STANDARD TIME 
 
 FOR THK 
 
 United States of America, 
 
 CANADA AND MEXICO. 
 
 ►•♦- 
 
 Special attention to the subject referred to in the accom- 
 pamjing documents is respectfully requested 
 
 BY THK 
 
 AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, 
 
 127 East Twenty-Thibd Stbeet, 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 Should the Person receiving this be unable to send a roply, he will confer a great favor 
 by transmitting the circular to some person who may be able to do so. 
 
<~'0 
 
 American Society of Civil Engineers. 
 
 COMMITTEE ON STANDARD TIME. 
 
 SANDFORD FLEMING, Esq., Ottawa, 
 
 Ex-Chief Engineer .of the Northern Railway of Canada, The Inter-C!olo- 
 
 nial liaihvay, and The Canadian Pacific Railway, Chairman. 
 
 CHARLES PAINE, Esq., New Yobk, 
 General Manager New York, West Shore and Buflfalo Railroad. 
 
 THEODORE N. ELY, Esq., Altoona, Pa., 
 Superintendent of Motive Power, Pennsylvania Railroad. 
 
 J. M. TOUCEY, Esq., New York, 
 General Superintendent New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. 
 
 Professor J. E. HILGARD, Washington, 
 Superintendent United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
 
 Professor T. EGLESTON, New York, 
 School of Mines, Columbia College. 
 
 General T. G. ELLIS, C. E., 
 Hartford, Conn. 
 
New York, March Lst, 1882. 
 
 At the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Civil Engi- 
 neers, held at New York, on the 18th ultimo, resolutions were passed 
 directing that a general invitation be extended to all persons and 
 associations specially interested in the subject of Standard Time, 
 to co-operate with the Society in an effort to effect a satisfactory 
 and speedy settlement of this important public question. 
 
 The Committee on Standard Time has been requested to give 
 effect to the wishes of the Society in this behalf. 
 
 Accordingly the Committee seeks for the desired co-operation 
 and solicits a general expression of opinion from persons engaged 
 in connection with the Railways and Telegraphs of the country, 
 and from all others specially interested in the question through- 
 out the United States, Canada and Mexico. 
 
 The Committee respt otfully directs the attention of all con- 
 cerned to the accompanying documents elucidating the subject. 
 
 The Committee cordially invites replies to the series of questions 
 which accompany this. To all opinions with which the committee 
 may be favored due weight will be attached. 
 
 After the receipt of replies a Convention, duly called, will meet 
 at Washington, for the purpose of determining the Time System 
 which it would be advisable to adopt. The President of the So- 
 ciety has been authorized to invite other Societies interested, the 
 several State governments, the governments of Canada and Mexico, 
 and the various departments of the general government at Wash- 
 ington, to send representatives to the Convention. 
 
 Replies are requested to be sent without delay (i^«]iMiiMi|«hMing 
 
 addressed 
 
 ^ ^ JOHN BOGART, 
 
 Secretary A. 8. C. E,, 
 127 East Twbnty-Thibd Stbest, 
 NEW YORK. 
 
SPECIAL KOTE. 
 
 As authorized and requested by the Society at the Annual Meeting, 
 the Committee has issued a series of questions on a separate sheet, 
 with the view of eliciting an expression of opinio?i froa as many per- 
 sons as possible. Some of the questions require explanations, but the 
 Committee finds it difficult to narrow explanaxions to limits suffi- 
 ciently small to be read by men whose time is sevcjrely taxed. The Com- 
 mittee, however, hopes that such men may favor them with replies, at 
 least to the leading questions. To other persons who have more leisure 
 and who may desire to consider the wider range of the subject and ex- 
 amine every point under discussion, the following documents are ap- 
 pended to the resolutions adopted by the Society and the report of the 
 Committee. The details of the scheme for Regulating Time, referred 
 to in the sheet of questions, will be found in Appendix No. 4, to which 
 particular attention is invited : 
 
 No. 1. Communication read at the Convention of the American So- 
 ciety of Civil Engineers, at Montreal, June, 1881 (page 9). 
 
 No. 2. Extracts from an address read before the Association for the 
 Beform and Codification of the Law of Nations, at Cologne, Prussia, 
 August, 1881 (page 15). 
 
 No. 3. Extracts from an address read at the International Geographi- 
 cal Congress, at Venice, Italy, in September, 1881 (page 23). 
 
 No. 4. Cosmopolitan scheme for regulating time with accompanying 
 diagram, (page 28). 
 

 
 STANDARD TIME. 
 
 Resolutions adopted at the Annwil Meeting of the American Society of OivU 
 
 Engineers. 
 
 January IHth, 1882. 
 
 Resolved, That the report of the Special Committee on Standard 
 Time be accepted, and that the Committee is hereby requested to take 
 such steps as it may consider necessary to obtain information to enable 
 it to report definitely at a future meeting. 
 
 Resolved, That the authority is hereby given to the Committee to co- 
 operate with other associations in furtherance of this important subject. 
 
 Resolved, That authority is hereby granted to the President of this 
 Society to invite other Societies interested, and that representatives of 
 State Governments, representatives of the Dominion of Canada, the 
 Republic of Mexico and the various Departments of the General Gov- 
 ernment at Washington, be invited to meet in a convention as set forth 
 in the report. 
 
6 
 
 STANDARD TIME 
 
 REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE. 
 
 House op the Societt, ) 
 New Yokk, January 17tb, 1882. \ 
 
 The Committee appointed to consider the paper on Standard Time, 
 for Railway and other purposes, read at the Montreal Convention, June, 
 1881, beg leave to report : 
 
 The Committee have examined the question referred to them, and 
 fully recognize its great public importance. Practically it resolves 
 itself into a proposition to reform our general time system. But diffi- 
 culties of a peculiar nature present themselves. The Committee does 
 not considpv the problem insolvable ; but from its character it is clear 
 that no single association, and that no one individual can solve it. 
 Every member of society is interested in it, and it becomes necessary to 
 consult many interests in order that general concurrence in any change 
 be obtained. 
 
 Since the subject was brought under the notice of the Society in 
 June last it has been taken into consideration by other associations : 
 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Cincin- 
 nati ; by the American Metrological Society, in New York ; by the Asso- 
 ciation for the Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations, at 
 Cologne, Prussia ; by the International Geographical Congress, at 
 Venice, Italy. 
 
 The members of the Committee have, since their appointment, con- 
 ferred individually with many persons. They find it admitted on 
 all sides that standard time lor general use throughout the country is 
 tiT<*ently demanded, and that the time has arrived when action should 
 be taken. 
 
To apprehend that the question is one of importance, it is only nec- 
 essary to glance at the existing conilition of our time service. Mistakes 
 in the hour of the day are frecpient. In every State— in every city or 
 town— discrepancies are met ^hich produce great aggregate inconven- 
 ience. Thousands of engagements are broken. Innumerable disap- 
 pointments and losses result. In some cases loss of life is caused, and 
 generally in consec^uencie of defects in oiir time system, difficulties more 
 or less serious constantly are exporiencod. 
 
 These difficulties are not confined to this country. They are ex- 
 perienced in all civilized <!ommunities where lines of rapid communica- 
 tion have been established. In the papers before the Committee it is 
 urged that the question is one which affects every nationality, and there- 
 fore any change which may bo proposed for this country should be such 
 as to commend itself to other nations for adoption, so as ultimately to 
 become universal. 
 
 The time system which we follow has been in use for centuries. It 
 certainly answered all the i^urposes of mankind when there were no 
 railways, no steamboats, and no telegraphs. In some respects the general 
 advancement of civilized communities has outgrown the old custom : 
 the yearly march of events more aud more rendering it obsolete, and 
 calling for reform to meet the condition of the age in which we live. 
 
 The Committee anticipate difficulty in effecting a desirable reform, as 
 no change in a matter of this kind can be effected without interfering in 
 a greater or less degree with long established usages and fixed habits of 
 thought. The importance of the question, however, appears to the 
 Committee to justify a united effort to obtain as complete a reform as 
 may be desirable and possible. 
 
 The Committee feels assured that the general intelligence of the Com- 
 munity will cordially sympathize with an earnest movement to bring 
 about such modifications in our time system as may be practicable and 
 beneficial. 
 
 The people of the old world are influenced by traditional customs, 
 and generally are attached to usages on account of their antiquity. 
 They may adhere even to imperfections, — which years have made vener- 
 able. On this continent this feeling is modified. Americans are not, to 
 the same extent, disposed to cling to conventional forms when these 
 forms interfere with public convenience, or when they retard progress. 
 It is, therefore, clear to the committee that we should not remain passive 
 

 
 tiQtil other natioDH take the initiative in Time reform. For in this 
 country the imperioua power of custom is less difficult to overcome. 
 
 If it l>e oousidered that the initiation of such a time system as the 
 age demands properly falls within the province of the people of America, 
 it becomes the more necessary that we shonld make earnest eftbrts to 
 ascertain not simply what best will meet the reqiiireraents of the hour, 
 but what will prove most generally beneficial to our own and succeeding 
 generations throughout the world. 
 
 The Committee holds it expedient to obtain an expression of opinion 
 on the various points which present themselves, from as large a number 
 of practical and scientific men as possible. They consider it essential 
 to have the views of those who have been and are now engaged in con- 
 nection with the great lines of transportation in every State, and Prov- 
 ince between the two Oceans. 
 
 Accordingly the Committee begs leave to recommend that such papers 
 on Standard Time as it may consider necessary to set forth the sub- 
 ject, be printed, and, all who are prominently connected with Railway 
 and Telegraph enterprises, or are in any way interested in the consider- 
 ation of the question in the United States, in Canada, and in Mexico, be 
 cordially invited to send replies to the series of questions which have 
 been prepared, with the view of obtaining all shades of opinion. 
 
 The Committee more particularly draw attention to propositions 13 
 to 20 in the scheme which accompanies this. (See page 28.) 
 
 It has been held by those who have given attention to the subject 
 that no scheme of time reform can be considered complete without pro- 
 vision for the ultimate removal of a defect familiar to many. The Com- 
 mittee accordingly direct attention to the suggestions submitted under 
 the heading "Division of the day into hours." (See page 31.) ' 
 
 The Committee respectfully recommend that authority be granted by 
 the Society to invite the co-operation of other scientific associations, and 
 that of other bodies in the furtherance of this important object, and 
 that all such Societies and government departments interested be invited 
 in the name of the Society to attend a general convention to meet at 
 New York or Washington on a day hereafter to be named, for the pur- 
 pose of determining the Time System advisable to adopt. 
 
 SANDFORD FLEMING, 
 
 Chairman. 
 
9 
 
 APPENDIX No. 1. 
 
 Paper read before the Coni-ention of the American Society of Civil Engineers 
 held at Montreal, Cmmda, June 15fh, 1881. 
 
 CCXXXf. 
 
 (Vol. X.— December, 1881.) 
 
 ON UNIFORM STANDARD TIME, FOR RAILWAYS, 
 
 TELEGRAPHS AND CIVIL PURPOSES 
 
 GENERALLY. 
 
 By Sandford FiiEMiNo, M. A. C. E. 
 
 The question which I have been requested to bring under the notice 
 of the Convention, although not strictly of an engineering character, 
 from its nature cannot fail to be of interest to the members of the Ameri- 
 can Society of Civil Engineers, many of whom have taken a prominent 
 part in establishing the great lines of communication on this continent. 
 To the large number of its members connected with the administration 
 and development of the gigantic railway system extending between the 
 two oceans, which in length are but little less than 100,000 mUes, the 
 subject becomes one of vital importance. 
 
 The occasion strikes me as peculiarly appropriate for submitting for 
 your consideration the subject to which, with your permission, I will 
 briefly refer. The Society meets for the first time beyond the limits of 
 the United States, to find in the Dominion of Canada a cordial welcome. 
 Many of its members, in attending this Convention, must have travelled 
 long distances, and have experienced, in one way or another, some of the 
 difficulties it is proposed should be removed. 
 
 The definition of civil time and its scientific determination for railway, 
 telegraph and all ordinary purposes, is a problem to which a solution is 
 imperatively demanded by the present condition of civilization. 
 
10, \r,^-yr;-y%./:^^ 
 
 The question has been examined by the American Metrological 
 Society, New York ; the Imperial Academy of Science, St. Petersburg ; 
 the Boyal Society, London, England ; the Canadian Institute, Toronto, 
 and other scientific bodies. 
 
 Its importance has been fully admitted, and expressions of opinion 
 have been obtained as to the means of overcoming the difficulties which 
 are experienced. 
 
 The citizens of the United States, and the subjects of Her Majesty, the 
 Queen, occupy together the greater portion of North America. The most 
 friendly relations exist between us, for, in the main, we are substantially 
 one people, living under diflferent Governments, with laws and customs 
 essentially identical. On all sides we are s^^tisfied to remain separated 
 by our political affinities, having distinct theories and beliefs with respect 
 to systems of government. But science, like every noble virtue, knows 
 no national boundary. In this brief note I can recognize none. In 
 alluding to matters which equally concern the United States and Canada, 
 I shall refer simply to this country or to this continent. 
 
 As the continent extends across 105 degrees of longitude, an indivi- 
 dual at the western limit finds himself seven hours of recorded time be- 
 hind another individual at the extreme eastern side at the same moment of 
 absolute time. Much of the intervening country is but thinly settled, but 
 railways and telegraphs traverse from ocean to ocean, and we have every 
 gradation of difference of time between the extreme limit of seven hours. 
 
 According to the system of notation which we have inherited from 
 past centuries, every spot of earth between the Atlantic and the Pacific 
 is entitled to have its own local time. Should each locality stand on its 
 dignity, it may insist upon its railway and its other affairs being 
 governed by the time derived from its own meridian. The smaller and 
 less important localities, howevor, as a rule, have found it ( onvenient to 
 adopt the time of the nearest city. The railways have laid down special 
 standards which vary, as has been held expedient by eich separate 
 management. In the whole country there is, so far, an irregular 
 acknowledgment of more than one hundred of these artificial and arbi- 
 trary standards of time. The consequences of this system are unsatis- 
 factory. They are felt by every traveller, and in an age and in a country 
 w!ien all, more or less, travel, the aggregate inconvenience and confusion 
 is very great, and it will be enormously multiplied as time rolls on. If 
 the system already results in difficulties to trouble our daily life, and to 
 
11 '■^■'■''::'^^-:ro--;-^ 
 
 lead to embarrassments which often occapy onr courts of law, which, 
 indeed, too often are the cause of loss of life, what will be the conse- 
 quences in a few years, when population will be immensely increased 
 and travel and traffic indefinitely multiplied, if no effort be made to effect 
 a change ? 
 
 The societies I have mentioned, after careful examination, have 
 united in the opinion that a satisfactory change cannot be made too soon, 
 and they have adopted resolutions pointing to a general uniformity and 
 thorough accuracy in time reckoning. They believe that the course they 
 have recommended will greatly facilitate the daily transactions of busi- 
 ness men, greatly increase the safety of the travelling public, and im- 
 mensely benefit the whole community. 
 
 It is proposed that the community unite in an effort to simplify the 
 system now in use by reducing the number of time standards to a mini- 
 mum by substituting for an indefinite number of irregularly established 
 and purely local standards a few main or, as they may be termed, conti- 
 nental standards, each one having a fixed and well known relation to all 
 the others. It is proposed to have these standards established and main- 
 tained by governmental authority ; to have them regulated with precision 
 through a common central observatory, and through these standards it 
 is proposed to keep every town, city, railway and steamboat clock 
 throughout the land as nearly as practicable in perfect agreement. 
 
 The plan of arrangements favored by the Metrological Society,New York, 
 and the Canadian Institute, Toronto, is to have the standards so establish- 
 ed that they will be exactly one hour apart ; that is to say, while it would 
 be nine o'clock at one standard it would be eight o'clock at the next to 
 the west, seven o'clock at the following, and so on, by steps of exactly 
 one hour. There would be no difference in the minutes and smaller 
 divisions of time. If the time be ten minutes or thirty minutes past the 
 hour at any one point, it would at the same instant, in absolute time, be 
 ten minutes or thirty minutes past some hour at every point. The hours 
 themselves only would differ, and they would differ only in designation 
 according as the localities were east or west. At the same instant of 
 absolute time every clock in the country would strike either one hour or 
 another ; the minute and second hands would always and everywhere be 
 in perfect agreement. 
 
 It may be known to gentlemen present that the officers of the United 
 States Signal Service have evinced a deep interest in the question, and in 
 
12 
 
 the efforts to establish uniformity, accuracy and simplicity of system 
 throughout the country, General Hazen, Chief Signal Officer, Wash- 
 ington, has expressed his earnest desire to contribute toward the public 
 dissemination of standard time. He considers it eminently proper that 
 the department over which ho presides should, as far as practicable, assist 
 in a work in which the whole community is interested, and he offers the 
 active co-operation of the Signal Service in every part of the United 
 States, in the maintenance of accurate standard time and giving it to the 
 public by dropping time balls at all important stations. 
 
 Mr. Oarpmael, Chief Director of the Meteorological Department of 
 Canada, would similarly co-operate in every practicable way. There 
 would, therefore, be no difficulty in giving effect to a scheme of intro- 
 ducing uniformity of time-reckoning .throughout North America, so soon 
 as the railway and telegraph authorities and the general public express 
 concurrence. 
 
 It is proposed : 1. That the exact time should be determined astro- 
 nomically at a central observatory. 2. That every town of any importance 
 should have a public time signal station. 3. That arrangements be made 
 for placing each station in electrical connection with the central obser- 
 vatory at a certain hour every day. 4. That each station be furnished 
 with automatical apparatus for making the proper signal, either by drop- 
 ping a time ball or by firing a gun at the proper moment. 5. That all 
 the public and railway clocks in each and every locality be controlled 
 electrically from the public time signal station. 
 
 I think it may fairly be claimed that no peoples are more progressive 
 or more ready to adopt any needed change or manifest improvement than 
 those who live in North America. And as there is no country except 
 Russia where a greater necessity is presented, or a better field offered for 
 the introduction of a comprehensive system of uniformity in time reck- 
 oning, it is more than probable that in this country the change will first 
 be made. 
 
 As there can be little doubt that other countries will in due time 
 follow the example of America, it is desirable that we should inaugurate 
 a system which will readily commend itself by its appropriateness and 
 simplicity. One that will have the best prospect of being ultimately 
 adopted throughout the world. If we admit the principle that in a 
 question of this kind it is not expedient to limit our view to any city 
 or state or province, but to embrace in our system the whole of the con- 
 
lb 
 
 tinent, it seems to follow that we should take a still broader riew, and 
 endeavor to apply the principle to all countries. Steam and electricity 
 are rapidly altering the conditions of life everywhere, they are girdling 
 the globe and bringing all countries nearer together. We get our unit 
 measure of time from the earth's revolutions, it is, therefore, common 
 property, and nothing can be more cosmopolitan in its nature. It 
 is perfectly obvious to my mind that a system of uniform time which 
 would be good for this country should be equally good for all countries 
 on the face of the globe. 
 
 These views have mel with the ready acquiescence of all who have 
 given them careful consideration, and the system recommended by the 
 several scientific bodies for adoption on this continent, commends itself 
 as a scheme which all nations may, with advantage to themselves and to 
 general interests, accept. 
 
 The American Metrological Society and the Canadian Institute have 
 each papsed resolutions substantially as follows : 
 
 "Lesolved, That uniformity of time throughout the United States 
 and Canada is demanded by the progress of events, and that a general 
 system by which time may be reckoned in a uniform and accurate man* 
 ner by the people of all nations throughout the globe is of the highest 
 importance. 
 
 "Resolved, That a great service will be rendered to the world by 
 directing the public mind to the subject, and by securing the general 
 adoption of a well conceived system of uniformity, and that the Society 
 is hereby authorized to co-operate with other bodies in recommending a 
 comprehensive scheme based on the following propositions : 
 
 "1. Twenty -four standard meridians (one every 15 degrees of longi- 
 tude) to be established around the globe for reckoning sectional or local 
 time. 
 
 " 2. One of the 24 standards to be selected as a time zero or initial 
 meridian for reckoning cosmopolitan time. 
 
 " 3. The time zero to coincide with the prime meridian to be com- 
 mon to all nations for computing longitude. 
 
 "4. The twenty-four standard meridians to be designated by names^ 
 or by letters of the alphabet, or by degrees of longitude, numbered from 
 the prime meridian westerly. 
 
14 
 
 <i 
 
 5. The prime meridian, or zero for time and longitude, to pass near 
 Behring Strait 180 degrees from Greenwich. 
 
 "6. The division of the day into two halves of twelve hours each to 
 to be discouraged, and a single series numbered from I to XXIV, sub- 
 stituted. In the cosmopolitan day, or period of time between two 
 successive passages of the sun over the prime meridian, the single 
 division to be made absolute. " 
 
 I may avail myself of this opportunity of mentioning that the 
 scheme of cosmopolitan standard time is being brought before various 
 European societies under distinguished auspices. His Excellency, the 
 Governor-General of Canada, baa been good enough personally to evince 
 a deep interest in the question, and has been pleased to send communi- 
 cations to France, Belgium, Prussia, Austria, Russia and Switzerland. 
 The subject will be considered by the Association for the Reform and 
 Codification of the Law of Nations, at their meeting in August next, at 
 Cologne, in Rhine-Prussia : and it will, on that occasion, find warm 
 advocates in Dr. Barnard, President of Columbia College, and Mr. 
 David Dudley Field, of New York. The question will be brought under 
 the consideration of the International Geographical Congress at Venice, 
 in September next, supported by such men as Mr. Otto Strove, Director 
 of the Imperial Observatory, St. Petersburg ; General Hazen, of Wash- 
 ington, and others. - . 
 
 In bringing these propositions under the notice of the American 
 Society of Civil Engineers, I do not feel justified, on an occasion like 
 the present, to refer at length to the voluminous papers which have 
 been written, and the arguments which have been advanced, in connec- 
 tion with this question. Necessarily I have been brief, and I respect- 
 fully suggest, in order further to save the time of the Convention, that 
 a committee be appointed to examine and report at a future meeting. 
 
 I feel it proper to add that as the great object is to determine and 
 establish a system which will secure the greatest advantages to the com- 
 munity, it is of first importance to have the proposition carefully 
 digested by those whose opinions have value with the public. An 
 expression from this body, of educated, scientific and practical men, 
 must carry with it great wulght, and will exact respect in every quarter. 
 
15 
 
 APPENDIX No. 2. 
 
 Extracts from an address read before the Association for the lieform and Codi- 
 fication K)f the Tmw if Nations, at Cologne, Prussia, August, 1881, by Dr. F. A. 
 P. Barnard, Delegate from the United States of America. 
 
 THE REGULATION OF TIME. 
 
 The propositions which I have the honor to present to the considera- 
 tion of the Conference ait'ect the personal convenience of every inhab- 
 itant of every civilized land, and that not occasionally only, but 
 continually. The regulation of time connects itself with every act and 
 every incident of social, religious, commercial or industrial life. Banks 
 open and close their doors, churches arrange the order of their services, 
 transportation companies regulate the movements of their trains, courts 
 and legislatures adjust the times of their assembling and their adjourn- 
 ment, theatres and other places of amusement announce the hours of 
 their performances or exhibitions, and, finally, society fixes the times of 
 its various appointments, for purposes of pleasure or business, in accord- 
 ance with some standard, which, if not universally satisfactory, is at 
 least universally understood. Thus the question, What shall be the 
 standard of time? is one which affects every man every hour of his life, 
 and one ii^ which he is compelled to take an interest. 
 
 In the United States of America and in Canada the desirability of the 
 adoption of some universally recognized system for the regulation of 
 the divisions of the day has long been felt; and a movement commenced 
 about two years ago, by two scientific organizations, viz., the American 
 Metrological Society, of New York, and the Canadian Institute, of 
 . Toronto, Canada, has already been successful in drawing public atten- 
 tion to a definite scheme of time-regulation for the Continent of America, 
 which is rapidly gaining ground in the favor of the people. 
 
It is to be noticed, in the firbt place, that the time kept by clocks and 
 watches in our country is not, gonerrliy, the exact local time of the 
 place where the owners of such timepi« ces reside. Upon every great 
 Hue of railway it is indispensible, in oraer to secure safety and regu- 
 larity in the movement of trains, that the time kept should be unifor n 
 from end to end. And as some of these long lines extend over from five 
 to ten deg-ees of longitude, while the standard time kei)t by them is 
 usually that of one of their termini, it follows that, at ditferent points of 
 the road, the railway time differs from the local time, ten, twenty, thirty 
 or more minutes. Yet, such is the relative importance of the railway 
 traffic, in comparison with that of interests purely local, that, in prac- 
 tice, the railway time supersedes the local time, and all the affairs of 
 life are regulated in accordance with it. In some large towns two kinds 
 of time are kept; as, for instance, at Buffalo, New York, where, in the 
 same houses, may be found two clocks, one of them giving the time of 
 the place, and the other that of New York City, which is the railway 
 time, and is twenty minutes faster. 
 
 It sometimes happens that towns not distant from each other are 
 situated on different lines of railway keeping different times. In passing, 
 by ordinary vehicles, from one of these towns to another there is exper- 
 ienced the inconvenience of finding one's watch entirely out of harmony 
 with the time-keepers of the locality visited. But a still greater incon- 
 venience occurs in those towns which lie at the intersections of two or 
 more important roads — and there are a good many such— for here it is 
 necessary to keep account of as many systems of time as there are inter- 
 secting ways. From an investigation made by Professor Oleveland 
 Abbe, of the United States Weather Signal Office, at Washington, it 
 appears that the railway times kept by different transportation compa- 
 nies in the United Stalies correspond to no fewer than seventy meridians, 
 and the total number of such varieties is probably not less than one 
 hundred. Now, so far as the transaction of the ordinary affairs of life 
 in each particular locality is concerned, this extraordinary variety is of 
 no consequence to the inhabitants. But in all matters which concern 
 the mutual relations of the inhabitants of different places the case is 
 otherwise. Without a knowledge of the times of both places it is quite 
 possible that appointments in regard to affairs of important concern 
 may be wholly disconcerted. And without a similar knowledge one may 
 fail to meet a train on which he had counted, and may thus be subjected 
 
./^■'',;vv .':.V'- 17 
 
 to unanticipated delay and other oonseqnent disadvantages. It is, o( 
 oourao, hardly necessary to mention the degree to which tbo usefulness 
 of the time-tables issued by the rariouH transportation companies is 
 impaired, for the purposes of the traveller, when the time standards of 
 all these companies are different. But the embarrassment to the tourist, 
 however great, is of less importance than that which is suffered by the 
 permanent resident. > ' 
 
 Now, considering the fact that, for our own Continent of America the 
 time actually kept at any place is usually purely conventional, and is 
 not the true local time of the place itself, considering that this is also 
 true in England, and is, probably, to a great extent true of the Continent 
 of Europe, and considering that identity of the conventional with the 
 local time is unimportant when the standard of time actually used is 
 understood, it has seemed to us that by the adoption of a system accord- 
 ing to which all time-keepers throughout the world might be made to 
 agree as to the minute and second, and to differ only, as longitudes 
 differ, in regard to the hour, all the confusion which exists in conse- 
 quence of the present variety of time-standards might be wholly elimi- 
 nated, to the great benefit of the people of all civilized lands. The 
 adoption of this system would involve the recognition of twenty-four 
 fixed meridians, distant from each other by a constant difference of 
 fifteen degrees of longitude, and determined in position by some one of 
 the number distinguished as the prime or zero meridian. The moment 
 of the passage of the mean sun over each of these meridians is to be 
 regarded as the hour of mean noon for that meridian, and for all places 
 which are nearer to it than they are to any other. Thus the largest 
 difference which can occur between conventional time and true local 
 time will be thirty minutes, and the hour will change at a line half-way 
 distant between any two meridians. 
 
 The system here described was proposed originally for the United 
 States by Professor Cleveland Abbe, of the United States Signal Service 
 (as mentioned above), in a report to the American Metrological Society, 
 and also (without concert with Professor Abbe) by Sandford Fleming, 
 Esq., late Chief -Engineer of the Canadian Pacific Bail way, and now 
 titular Chancellor of Queen's University, at Kingston, Ont., in a paper 
 read by him before the Canadian Institute, and since published. In 
 these papers it was proposed to adopt, for the American Continent, five 
 meridians, of which the central one should be situated bit hours west of 
 
18 
 
 Oreonwioh, and should pass almont centrally tkrongh the City of New 
 OrleanH. The time of this meridian, being that prevailing through the 
 principal Stut<fa of the Mississippi Valley and the British province of 
 Manitoba, is diHtinguislied as valley time. The flve-hotir meridian passes 
 near Now York, and govurns the States lying on the Atlantic, together 
 with the two Canadas, giving them what is hence called Atlantic time. 
 The four-hour meridian crosses the island of Newfoundland, and gives 
 what is called eastern time to that island, and to Nova Scotia, New 
 Brunswick and the remaining British possessions east of Canada. The 
 seven-hour meridian passes through the City of Denver, and almost 
 exactly over the United States Signal Station on the summit of Pike's 
 Peak, more than 14,000 feet high, in Colorado. It gives time to the 
 States, Territories and provinces lying on and about the great central 
 ridge of the Continent, which is hence called mountain time. The eight- 
 hour meridian falls a little east of San Francisco, and almost exactly on 
 the small sea-coast town of Santa Barbara, in California. From this 
 the States of the Union which lie on the Pacific, and the British prov- 
 inces on the same ocean, derive their time, which it is proposed to dis- 
 tinguish as Paci^c ;fme. . ii 
 
 The bounding lines between the successive meridians, at which the 
 count of the hour shall change, it is not proposed to define with the 
 same geometrical iirecision which characterizes the meridians them- 
 selves. The idea is rather to follow any well-known natural or political 
 divisions which fall approximately midway between the meridians, and 
 which will serve as easily remembered reference boundaries. On the 
 American Continent such lines of demarcation are easily Tound. The 
 States and provinces which touch the Mississippi river will use valley 
 time; the Canadas, and the States of the Union which lie east of these 
 valley States, and most of which touch the Atlantic, will use Atlantic 
 time; the British provinces farther eastward will use eastern time; the 
 States and provinces which touch the Pacific will use Pacific time; and 
 all those which lie between the Pacific States and the valley Statec will 
 use mountain time. 
 
 The means by which we expect to establish this system on the Amer- 
 ican Continent, are partly the voluntary action of the transportation 
 companies; partly the co-operation of municipal corporations and cham- 
 bers of commerce, and partly local legislation. Already many local 
 organizations have taken steps for the establishment of time balls, and 
 
19 
 
 other time Hignals, iti furtheranco of thu praotioal introduction of the 
 syHtuui. The Stuto of Connouticut hu8 ouucteil u utatuto making the Ufse 
 of Now York time oompiilHory upon all transportatioti compunieB within 
 her limits. Tho chief Hignal officer of the United StateH, Generul W. B. 
 Ha/en, hu8 warmly interested himself in the scheme, and has offered the 
 gervi(!es of his corps to operate daily any apparatus for the distribution 
 of time whi(;h may be erected at any of the numerous stations of his 
 extensive service. The same otUcer, and associated with him Mr. Chan- 
 cellor Fleming, above referred to, and the present speaker, have been 
 constituted a joint-committee, on the part of the American Metrological 
 Society and the Canadian Institute, to present this subject to the con- 
 sideration of the International Geographical Congress, which is to meet 
 in Venice on the 15th of September proximo, in the hope of obtaining 
 for it the approval of that body ; and I have been specially charged by 
 the Metrological Society just mentioned, of which I have the honor to 
 be president, to ask for it the favorable consideration of this Asso- 
 ciation. ■'■;'':' .,'■; u- , 
 
 The Oovernor-Oeneral of Canada, the Marquis of Lome, has been 
 pleased to int^^rest himself actively in promoting the success of the 
 movement. The papers relating to it which have been published by the 
 two associations, whose titles have just been mentioned, have been for- 
 warded by Lord Lome, through the British Foreign Office in London, 
 to oountiies with which Great Britain is in diplomatic relations, and to 
 their scientific associations; and from the Imperial Academy of Sciences 
 at St. Petersburg have been received copies of a report from a com- 
 mittee, of which the eminent astronomer Otto Struve was chairman, 
 cordially approving the project, which report was adopted by the 
 Academy. 
 
 Two or three minor features of the scheme contained in the resolu- 
 tions proposed remain to be mentioned. The first of these is the propo- 
 sition to abolish the present division of the day into two equal portions 
 of twelve hours each, and to employ instead a continuous count running 
 from one to twenty -four hours in each day. The division at present in 
 use is not a natural one. It is founded, presumably, upon the custom 
 of astronomers to begin the day at the meridian passage of the sun, or 
 the habit of the people to fix the moment of apparent noon by observ- 
 ing the coincidence of the shadow of a vertical stile with a line drawn 
 north and south. The natural division of the day is into a light portion 
 
20 
 
 and a dark portion. These portions are always and everywhere unequal, 
 except for a single day in the year, or for a single great circle of the 
 earth — the equator. No exact system for the uniform division of time 
 can, therefore, be founded upon them. On the other hand, no disad- 
 vantage can arise from regarding the day as a unit subdivided into 
 twenty-four equal fractions, a mode of division once very general, at least 
 in Italy, and hardly yet entirely abandoned; while there are very appre- 
 ciable disadvantages attending the present division into twelve-hour 
 moieties. The first of these is the necessity of using always in speech 
 the word forenoon or qflernoon, in order to identify the portion of the 
 day to which any hour which happens to be mentioned is to be referred; 
 or, in writing, to place after the number of the hour the explanatory 
 suffix, A. M. or p, M. Another, and even greater, is the uncertainty in 
 railway time-tables as to whether a particular hour is an hour of the 
 night or of the day. The compact form of these tables renders it 
 impossible always to introduce the necessary specifications in their coJ 
 umns, and the inquirer is thus often left at a loss. Some of these tables, 
 in order to remove the embarrassment, have employed the expedient of 
 printing the hours of the night in white letters upon a black ground, 
 while those of the day are printed in the usual way — with black letters 
 upon a white ground; but the very adoption of this expedient is a con- 
 fession of the existence of an evil which we may easily perceive to be 
 quite unnecessary. Let the hours of the day be only continuously 
 numbered from beginning to end, and there will never be any uncer- 
 tainty as to which part of the day is meant. 
 
 Another of the secondary features of the scheme is the designation of 
 a zero meridian. The zero meridian is that from which terrestrial longi- 
 tudes begin to be reckoned, and that at which, at the close of the day, 
 the count of the day in the monthly calendar shall be momentarily the 
 same for the entire globe. Any meridian which might be chosen, and 
 which should be generrUly accepted, would answer for this purpose ; 
 but such a selection ought not to be made through mere idle caprice. 
 Begard should be had to usages actually existing ; and if there is any 
 meridian which has already become more familiar than any other to the 
 great majority of mankind, that circumstance should be counted in its 
 favor. In a contribution made by me some ten years ago to a provisional 
 code of international law drawn up under authority of a resolution of 
 this Association, by the Hon. David Dudley Field, afterwards President 
 
21 
 
 of the Association, I endeavored to assign some reasons why the merid- 
 ian of Greenwich is entitled to be regarded as rightfully the first merid- 
 ian for purposes of longitude . But the same reasons apply with equal 
 force to the inferior meridian of Greenwich — that is to say, to the me- 
 ridian twelve hours distant in time, and 180 degrees distant in longitude 
 from Greenwich itself ; and as I have found, in consultation with others, 
 that there might be danger of awakening national susceptibilities by 
 insisting on Greenwich (though, for myself, I fail to find this considera- 
 tion serious), I have yielded my first opinion, and propose to fix the first 
 meridian for time and for terrestrial longitude at the 180th degree from 
 Greenwich, so that this first meridian will fall almost entirely upon the 
 open ocean. As in the monthly calendar the change of count must 
 begin first at some particular meridian, it is desirable that this change 
 shall take place, if possible, beyond the limits of all habitable lands ; 
 and this is true of the meridian proposed, since, except a small portion 
 of wild and desolate sub-arctic Kamschatka, it scarcely touches any por- 
 tion of the earth's surface uncovered by water. At this assumed first 
 meridian, therefore, the day in ordinary chronology will begin when the 
 mean sun is on the meridian of Greenwich ; so that, in fact, it will be 
 identical with the astronomical day as reckoned at that observatory. 
 
 The last of the secondary features of the scheme which I have to 
 notice, is the proposition to establish, for purposes of pure chro- 
 nology, and for the facilitation of synchronous observations in science, 
 a special time-reckoning under the name of cosmopolitan time. So long 
 as the dimensions of the known world were limited in longitude between 
 the Indies on the east and the Ganary Islands on the west, there was no 
 danger of a oonfosion of chronology to arise from a mistake of an entire 
 day in a date. But at the present time, and since civilization has 
 encircled the entire globe, it is a fact that there are certain houm in 
 every twenty-four, during which, for one entire half the habitable world, 
 the date is a unit more advanced in the monthly calendar than in the 
 other. The change of count must hdve a beginning somewhere. In the 
 absence of any distinct cunvention on the subject, it is generally under- 
 stood that this change begins somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. It hap- 
 pens, therefore, that at the moment when the sun is on the meridian 
 opposed to that of Greenwich, the date for all Asia and all Continental 
 Europe may be, for example, the first of January before noon, while for 
 the entire American Continent it is still the thirty -first of December. 
 
22 
 
 On the other hand, when, twelve hours later, the sun is on the Green- 
 wich meridian, the date will be the first of- January for all the world, but 
 will be afternoon for Asia and Europe and forenoon for America. At 
 present the change of count, as above observed, is supposed to begin in 
 the Pacific Ocean. But if we are to be exact, it ought to begin at some 
 certainly defined meridian ; and the present proposition is to make it 
 begin at the meridian distant twelve hours from Greenwich. 
 
 The time determined by the proposed zero meridian is, according to 
 a suggestion of Mr. Fleming adopted in the resolution, to be distin- 
 guished as cosmopolitan time, and might equally be called universal or 
 absolute time. Any observation made in cosmopolitan time will be fixed 
 with absolute certainty both in the chronological sequence and in the 
 hours of the day, and it can easily be converted, by the addition or sub- 
 traction of an even number of hours, into the particular time of each 
 standard meridian. Mr. Fleming proposes, also, that the hours of this 
 universal time shall be distinguished by symbols or letters rather than 
 by numbers. The value of this suggestion consists in the fact that, by 
 means of it, the danger will be averted of ever confounding cosmopolitan 
 time with that of any other except the prime meridian. It is not other- 
 wise insisted on as a feature of special importance. 
 
23 
 
 APPENDIX No. 3. 
 
 Extracts from an address read at the International Geographical Congress, at 
 Venice, Italy, September, 1881, by Sandford Fleming, Delegate from the United 
 States and Canada. 
 
 THE ADOPTION OF A PRIME MERIDIAN AND TIME- 
 ZERO, TO BE COMMON TO ALL NATIONS, 
 
 IN COSTNKCTION WITH 
 
 THE REGULATION OF TIME. 
 
 The unification of initial meridians has been advocated in the interests 
 of geography, astronomy and navigation. I shall accept all the argu- 
 ments which have been advanced on behalf of these extremely important 
 interests, and crave your indulgence while I submit additional reasons 
 for the establishment of a common prime meridian for all the world. 
 
 I propose to direct your attention to arguments which spring from 
 the relations of time and longitude and the rapidly growing necessity in 
 this age for reform in time reckoning. 
 
 If we take into view the whole earth, we hsive at the same instant in 
 absolute time, noon, midnight, sunrise, sunset, and all intermediate 
 gradations of the day. The telegraph system, which is gradually spread- 
 ing like a spider's web over the surface of the globe, is practically bring- 
 ing this view of our sphere before all civilized communities. It leaves 
 no interval of time between widely separated places proportionate to 
 their distances apart. It brings points remote from one another, enjoy- 
 ing all the different hours of daylight and darkness, into close contact. 
 Under our present system of notation, confusion is developed, and all 
 count of time is thrown into disorder. 
 
 The local civil day begins twelve hours before and ends twelve hours 
 after the sun passes the meridian of a place. As the globe is constantly 
 revolving on its axis, a fresh meridian is every moment passing under 
 the sun. As a consequence, a day is always somewhere beginning and 
 
24 
 
 always somewhere ending. Each spot around the oiroumference of the 
 sphere has its own day, and therefore there are, daring every diurnal 
 revolution of the earth, an infinite number of local days, all beginning 
 within the space of twenty -four hours, and each continuing for twenty - 
 four hours. These days overlap each other, and, theoretically, they are as 
 perfectly distinct as they are infinite in number. There are no simulta- 
 neous days except on the same meridian, and as the different days are 
 always in the various stages of advancement, difficulties must necessarily 
 result in assigning the period when an event takes place. The telegraph 
 may give the exact local time of the occurrence, but it will be in disagree- 
 ment with the local times on every other meridian around the earth. An 
 event occurring any one day may on the instant be announced some- 
 where the previous day, or somewhere else the following day. About 
 the period when one month or year passes into another month or year, 
 an occurrence may actually take place in two different months, or in two 
 different years, according to local reckoning. 
 
 It will be readily conceded that this system is extremely unscientific : 
 that it possesses all the elements of confusion, and produces a degree of 
 ambiguity which cannot long be tolerated ; that as time rolls on it will 
 lead to grave complications in social and commercial affairs ; that it will 
 produce serious errors in chronology ; that it will lead to litigation, and 
 result generally in difficulties of various kinds. According to our present 
 system, there can be no absolute certainty with regard to time unless the 
 precise geographical position be specified as an important element of the 
 date. It is evident that it will be exceedingly inconvenient and trouble- 
 some, when rapid communication becomes universal, to bring the times of 
 different countries and localities into agreement ; and that the necessity 
 for doing so by additions or deductions for differences in longitude will 
 undoubtedly clog the ordinary business of the world. 
 
 It is proposed to obviate the difficulty by a system of cosmopolitan 
 time reckoning, the chief peculiarity of which is the adoption of one 
 particular meridian as a standard time-zero, and by an extremely simple 
 arrangement regulating the times at all places on the globe by a direct 
 reference to the common standard. It is obvious that the world's time- 
 zero should coincide with the prime meridian to be used in common 
 by all nations for reckoning terrestrial longitudes. 
 
 I proceed to subirit special and more urgent reasons for the 
 selection of a common initial meridian and time-zero. I shall confine 
 
25 
 
 my observations to the case of North America, a country with which I 
 am most familiar, but the remarks I venture to submit will doubtless 
 apply to other great divisions of the earth's surface. 
 
 The gigantic system of railways and telegraphs which has been estab- 
 lished in America has developed social and commercial conditions ^hioh 
 never previously existed in the history of the human race. These conditions 
 ' have affected the relations of time and distance in a manner which shows 
 that the system of notation which we have inherited is defective ; that it 
 leads to confusion, causes loss of time and disturbs the arrangements of 
 travellers and business men ; that it frequently results in loss of life, and 
 leads to difiSculties of various kinds ; that under the circumstances which 
 have followed the extensive employment of steam and electricity as 
 m ::ans of rapid communication, it is generally inappropriate. 
 
 The question has therefore become a matter of great public import- 
 ance, and attention is seriously directed to the simplest and best means 
 of removing an impediment to commerce and general intercourse. 
 
 The system which we follow, and which has been followed for ages, 
 was not so objectionable half a century back, when the electric telegraph 
 was unknown and the horse was almost the only locomotive. The system 
 is based on the theory that time is regulated everywhere by the passage 
 of the sun over the meridian of each separate locality ; that the period 
 between any two solar passages at any one place is divided into halves, 
 known as ante-meridian and post-meridian, each half being subdivided 
 into twelve hours, and that the two halves together constitute a day. 
 
 According to the recognized theory, as already stated, every spot on 
 the surface of the globe differing in longitude has an entirely dis- 
 tinct day and a local time peculiar to itself. Except on the same 
 meridian there are no simultaneous days or hours or minutes. Every- 
 where the days and divisions of the day vary, and the variations are 
 infinite. 
 
 In the case of North America, the contine^^t extends across one hun- 
 dred and five degrees of longitude. Within its extreme eastern and 
 western limits it is possible to draw many thousand distinct meridians, 
 and, following rigidly the prescribed theory, we may have as many thou- 
 sand standards of time, not two of which would be in harmony. The 
 railway authorities have come face to face with the difficulty, and they 
 have from time to time met it as circumstances dictated. In order to 
 operate the long lines of railway with some degree of safety, each sepa- 
 
26 
 
 rate manager has been obliged to ignore the different local times, and 
 arbitrarily adopt a special time for the movement of trains on the par- 
 ticular lines under his charge. The railway guide-books publish at least 
 seventy- five (75) irregularly chosen standards of time, employed for the 
 running of trains in the United States and Canada. Every city and 
 town of importance has its own time, occasionally coinciding, but fre- 
 quently differing from the nearest railway standard. The public have 
 been obliged to accommodate themselves to this irregular system, but it 
 has become exceedingly inconvenient and irksonic, and a scheme which 
 will introduce a time-system characterized by uniformity and simplicity 
 cannot fail to be cordially welcomed. 
 
 For the reasons stated, an earnest movement has begun in America, 
 with the view of establishing reform in time-reckoning. The question is 
 engaging the attention of the Canadian Institute of Science, the Ameri- 
 can Metrological Society, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the 
 American Association for the Advancement of Science, and other soci- 
 eties. The community generally and the great railway and telegraph 
 interests are being awakened to its importance. 
 
 It is felt that the question is one in which all countries have an inter- 
 est, and although it has presented itself, possibly more prominently in 
 America than elsewhere, it is felt that Americans should take no narrow 
 view of a scientific matter of world-wide interest. 
 
 It is held by those who have seriously considered the subject, that a 
 solution of the problem which would be good for America would be 
 advantageous to other countries. It is considered that in introducing a 
 reform in time reckoning in North America, the system should be such 
 as would commend itself generally ; that it should be one which by its 
 appropriateness and simplicity would have every prospect of being 
 adopted ultimately throughout the world. 
 
 A highly important feature of the movement is to take every 
 means to render the system generally acceptable, so that, whenever the 
 necessity may arise in any other community for its introduction, it may 
 be spontaneously adopted ; a course calculated to secure ultimately com- 
 plete uniformity in all countries. 
 
 I beg leave to submit an outline of a proposition for defining and regu- 
 lating civil time which is favored in many quarters in Canada and the 
 United States of America. 
 
 (See Cosmopolitan Scheme for Regulating Time.) 
 
27 
 
 It must be evident that the principles laid down would be the ready 
 means of meeting the difficulties to which I have referred, and that 
 it is practicable to secure uniformity, great simplicity, perfect ac- 
 curacy and complete harmony. The times of places widely differing in 
 longitude would differ only by entire hours. In all other respects, 
 standard time in every longitude and latitude would be in perfect agree- 
 ment. In theory, every clock in the world would indicate some one of 
 the twenty-four hours at the same instant, and there would be perfect 
 synchronism with the minutes and seconds throughout the globe. 
 
 By the system proposed, instead of an infinite and confusing number 
 of local days, following the sun during each diurnal revolution of the 
 earth, we should have twenty-four well-defined local days only ; each 
 local day would have a fixed relation to the others, and all would be 
 governed by the position of the sun in respect to the Prime Meridian. 
 These twenty-four local days would succeed each other at intervals of 
 one hour during each successive diurnal revolution of the globe. The 
 day of each locality would be known by the letter or other designation of 
 its standard meridian, and the general confusion and ambiguity which I 
 have set forth as the consequences of the present system would cease to 
 exist. 
 
 Some such system as that proposed is imperatively demanded in 
 America. ' It cannot be doubted that the general adoption of the scheme 
 portrayed would be conducive to the convenience of all mankind. The 
 first step towards its introduction is the selection of an initial meridian 
 for the world. Accordingly I feel justified in asking you favorably to 
 consider the resolutions which I have now the honor to submit. 
 
28 
 
 APPENDIX No. 4. 
 
 This in a revision of the original scheme for reg^dnting time published in the 
 procesdings of the Canadinn Institute, Toronto, and the American Metrological 
 Society, New York. Submitted by Sandford Fleming, Chairman of the lipecial 
 Committee. 
 
 COSMOPOLITAN SCHEME FOR REGULATING TIME. 
 
 1. It is propo<«ed to establish one universal standard time common to 
 all peoples throughout the world, for the use of railways, telegraphs and 
 steamboats, for the purposes of trade and commerce, for general scien- 
 tiflo observations, and for every ordinary local purpose. 
 
 2. It is proposed that standard time, everywhere, shall be based on 
 the one unit measure of time, denoted by the diurnal revolution of the 
 eai'th, as determined by the mean solar passage, at one particular 
 meridian to be selected as a time zero. 
 
 3. The time zero to coincide with the initial or prime meridian to be 
 common to all nations for computing terrestrial longitude. 
 
 4. The time zero and prime meridian of the world to be established 
 with the concurrence of civilized nations generally. 
 
 5. For reasons elsewhere given it is suggested that the prime 
 meridian and time zero shall be established through the Pacific Ocean, 
 entirely avoiding the land of any nationalty, as shown in the plate. 
 (Fig. No. 1.) 
 
 6. For the purpose of regulating time everywhere it is proposed that 
 the unit measure, determined as above, shall be divided into twenty-four 
 equal parts, and that these parts shall be defined by standard time 
 meridians, established around the globe, fifteen degrees of longitude or 
 one hour distant from each other. 
 
 7. It is proposed that the standard time meridians shall be denoted 
 by the letters of the English alphabet, which, omitting J and V, are 
 twenty- four in number. The zero meridian to be lettered Z ; the re- 
 maining meridians to be lettered in order from east to west, as shown 
 on the plate (See Figs. Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4.) 
 
 8. It is proposed that standard time, determined as above, shall be 
 employed for general and local purposes in accordance with the follow- 
 ing definitions: 
 
29 
 
 Standard Time fob Oenebal Fuiiposbb. 
 
 9. It in proposed that the unit measure of time, determined as above, 
 shall be held to be a day absolute, and irrespective of the periods of 
 light and darkness which vary with the longitude, to be common to the 
 whole world for all non-local purposes. To distinguish it from ordinary 
 local days, this space of time may be known as the " Oosmopolitan " or 
 " Cosmic Day." The hours, minutes and seconds of the cosmic day, and 
 the days themselves may be distinguished by the general term coatnie 
 time. 
 
 10. Cosmic time may be used to promote exactness in chronology ; it 
 may be employed in astronomy, navigation, meteorology, and in connec- 
 tion with synchronous observations in all parts of the world. It may be 
 regarded as the time which would be used in ocean telegraphy and in all 
 operations of a general or non-local character. 
 
 11. It is proposed to distinguish cosmic from local time by denoting 
 the hours of the former by letters, and of the latter, as at present, by 
 numerab. 
 
 12. It is proposed that cosmic time shall be so lettered that the hours 
 will correspond with the twenty-four standard time meridians. 
 When the sun passes meridians G' or iV it will be G or N time of the 
 cosmic day. When it becomes Z time, that is to say, when the (mean) 
 sun passes the zero meridian, at that moment, one cosmic day will end 
 and another begin. 
 
 Standard Time for Looaij Purposes. 
 
 13. It is proposed to constitute the lettered divisions of the cosmic 
 day, standards for regulating local time everywhere. Thus reducing the 
 number of standards to twenty -four and furnishing a ready means of 
 passage from cosmic to local time and from one local to any other local 
 time. 
 
 14. It is intended that local time at any place on the surface of the 
 globe shall generally be regulated by the standard meridian nearest or 
 most convenient to such place in longitude. 
 
 15. It is proposed that the local day at any place shall commence 
 twelve hours before, and end twelve hours after the (mean) solar passage 
 at the standard meridian which governs the time at that place. Local 
 days, so determined, to be regarded in the same light in all ordinary 
 affairs as local days under the present system. 
 
30 
 
 16, It is proposed that local time at any place or in any section of 
 country shall be known by the letter of the particular standard meridian 
 by which it is governed. If local time at any place or in any section be 
 governed by meridian ^S* it may be known as Standard S time. If by 
 meridian T it may be distinguished as Standard T time and understood 
 to be one hour later than standart S, two hours later than Standard R, 
 and so on. 
 
 Ths Dihtbidution of Stampabo Timb. 
 
 17. It is proposed that standard time shall be determined and dissem- 
 inated under Governmental authority ; that time signal stations be es- 
 tablished at importtirt centres for the purpose of disseminating correct 
 time with precision, and that all the railway and local public clocks be 
 controlled electrically from the public time stations, or otherwise kept 
 in perfect agreement. 
 
 APPIilOATION OF THB SYSTEM IN NORTH AmEBIOA. 
 
 18. The adoption of the syatem in the United States and Canada, 
 would, exclusive of Newfoundland and Alaska, have the effect of reduc- 
 ing the standards of time to four. These four standards, B, S, T and 
 U, precisely one hour apart, would govern the time of the whole coun- 
 try, each would have the simplest possible relation to the other, and all 
 would bear equally simple relations to the other standards of the world. 
 
 19. It IS not proposed to prescribe the exact limits of the sections of 
 country within which, time would be regulated by each standard. In 
 this matter, general convenience would be the guiding principle. As a 
 rule the dirision lines would assume a central position between the 
 standard meridians. There would be no difficulty in finding division 
 lines either natural, political or commercial, which would fall about mid- 
 way between each of the four meridians. Probably in some cases a city or 
 town may lie equidistant from two meridians. In such cases geograph- 
 ical considerations, business relations, and other local circumstances, 
 would decide which standard should be adopted. The time used by the 
 railways would be determined by precisely similar considerations. The 
 time tables and railway clocks would always clearly indicate the stand* 
 ards which regulated the running of trains over particular sections. 
 
 20. It is suggested that standard time would generally prevail in the 
 several states and provinces as follows : 
 
m 
 
 Stani>ari> Time, 
 Mkriuian U. 
 
 Cnlifornia. 
 
 Nevada. 
 
 Oregon. 
 
 Wasliington T. 
 
 Br. ColuinbiH. 
 
 Vancouver Island. 
 
 Idaho. 
 
 Utah. 
 
 Arizona. 
 
 
 STANUAnD TiMK, 
 
 Mkridian T, 
 
 Mexico. 
 
 Texas. 
 
 KnnMUS. 
 
 Colorado. 
 
 Nel)raa|{a. 
 
 Wyoming. 
 
 Dakota. 
 
 Montana. 
 
 Munitobn. 
 
 Saskatchewan. 
 
 Kcewadin. 
 
 Standaki) Timk, 
 Mkriuian 8* 
 
 Louiniana. 
 
 Mis!-i»<tsi|)|>i. 
 
 Alabama. 
 
 AvkatmaH. 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 Missouri. 
 
 Kentucky. 
 
 Illinois. 
 
 Indiana. 
 
 I own. 
 
 Minnesota. 
 
 Wisconsin. 
 
 Michigan. 
 
 Standard T(hr, 
 Meridian It. 
 
 Florida. 
 
 eorgia. ' 
 
 S. Carolina. 
 
 N. Carolina. 
 
 Virginia. 
 
 Ohio. 
 
 Maryland. 
 
 Delaware. 
 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 New Jersey. 
 
 New York. 
 
 Rhode Island. 
 
 Connecticut. 
 
 Maosachusetts. 
 
 Vermont. 
 
 New llampshirs, 
 
 Maine. ^,„ , 
 
 Ontario. 
 
 Quebec. 
 
 New Brunswick. 
 
 Prince Ed w'd rid 
 
 Nova Scotia. 
 
 21. Reference to the diagram will show that the four meridians, U, 
 T, S and R, at intervals each from the other of one hour, would effec- 
 tively regulate the time of day throughout the whole extent of the Uni- 
 ted States, Canada and Mexico. But the number of standards can be 
 increased or reduced without interference with the harmony, and cosmo- 
 politan application of the general scheme. Theories have been advanced, 
 still further to reduce the number of standards. If two st<uidards be 
 deemed expedient meridians {/and Rta&jhe selected; one adapted to 
 the eastern, the second to the western half of the Continent. If on the 
 other hand the opinion prevail, that there should be one uniform time 
 for the whole of the North American Continent, meridian ^S* might be 
 selected. Meridian S would be 90<=> to the east of the Prime Meridian 
 proposed for all nations. It would pass through Lake Superior and 
 the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf of Mexico, It would be generallj 
 central, and would best suit the great body of the population. 
 
 The Division of the Day into Houbs. 
 
 22. The present division of the day into halves, and these halves 
 into twelve hours, each series of twelve hours being numbered identically, 
 
89 
 
 leads to error and inconvenicnco. This division necessitates the use 
 of the expressions ante meridian and post meridian, or forenoon and 
 afternoon, or the contractions a. m. and p. m., to identify the particular 
 half day to which any hour belongs. In railway time tables the expres- 
 sions ordinarily used to specify the half day ure liable to be omitted, 
 misplaced or misiinderstood. The consequence is that innumerable 
 mistakes are made and uncertainty freqiiently arises. 
 
 The halving of the day and the use of dual numberd to denote the 
 hours is a very old practice, but it confers no single benefit ; and, 
 beyond its claim to antiquity, has nothing whatever to recommend it. 
 While it will doubtless be extremely diiHcult to do away with the custom 
 so firmly established by long usage, it is nevertheless important to ascer* 
 tain what change would be most advantageous, and what modifications, 
 if any, would be most likely sooner or later to meet with general accept- 
 anoe. Two alternative plans have been suggested. 
 
 Firstly. — To have only one series of hours in the day, extending frora 
 midnight to midnight, and numbered from one to twenty-four without 
 interruption. 
 
 Secondly. — To number the hours between midnight and noon (one to 
 twelve) precisely as at present, and to denote the hours between noon 
 and midnight by letters of the alphabet. y 
 
 Both propositions would obviate the necessity of adding words of 
 explanation, or otherwise specifying, whether the hours were forenoon 
 or afternoon. The first would be extremely simple. The second would 
 have the advantage of distinguishing the forenoon from the afternoon 
 hours by the character of the symbols employed to denote them. The 
 hours of the first half of the day would be known by numerals, of the 
 second half by letters. The second plan would have other advantages 
 to recommend it. 
 
 The employment of cosmic time letters to denote the hours from 
 noon to midnight, in local reckoning, would make the designation of 
 the afternoon hours everywhere concurrent. 
 
 According to the scheme herein submitted there would be, be- 
 tween the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, four standard time meridians, 
 R, 8, T and U. (See Fig. 4.) The relative time of the day for 
 a few hours before and after noon under these several meridians would 
 be as given in the table appended. An examination will show that under 
 plan number two the noon letter in every instance would agree with the 
 
33 
 
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 t- 00 e> •-• 
 
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 rt « w •* 10 e> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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84 
 
 letter by which the standard meridian of the locality would be known. 
 Advancing Avesterly, local time would become one hour slower from 
 meridian to meridian, as indicated by the numerals which denote the 
 forenoon hours ; while the afternoon letters would everywhere be in 
 perfect agreement. The time of New York would be regulated by 
 Standard R, Chicago by Standard S, Denver by Standard T, and San 
 Francisco by Standard U, each standard differing by steps of one hour, 
 yet at any given hour in the afternoon, say at W, it wotild bo TF o'clock 
 at the same moment in absolute time from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
 K. 
 
FIQ. I. 
 
 /^rojecfion on thf xuggestfi fithrmij Straii. 
 • ir Pnnfic Initial J^eniitan 
 
 DlAOKAMS T(i ; 
 
 COSMOPOLITAN SCHEME I 
 
 FIG. 2. 
 
 frnffCfttin ^0" \Vf.ilf'/ri rrnm thf zrro 
 
T(i ACCOMIANY 
 
 FOR REGULATING TIME. 
 
 ovrf* 
 
 FIQ. 3. 
 
 f'rojertim \ Mil" U',tl,r/i/ Irnin thi- i'rn 
 TUT I l„iri 
 
 FIQ, 4 
 
 I'rojretinn 270" Wftlrrlii trvm t/u zrru