Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-05-31

from Greenwich obServatory-the.
countries on the opposite side Of the
earth are turned directly away from
the sun and are covered by the dark
ness Of midnight Paris, being a lit
tie further east than London, will have
been brought directly under the sun
little earlier; that Is to say, when II
is noon in London it is few min
utes past noon in Paris. At Constan-
tinOple, still further east, noon mas
been gone for an hour or two.
Further east, again, and India Will be
found approaching the evening hour,
while Japan and China have already
sunk into darkness.
If, however, you turn your :ace
west cross the mighty Atlantic Ocean
and land in one of the eastern cities
OF the United States, you VIII find that
the Americans have not yet reached
their usual breakfast hour. Energetic
Philadelphans and New Workers may
be up and about, but in Chicago and
st. Louis people are just beginning to
see the first faint gleam of day. while
San Francisco Is still wrapped In a
mantle Of darkness But II you travel
little further west strange as it may
seem at the first glance, you will reach
the light again, and it will be the
day. beginning say. in New Zealand
and countries in that longitude, will
travel swiftly round the world from
east to west, as all it's predecessors
have done.
Let us suppose, for the sake of IL
lustration. that the day just described
was the historical Fourth of July. The
question then arises: Where did this
day, the Fourth of July. first begin?
1t was not in America. where 1t should
have begun, for the energetic Philadel-
phians and New Workers to whom we
have referred were thinking about
breakfast in the morning Of the third.
Yet, at the same time, the Fourth OF
July was dawning in New Zealand.
Did independence Day dawn, there
fore. in New Zealand, or in some other
country between that point and
America?
The truth Is that there Is no defined
place where the day can be said to
appear first of all. Civilization orig
inally spread from east to west across
the Old World, and then across the
new: and civilization carried the cal
endar with It, The day came from
the east and travelled across to the
west, and no one asked whence 1t orig
inally came, nor where 1t ultimately
ended. Thus, long established usage,
treating the day as appearing first In
the Old World and then proceeding to
the new, left no place for its formal
birth except the wide waters or the
Pacific Ocean, and when traffic began
to cross that ocean and the question
was forced upon mems minds sort
Of understanding was arrived at that
the day should be deemed to begin
there.
According to the way in which the
arrangement is now carried out, the
first land that the new day dawns upon
Is Easter Island, about 230 miles west
of the coast of Chile, South America.
That is to say, the Fourth Of July
breaks here within a few hours or the
third, having broken on the eastern
coast Of America. In this manner the
the two days run on together-the
4th In Easter Island and places west
of it and the 3rd in all places on the
American continent. But to have the
start of all the rest of the world Is
not an unmitigated advantage to these
Islanders. Suppose one Of them sails
east to America, what Is the result? ?
He will find that they keep the day
there under a different date, that he
is, in fact, nearly twenty-four hours
ahead Of time. If, on the other hand,
an American crosses the invisible line
where the days begin In travelling
from east to west, he will find the
date in the part Of the world he had
entered to be in advance OF his own
calendar.
This fact was curiously illustrated
| in the case of Magellan, the Portu-
guese captain, who sailed around the
world from east to west in 1922, and,
having crossed the magic line or
| days birth" in his ocean wanderings,
| his calendar became day In arrears.
| The sailors were, Of course, ignorant
| of this, and finding, on landing In
Portugal that their Sabbath was fall
| ing on Monday, they accused one
another Of tampering with the reck-
oning. It was not for some time that
| the true explanation was discovered.
To put the matter another way: In
sailing around the world eastward,
the days are each a little less than
| twenty-fOur hours, according to the
speed Of the ship, as the sun Is met
little earlier every morning. These
| little differences added together will
amount to twenty-four hours. rms
gives the sailors an extra day. not In
| Imagination, but as an actual fact;
they will have done an extra day s
work, eaten an extra days ration or
food and imbibed an extra days al
lowance Of grog.
On the other hand, in sailing west
ward. the sun is overtaken a little
each day, and so each day Is rather
longer than twenty-four hours, and
clocks and watches are found to be
too fast This also will amount, In
sailing around the world to the point
| of departure. to one whole day, by
which the reckoning has fallen In ar
rears. The eastern-bOund ship, then,
has gained a day and the western
bound ship has lost one. The strange
fact, clearly worked out, leads to the
apparent paradox that the first-nam-
ed ship has a gain Of two whole days
over the latter, If we suppose them to
| have departed from port and returned
L D.L.a..l