTY-FIRsT.
An Electric Message That Will Girdle
the Earth-How It Will
Be Done.
TO ALL THE WORLD

At midnight. December 81, from his white,
towering time factory on Georgetown
Heights, Admiral Chester, superintendent of
the national observatory. will have sound
ed completely around the earth--by the
cables which now span our great spinning
top-and to the continental and insular ma
tons to the north and south. by the vast
networks Of wire ramifying in all directions
from this great girdle. a signal announc-
ing the birth of the year 1904 at the capital
of our republic.
To thus ring out the old and ring In
the new year completely around the world
is a feat which has been hitherto impossi
BILE. inasmuch as the Pacific was not bridg-
ed by cable a twelyemonth ago. Stupen-
dous though this act of International comfy
will be. twill cost not cent, yet will be
heralded to the antipodes and back, excit-
ing the world to an appreciation of our good
will.
Around the World in Ten Seconds.
In less than ten seconds this New Year
salute will completely encircle the globe
and return to the hand that delivered 1t
to all Of the races of mankind. This. at
least, is the calculation of Lieut.. Com
mander Everett Hayden. the naval officer
in charge of our national time service. BY
courtesy of Admiral Chester I have been
permitted to witness the chief of the time
bureau and his assistants in the act of
fuH-dress rehearsal for the coming event
At one single push of Commander Hay
denis finger the electric greeting will per-
meate our continent and leap across the
racine from San Francisco to Honolulu, to
Midway, to Guam. to Manila to Hong
Kong. Flashing up and down the entire
eastern coast of Asia, from Alexandrovsk
TO the Malay peninsula. 1t will cross Su-
matra and the home of the wild men of
Borneo; will speed over the coffee planta-
tons of Java to Australia and New Zea-
land Hurrying over the snow drifts of ST.
IBERIA and Russia, 1t will be felt in Mos
COW and st. Petersburg, and there be taken
up by the thick mesh of wires covering
northern and central Europe, passing Lon
don and at the same time spanning the
coast of the black continent of Africa
FROM Alexandria it will be shot 100 miles
up the Nile. into the very heart of Africa
Leaping out into the sea 1t will register
itself in the Isles of Madagascar and
Maur1tfus. From Lisbon to the Madeiras
ana over the Cape Verde Islands it will
Jump to Pernambuco, Brazil; thence down
INTO the Wilds of central Argentina and
up into Bolivia; across the Windward
Isles. the Lesser Antilles and the West In
oies, and then home again to the capital
of the nation.
1t is uncomfortable that such a circuit of
tne earth can be made in scarcely more
time than you will expend In wishing your
ASAShoci a happy new Year..
Over 100000 Miles of Wire.
over 1,lS0OOO miles of wire and cable
this greeting to humanity viii speed, If
commander Hayden's plan Is carried in its
ehtlrety' and there is every reason to sup
pose that the world at large will be only
100 happy to accept such an act of cour-
tesy from us. If land lines could be util-
lzed completely around the world only half
second would be required Tor the journey
OF the greeting from here to the antipodes
and back. and this calculation makes al
lowance for the usual delays of terrestrial
Telegraph systems. But the submarine
cables act more slowly than do those
stretched overland, and there will be sew
eral big jumps across the oceans, 700
miles from Iceland to Newfoundland,
Zoo miles from Frisco to Honolulu 16O
to Midway, 2,3O0 to Guam, 1,5OO to Ma
Mia. At the ends of the cables the Sig
nal will arrive as an electric wave, rather
than as an instantaneous spark.
When the midnight signal reaches Chi
cago and the cities of our central time
belt it will still be an hour before the
birth of the new year. When it flashes
into Denver and the other mountain belt
towns all good clocks will register 10
p. m. and people of that region will have
two hours of the old year remaining to
them When it throbs throughout the
Pacific coast cities their clocks will stand
at p. m. 1t will reach Honolulu at
m. and our newly made subjects there
will be still chatting over their evening
feast of poi" Our lonely cable opera
tors on Midway island will suspend their
o'clock dinners to speed the greeting on
it's way westward. They will have six
more hours Of the old year due them Up
to this point we have been ahead Of the
signal crosses the international date line,
where each new year Is born. This queer
boundary running north and south bisects
the Pacific. and is supposed to follow the
ne hut 11x-< vao
somewhat irregular course.
Line Where Year Begins.
+ At this line the year 1904 will come into
being when clocks in our eastern. central,
mountain and Pacific time belts register.
respectively, 7, 6, 5 and 4 o'clock am. De-
cember 81. The new year, therefore. will
really have been born in the mid-Pacifc
seventeen hours before our signal goes out.
Thus each day travels from the tnterna-
tional date line westward. On the east Of
this line the nominal date Is always one
day earlier. than on the west of it. Hence,
although the clocks will register pm.
New Year eve. at Midway. when our sig
nal passes through that island. this same
instantaneous spark will be felt at Guam
when clocks there will stand at 3 pm.
New Year day. Manila clocks will say that
1t is 2 pm, January 1, and soldiers
throughout the Philippines will have finished
their New Year dinners. 1t will be high
passes through that kingdom At Calcutta
and Ceylon it will be IL am; at Bombay,
10 am. At Mau-itus it will be O'Clock.
and the shores Of that isle. where Paul and
Virginia loved and suffered will be bathed
in the warmth of a midsummer morning.
At Alden, Arabia, 1t will be am, and
when from Alexandra the greeting is
licked to the telegraph stations up the Nile.
at 7 o'clock, the eastern faces of the great
pyramids will be tinted by the morning
sunshine. At the same hour the signal
will find the Beers of South Africa begin
ming summer days toll on the welt. At
Rome 1t will be 8 am. New Year morning,
and the pope will still be asleep in the Vat
lean. When the throb is felt in the main
telegraph office of dear old London it will
be 5 a. M In the Canary Islands it will be 4
am; In eastern Brazil, am: Guiana, 2
am; central South America, / am. and
so on back to our Atlantic coast and Wash
ington all within the ten seconds follow
ing the midnight hour when the message
was sent on its way.
No New Year Day for Some.
Two New Year days in succession will
fall to the lot Of vessels sailing eastward
across the Pacific If they pass the inter-
national date line at this time. But those
passing it westward simultaneously will
have no New Year day at all. Another odd