El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-04-01

" HE government OF France has
just put into effect a law max
ing the time OF the observatory
IN Greenwich. England. the official
time throughout the republic of France.
Thus has science shown itself world
wide in extent, and national ccnven-
fence has asserted itself to be of more
Importance than national jingoism. To
see the Importance of the enactment
Just made law in France, it win be
necessary to deal briefly with the
practical question OF how the man IN
the street" knows what is the correct
time. There must be some standard
clock somewhere with which other
clocks and watches may be compared,
and which may be used to regulate
timepieces owned by 8 vast multitude
OF people.
We have already seen in these col
umns that the sun is a poor tiTnekeep-
er, and that il is not exactly IL o'clock
when the sun is on the meridian We
have also seen that the stars keep per-
feet time, and that the observations for
regulating exact time are made on the
stars and not on the sun. But siderial
time as kept by the astronomers clock
would scarcely do for regulating our
everyday life.
sum Time Varies.
Inc sun dIE6uECS- our l4Iue 1OT Us Dy
dividing It into day and night. Hence,
some sort of sun time must be used
Though the sun itself keeps poor time,
the interval from noon to noon diff
fering each day, let US take an aver
age Of all the days OF the year, call
this the Average day or the Mean day,
and let US further imagine sun in
the sky keeping this Mean time, and let
US call II the Mean Sun This is what
- ~
is given US Mean solar time kept by a
Mean sun. There is no such sun in the
sky, but nonetheless we can imagine
It Such a sun is supposed TO move
In the plane Of the celestial equator,
TO make a revolution among the stars
once in a year Such sun makes each
day from noon to noon equal to every
other day, and such time can be kept
by an accurate clock.
Since time is regulated By the rota-
ton of the earth on its axis, Mean
noon at any place would take place
when the Mean sun, as defined above,
IS on the meridian Of that place. Three
hours sitter. il would be D. m The
timeNfor each meridian differs. Thus
the local time in Boston determined
by the meridian at Boston, differs
from the local time IN New York. Bos-
ton being east Of New York, the sun
WOQlQ De on the 0cTlQlaE there carrier
than in New York. and time in Boston,
therefore would be ahead Of New York
time by as much as II minutes When
railroads were constructed in the
United States. and when the American
people by the acquiring Of wealth be-
came addicted to the travel habit, It
was soon found very inconvenient to
be compelled to alter ones watch as
soon as a little trip was made from
New York to Boston, or from Philadel-
phia to Washington The railroad peo-
pie especially found it very difficult
TO know what kind Of time to use in
publishing time tables. Thus there
came about gradually the adoption of
a uniform time through a small sec
ton of the country served by a rail-
road. As the railroads built large
lines. it became necessary to make an
agreement between the different rail-
roads Thus there was gradually
evolved. without anyone hardly being
aware Of It, a uniform time system.
and this has spread until the United
States was divided into four great sec
lions keeping Eastern, Central, Noun
tain and Pacific time respectively.
why Not Washington Time.
But what meridian should be used