The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-05

 towns with crazy name"
 ,..................s.sss .ssss.sss.sssssssssssssssss one who seems to take great interest Tn the above subject has mailed me referring to the time stated.
 It will be of some service to cut out and paste the following in their hats for future reference:
 Longitude, North and South-The true time of day is ascartained at any one point of the globe by setting the hands of a watch to 12 o'clock at the very mo- ment when the sun stands highest.
 The sun seems to complete its daily circle in "A hours GAO minutes). A circle is divided into 36O degrees. The sun seems to pass over one 1-36Oth part of the circle in four minutes and 15 degrees equal one hour.
 These 360 degrees are laid off on the imaginary circle around the earth at equal distances from the pole, called the equator and 360 semi-circles are imagined to pass through these degree marks on the equator from pole to pole. These semi-circles mark the degrees of longi- tude and are numbered. Different coun- tries take different points from which to start the numbering or in other words where to place the degree 0 (zero). For England the astronomic observatory at Greenwich, Eng, is the starting or zero point; for the United States it is that of Washington, D. c. The degrees are numbered in both directions, east and west, and the 1S0th semi-circle Gin either direction) forms one complete circle with semi-circle 0.
 As for all the places along such a semi-circle, the sun stands highest at the same moment, these semi-circles are named ''meridians (meridies-midday). and any two places that nave noon at same meridian.
 Latitude, Eas. and West-The merid- ians are divided with the equator as starting or zero point into 90 degrees, both north and south The imaginary circles passing through these degree marks, running parallel to the equator and decreasing in radius and circumfer- ence with the increasing distance from the equator, are--called circles of lati- tude, and any two points on the same side of the equator and at the same dis tance from 1t are said to lie in the same latitude.
 The length of degree of longitude Is always the same along any circle of lat itude. Along the equator it is 60 geo. graphical miles Gone geographical mile, sea mile, or 'knot" equals l .152-2-3 statute miles); at the poles 60 degrees) 1t is O. at 30 degrees of latitude 1t is 52 geographical or 5s.S1 statute miles, at 60 degrees of latitude it is 30 geographical or 34 53 stat ute miles.
 | As the sun seemingly passes over 10 de- ! grees of longitude in one hour man 1 travelling at that speed due west along circle of latitude. would experience no change in the time of day during his journey. Travelling due east at the same l speed he would have to set his watch 1 two hours ahead for every 15 degrees (one hour for the distance he travels and one | for that seemingly covered by the sun). 1 To keep track on sun-time in moving i east or west is impossible without in | cessantly setting the hands of the watch to agree with the sun. To avoid this con- 1 fusion and especially for the convenience of the railroads a standard of time was established by mutual agreement in 1883. l by which trains are run and local time regulated.
 1 According to this system the United l States, extending from 65 degrees to 125 l degrees longitude. west of Greenwich, is divided into four time sections, each of | 15 degrees of longitude, exactly equiva- l lent to one hour.
 1; The first (eastern) section includes all ! an irregular line drawn from Detroit to
 Charleston, s. C., the latter being the
 most southern point. The second (cen-
 traD section includes all the territory
 between the last-nsmed line and an IT, regular line from Bismark, N. D., to the mouth of the Rio Grande The third (mountain) section includes all territory
 between the last-named line and nearly the western borders of Idaho, Utah and Arizona The fourth (Pacihc) section covers the rest of the country to the Pa cific coast
 The standard time is uniform inside oi these sections, and the time of each sec
 tion differs from that next to 1t by ex' 1 actly one hour. Thus at 12 noon at New
 York (eastern time) the time at Chicago i (centraD Is Il a. m.; at Denver (moun- tain time) 10 o'clock, a. m.; at San Fran.
 cisco (Pacific time), g o'clock, a. m. Standard time is 16 minutes slower al Boston than true local time, minutes
 slower at New York, minutes faster at Washington, 19 minutes faster al Charlestown, 2s minutes slower at Detroit IS minutes faster at Kansas City, 10 min
 utes slower at Chicago. minutes faster