Omaha daily bee., 1910-09-22
Things You Want to Know

Tomorrow afternoon At five o'clock,
Washington lime. summer will have rs
official ending and autumn will begin.
Il IL then that old Sol will make hts an
nual pilgrimage across the equator on ms
Journey to southern climes. II h true, that
according to our method Of measuring
time. ne is slightly ahead Of his schedule
Il takes him twenty and one-third min
utes less than a complete revolution around
the sun to complete his journey from one
autumnal equinox to the next Therefore,
II we were to count a full revolution OF
the earth around the sun as the time be-
tween two autumnal equinoxes. IN thir-
teen thousand years We would find our
selves i'm the northern hemisphere having
NICE harvest in July and wheat harvest in
January
The question Of ime-rec SoninE, in one
form or another, always has been pug
zng thing 10 humanity In bvgone gem
crations the problem was 60 adjust the
yearly calendar so a. to make the seasons
conform TO IT, Before the days Of Julius
Caesar long distance timekeeping was not
a very accurate thing at best. He revised
the calendar. but in the fifteen hundred
years that il continued in force. the dates
got ten days ahead OF the seasons and the
euuinucual seasons got all awry Pope
Gregory Kill. with view to keeping the
euuinuEes and the calendar in harmony,
instituted our present system u limerick
oning. which is 50 nearly perfect that IL
will not vary more than one day in a
thousand years.
Coming down to the smaller divisions
Of time, the basis Of the Grecian and the
Roman methods was the course OF the sun
across the sky from sunrise 20 sunset.
AS the length OF the day varied in winter
and summer and these two peoples
insisted upon tweive-hour day at all
times. ii naturally followed that their
hours were shorter in winter than in sum
mer. They had all sorts Of peculiar con-
trivances to reckon the varying hours.
enc was a modification Of the Egyptian
water clock. in which water used in
stead OF sand. IN the hour glass In
the Greek and Roman umepiece the figure
Of man with pointer in his hand. was
mounted on a piece OF cork. The scale
varied for every day in the year and was
placed on a revolving drum that made a
| revolution in 365 days. The hours OF proper
length were thus kept before the man
with his pointer as he descended with the
the ebbing OF the water 1t was the Egyp.
| tians who divided the day into twenty -fouI
/ hours. reckoning day and a night as Ont
| day. From that time the world got alOnG
| very well with the day-reckoning, unit
/ the telegraph and railroad made il import
| ant that the time should be identical Ovel
widely distributed areas. This led TO tn,
/ agitation which brought about the adop
/ ton nj standard time.
In the early part Of 1880. there were tim,
reckonings in the United States from NJ
/ less than seventy different prime meridians
4 While the smaller communities got thei
! time from adjacent important cities. Their
were upward Of a hundred different tim
standards in in the United States, Thi
/ pre- duced no end OF confusion. led to man
1 accidents on the railroads. and in man
/ ways was most inconvenient. Two rail
| roads crossed each other One had on
| time standard and the other another Wha
was more inevitable than chat they shout
have collision sooner or later? travele
going west was continually setting hi
watch back and from the standpoint O
time never knew Just where he was.
All these inconvenience led to the as
sembly of convention OF railroad men 4
Chicago on October Il. 1889. Following tn
| suggestion Of Professor Cleveland Able an
Professor Sanford Fleming. then with tn
Canadian Pacific railway, il was decide
that North America should be divided int
four time belts. and that in each OF thes
! the railroad time should be identical 70
every line operating within the boil
| Eastern time was to prevail in all tn
region east Of Pittsburg, Wheeling an
| Bristol, Tenn. Central time was 10 pre-
vail in all the region between eastern tim
points and such places as Dodge City
! Kan; Ell Paso. Tex, and Minot. N D. .
line. approximately from DeminE. N. ~
through Huntington. Ore, and LaggaI
British Columbia, was to form the wester
boundary Of mountain time and the easter
boundary OF Pacific time.
This program was agreed upon an
recommended to the government At moor
on November 49, 1883 for the first time /
history. standard time was sent out fror
the naval observatory at Washington I
all the stations east OF the Pacific tim