Durango semi-weekly herald., 1904-01-04
GREETING
AROUND
THE WORLD

WASHINGTON. Dec. 31.-Promptly
on the stroke OF midnight tonight I'm
Gle Sam will start a New Year greet
ing around the world. The army posts
and naval stations of the United
States in Hawaii, Guam, the Philip
pines. Porto Rico, Alaska and other
parts OF the world will receive the
message. the sending of which is
made possible by the completion Of
the Pacific cable and those In Alaska.
In less than ten seconds this salute
will completely encircle the globe and
return to the starting point--the
white, towering naval observatory on
Georgetown Heights.
This. at least, Is the calculation of
Lieutenant-Com Everett Hay
den, the naval officer in charge of the
observatory. The route of the mes
sage will be by telegraph to San Fran
cisco and thence by way OF the new
Pacific cable to Honolulu, to Midway.
to Guam, to Manila and to Hong
Kong Flashing up and down the en-
tire eastern coast of Asia 1t Will cross
Sumatra, Borneo and Java to Aus
tralia and New Zealand. BY the land
route across Siberia 1t will be flashed
to Moscow and st. Petersburg. and
there be taken up bv the thick mesh of
wires covering northern and central
Europe. passing LoIsdon and at the
same time spanning the coast of AT
rica From Alexandria 1t Will be shot
| $50 miles up the Nile. into the very
heart of the dark continent. Leaping
out into the sea 1T will register itself
| in the isles of Madagascar and Mauri-
tus From Lisbon to the Madeiras
and over the Cape Verde islands 1t
will jump to Pernambuco, Brazil,
thence down into central Argentina
and up into Bolivia. across the Wind
ward isles. the Less Antilles and the
\ West Indies. and then home again TO
Washington.
| over 1.1S0,000 miles of wire and ca
BILE will be utilized in transmitting the
message. when the midnight signal
reaches Chicago 1t will be an hour be-
fore the birth of the new year. Sim
ilarly, it will be 10 O'Clock when the
| signal flashes into the Denver Office
and the mountain belt towns and 8
o'clock when it reaches the Pacific
coast When the island of Midway is
reached the clocks will register p.
m Up to this point the message will
be ahead of the new year, but as the
island of Midway marks the interna.
tional date line. where each new year
| is born, the instantaneous spark will
| he flashed into Guam at 8 y. m. Flew
Years day, while our soldiers in the
| Philippines will receive the greeting
/ at about the hour they have finished
their New Year dinner At Calcutta
and Ceylon it will be II a. m, at BON.
bay. 10 a. m. at Alden, 8 a. m. at Rome
9 a. m. in the Canary islands. a. M,
in eastern Brazil, 3 a. m. and so on
back to Washington. all within the
ten seconds following the midnight
| hour when the message was started
on its way.
| 1t Is intended to receive both the
outgoing and incoming signals on the
same chronograph al the naval obser-
vatory, and thus preserve perma-
| nent graphic record of both on a sin
gle sheet of paper. II is suggested
that. besides demonstrating the possl-
bilities of practical astronomy and tel
egraphy. working together through in.
ternational cooperation. benefits will
result from the general attention that
1t will direct to the advantages Of the
use of accurate standard time through
out the world.