Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1903-12-31
lid
~ All
..,tS on Earth
ktarts at Midnight, Spend
AT New Years Day Re-
turning 10 Seconds
Later

washington. ID. c., Dec. 81
promptly on the stroke of midnight
rrcle Sam will start a New Year
erecting around the world. The army
nosts and naval stations of the United
states in Hawaii, Gaum, the Philip
mines Porto Rico, Alaska and other
nsrs of the world will receive the
message, the sending Of which is
1 made possible by the completion of
Abe Pacific cables and those in
Alaska
In less than ten seconds this salute
viii completely encircle the globe and
return to the starting point-the
A White. towering naval observatory on
georgetown Heights This, at least,
4 the calculation of HeutenantCom-
mander Everett Hayden, the naval
officer in charge of the observatory.
The route Ct the message will be by
telegraph 10 San Francisco and thence
by way of the new Paciao able to
Honolulu, to Midway, to Gaum, to
Manila and to Hong Kong. Flashing
up and Gown the entire eastern coast
Of Asia it will cross Siberia, 1t win
be flashed to Moscow and st. Peters
burg, and there be taken up by thu
thick mesh of wires covering north
ern and central Europe, passing Lon
don and nc the same time spannln
the coast of Africa. From Alexandri
it will be shot 750 miles up the Nil
into the very heart of the dark cont
nent. Leaping out into the sea
will register itself in the isles of Mac
will register itself in the isles of Mac
TO tn daGe''as and over the Cap
Verde islands it will jump to Pernan
bucO, Brazil, thence down into centr;
Argontiaa and IN into bolivia anrns
the Windward isles, the Lesser Al
titles and the West Indies, and the
home again to Washington.
Over 1,1sO,OOO miles Of wire an
cable will be utilized in transmittin
the message when the midnight sig
nal reaches Chicago It will be al
hour before the birth of the new year
Similarly it will be 10 o'clock whel
the signal flashes into Denver and tn
mountain belt towns and 3 o'clocl
when 1t reaches the Pacific coast
When the island of Midway is reached
the clocks will register 6 p. m. VI
to this point the message viii D.
ahead of the new year, but as TN
island of Midway marks the inter
national date line, where each new
year is born, the instantaneous SPAR
will he flashed into Gaum at 3 p. m
New Years day, while our soldier
In the Philippines will receive IN
greetings at about the hour the
have finished their New Year dinner
At Calcutta and Ceylon 1t will be l
a. m; at Bombay, 10 a. m; at Adei
a. m; at Romc a. m; In the Car
airy islands, a. am; in eastern Br'
I'll 3 a. m. and so on back TO WasI
ington. all within the ten second
following the midnight hour whe
the message was started on its wa!
II is intended to receive both IN
outgoing and incoming signals on IN
same chronograph at the naval oI
seryatory, and thus preserve pc
manent graphic record Of both on
single sheet of paper. 1t Is suggeste
that, besides demonstrating the po
sihilities Of practical astronomy an
telegraphy, working together throue
International cooperation, beneh
will result from the general attentio
that 1t will direct TO the advantage
OF the use Of accurate standard tim
throughout the world.