The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1903-01-15
A CONFUSION OF DATES.


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Whereabouts-if there be where
| Abouts at all--on the earth's surfaceis
the place where the day" may be con-
sidered to begin" and where the
s'date' consequently has to be
changed?
A day" OF course, Is reaiity--it
Is the time occupied by the earth IN
making one rotation on its axis But as
SO defined every meridian on the
earth's surface has a "day" of its own.
But it would be impossible to regu-
late human affairs upon the basis Of
each meridian having its own day"
it is matter OF necessity to reckon,
according to the day Of some selected
station, says the Glasgow Evening
Times. Formerly each nation was wont
to reckon time from station OF it's
own-whence came much confusion,
affecting many questions. Nowadays,
however, practically the whole world
has agreed to take Greenwich as the
selected station--to make it the gen
eral First meridian" whence time and
geographical longitude are alike reck-
oned. Well, $50 degrees east and 1S0
degrees west are identical merldians.
1t will be seen at once that it entirely
depends upon whether you have
reached it by proceeding eastward or
by proceeding westward whether you
reckon on the day on this meridian
Saturday or Friday.
And further, if coming eastward you
continued your reckoning after you
crossed the 1sO degrees meridian, you
would find yourself calling Sunday
morning that which those who were
coming toward you from the west were
calling Saturday morning; while the
latter, after they had crossed the 1sO
degrees meridian in the course Of the
continuance of their journey would,
did they likewise maintain unchanged
their mode OF reckoning, be calling
Friday night that which you had just
called Saturday night.
Thus, then, the Greenwich day" be-
gins at the 100 degrees east meridian.
The date" therefore. must change
there, or otherwise intolerable confu-
sion wouldresult. Compromise, there
fore, has as necessary complement
to the general agreement adopted the
Greenwich "day,' the using of the 1sO
degrees east meridian as the basis Of
the "dhte line" or line Of boundary at
which the date is changed. In travel
ing eastward the date il rectifed by
doubling the day, i. e., calling two sue
cessive days by the same name, while
in travelling westward it is rectified by
dropping dhy out, i.e., passing at
once, say from Saturday to Monday
In both cases the change being made
at the 1S0 degrees meridian. In actual
practice the arrangement is not quite
so simple; practical requirements
necessitate another compromise.
Though it mostly trayerses ocean, the
$50 degrees meridian crosses land at
few points; and in order to avoid the
confusion inevitable with change of
date on land, the actual date line is
allowed to deviate somewhat from the
true meridian line at certain points.
The chief deviation is in the Bering
straits, the date line being made to
run along the center Of the waterway,
instead OF being taken across the Kam-
schatka, as it would do did it follow |
the actual meridian.
The date lines recognized by the adj
miralty and by the United States navy
are almost the same.
The meridian crosses an island of |
the Fiji group, and in consequence,
were it not for convenient deviation,
its inhabitants might, if theychose, en-
Joy the puzzlement of passing from to-
day into tomorrow, and returning
from tomorrow into yesterday, and
other experiences suitable to comic
opera.
AS matter of fact, some queer
things resulted in Alaska when it was
Russian territory, For the Russians,
having come by way of Siberia, had
Srought their own calendar with them;
while the Canadians, who had come
westward, had brought theirs. So on
she frontier line it might be Sunday
and church time for the Russians and
Saturday and market day for their
neighbors. In one town, with mixed
population, a state of affairs existed |
involving possibilities thus described:
"A Russian can at any time cross tie
border and spend yesterday with his
friends, or an American can enter Rus
sia (where he will find it tomorrow
and enjoy the New Years dinner with
his RUSSIAN neighbors, and return
home in ample time to spend the old
year with his family" Alaska, Of
course, now uses the American date.
In the Philippines the difficulty also
made itself felt at one time, inasmuch
as, while within the sphere of the
Asiatic date, they used the American
one, the Spaniards having first reached
them from the American side. 1t thus
happened that Luzon and Celebes.
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