IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) V. /, o :/- f/. = ||=LL 11.25 ^ lis ill 20 i^ ill 1.6 M \ V iV ■6^ <^ W. <«^-\ ^5<\ <*?<'/'^Q G" i I CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 1980 Technical Notes / Notes techniques The Institute hns attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Physical features of this copy which may alter any of the images in the reproduction nre checked below. D D n Coloured covers/ Couvertures de couleur Coloured maps/ Cartes gdographiques en couleur Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages ddcolories, tachet6es ou piqu6es Tight binding (may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin)/ Reliure serr6 (peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge intdrieure) L'Institut a microfilmd le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de sa procurer. Certains d6fauts susceptibles de nuire d la quaiitd de la reproduction sont not6s ci-dessous. D D 0- D Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur Coloured plates/ Planches en couleur Show through/ Transparence Pages damaged/ Pages endommag6es 1 P f 1 c c a 1 f D Additional comments/ Commentaires suppidmentaires Bibliographic Notes / Notes bibliographiques n D n Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Bound with other material/ Relid avec d'autres documents Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque Plates missing/ Des planches manquent Additional comments/ Commentaires suppl4imentaires D D D Pagination incorrect/ Erreurs de pagination Pages missing/ Des pages manquent Maps missing/ Des cartes g^ographiques manquent Bound with : Letter to the president of the American Society for the Advancement of Science on the subject of Standard Time ... [Please refer to CIHM no. 00044] . The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la netteti de lexempiaire fiim6. et en conformit6 avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol — ► (meaning CONTINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la der- nidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols — <► signifie "A SUIVRE", le lymbole V signifie "FIN". The original copy was borrowed from, and filmed with, the kind consent of the foliovi^ing institution: Library of the Public Archives of Canada Maps or plates too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. T^e following diagrams illustrate the method: L'exemplaire fiimd fut reproduit grdce d la g6n6rosit6 de l'6tablissement prdteur suivant : La bibliothdque des Archives publlques du Canada Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre 'eprcduites en un seul clich6 sont filmdes d partir de I'angle supdrieure gauche, de gauche d droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la mdthode : 1 t 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 nr >.MK\«aES'!£aE?«:sffiiSEg'i!»;i STANDARD TIME. REPLIES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY SPECIAL COMMITTEE AMERICAN SOCIETY CIVIL ENGINEERS. 18S2. PRINTED BY C. W. MITCHELL^,), 8 AND 10 ELGIN STKEET 1882. 4 . > : ' . .' *> AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. SPECIAL 2UMMITTEE ON CTANDARD TIME, • t^A ■-.". ]■ i ■ •' '^ \:0 '■: 'i; '■1-'.'-;M-: :., chairman. ,v' \l j /t '-.'':"'-'•:.. ,,, SANDFORD FLEMING, Escj., Ottawa, ' Ex Chi»!l' Engineer of the Northern Railway of Canada, the Inter-Colo- uiul Railway, and The Canadian Pacific Railw ly. • , CHARLES PAINE, Esq., New York, ; General Manager New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railroad. .• . % THEODORE N. ELY, EsiriLTOONA, 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, Washingtox, 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. ■ (-,> " 'Vr l-"**'^') '! '•, v'l'j^t^ • i-i iJiJ^i,' ■,-:-'" ^l ■■Xf\''v. ■ ,11 '■': ■■ ■»■' i'.!i,: tosiioiaii ^r ':'' "■ f 1 l'''C flii' y, i-" SUBMITTED BY THE SPECIAL nOMMITTEE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENOINEERS, AVITII Ql'ESTIONS AND OTHER PAPERS. 1. It is proposed 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- tific 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 ro volution of the earth, as determixied 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 ef tablished 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 nationality, as shown in the plate, (Fig. No. 1.) SCHEME. T). For the purpose of reguljiting tiini; everywhere it is proposed that the unit measure, tletermined as above, shall be divided into twenty-four equal parts, and that these parts aliall be defined by standard time uieridians, established around the globe, fifteen degrees of longitude of one ho\jr 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 ./ and V, are twenty-four in number. The zero n^eridian 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 w ith the follow- ing definitions : Standard Timk For General Purposes. 9. It is proposed that the unit measure of time, determined as above, shall be held to be a day absolute, and irrespective of ^he periods of light and darkness which vary wit/> 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 "Cosmopolitan" or " (Josmic Day. " The hours, minutes and seconds of the cosmic day, and the days themselves may l)e distingu'shed by the general term cosmic time. 10. Cosmic time may be used to pi'omote 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 I'egarded as the time which would be n.sed 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 SCHEME. the hours of the former hy letters, and of the latter, as at present, l»y numerals. .12. It is proposed that cosmic time shall he f o lettered that th«! hours will correspond with the twenty-four standard time meridians. When the sun passes meridians G or X it will be (J or X 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 anotlier begin. :.,. ,1';; ■■ I ■ Standahd Timk for Lo(;al 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 mid 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 convient to such place in longitude. 15. It is proposed that the local day at p ly place shall commence twelve hours before, and end twelve hours alter the (mean) solar passage at the standard "meridian which governs the tine at that place. Local days, so determined, to be regarded in the .'ame light in all ordinary affairs as local days under the present system. :• . - 1 . , 16. It is proposed that local time at any place or at any section of country shall be known by tlie letter of the particular standai-d 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 J' it maybe distinguished as Standard T time and understood to be one hour later than Standard *S', two hours later than Standard K, aud so ou. 6 Sf'ff EM E. • The Distkmu'tion of Standakd Time 17. It is ])ropos«'(l that stiindard t'luw sluill ])e determined and dissem- inated under (Joverninental authority; that time signal stations be established at important 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 timt^ stations, or otherwise kept in perfect aijreenioiit. Application op tfik System in North America. ' 18. The adoi)tion of the system in the United Stat€s and Canada, would, exclusive of Newfoundland and Ala.ska, have the effect of reduc- ing the standards of time to four.. These four standards R, 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 i)rescrilje 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 division lines would assume a central position between the standard meridians. There would be no dithculty 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 e([uidistant 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 simular considerations. The time tables and i-ailway 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 ; SCHEMlC. STA.NUAllIt Tl.Mi:, SrAMlAlll) TlMK, St\.m»mii> Ti.mk. Sta.mimiii Timh. MklllDIAN U. Mkhmiiw X. MkIII|)I.\.\ S, Mkiui>[a\ K. Galilornia. Moxico. Louisiana. Florida. - Ne\ailn. Texas. Mississi|t|)i. Georgia. Oregon. Kansas. Aial.ania. s. Carolina. W'ashingloii 'I'. Odloruilo. Arkansas. N. Carolina. Br. ColiimhiM. Nebraska. Tennessee. Virginia Vancouvt'i- Islaml. Wyt)mir)g. Missouri. Ohio. ,, i Idaho. Dakota. Kentiick>. Maryland. Utah. •• r Montana. Illinois. Delaware. Arizona. Miiriiloba. Indiana. P'Minsyivania. Snskalcliewan. Iowa. Now Jersey,- !'.. * '■ . ■ '■ Keewatin. Minnesota. New York. Wisconsin. Khode Island. ■ .'•'•' ' ', ', ■'. i'; ,'. ' '. • .t^ ■,' ■ • ' ' - Michigan. C'Min(!Clicut. Massachusetts. Vermont. ■ , .' • ' New Hampshire. Maine. .,;., . ^ '■ • " ■ > Ontario. '. , ...'• :■ ,;•► -• • n' . ^ ■'•." ' ". . ■.!'''' Qnehec. New Brunswick, ' 'f.f. '-/ ' .. ')■ •'■: ■, ■ ' ■■ ■ < s * ») • -* '.»,' *■ ; - Prince Edw'd rid No/a Scotia. L*l. Reference to the diagraui will sliow that the four meridians, U, T, ti and A*, iit intervals each from the other of one houi-, would effect- ively 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 inteiference with the harmony, and cosmo- politan application of th(> general scheme. Theories have been advanced, still furthet to reduce tlie number of standards. If two standards l»e deemed expedient-meridians U and J\' may be selected ; one adapted to the eastern, tlie second to the western half of the Continent. If on the other hand the opinion prevail, that there should be one uniform time for tile whole of the North American Continent, meridian .S' might be selecteed. Meridian S would be 90 ® to the east of the Prime Meridian proposed for all nations. It would pass througli Lake Superior and tlie Mississippi Valley to the Gulf of Mexioo. It would be generally central, and Would best f-uit the great body of the population. 8 SCHEME. The Division of the Day into Hours. 22. The pi-ewent division of tlie day into halves, ai..! tlieae halves into twelve hours, each series of twelve hours being numbered idonticiUy, lea'Js to error and inconvenience. This division necessitates the use of the expressions ante meridian ami post meridian,, or forenoon and afternoon, or the contractions a. m. and i', m., to identify the particular hall day to which any hour belong;?. In railway time tables the expres- sions ordinarily used to si)ecify the half day are liable to be omitted misplaced or misunderstood. The conseipience is that innumerable mistakes are made and uncerlainty freciuently arises. The halvinj^ of the day and the use of dual numbers to denote the hours is a very old practice, but it confers no sin;i;le benefit ; and bevond its claim to antiquity, has nothing "w hatever to recommend it. While it will doubtless be extremely diliicult to do away with the custom so firmly established by long usagp, 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 wiih general accept- ance. Two alternative plans have been suggested. First! ij. — To have only one series of hours in the day, extending from midnight to midnight, and Jiumbered from one to twenty-four without interruption. Secondly. — To number the hours between midnight and noon (one to twelve) precisely as at i)resont, and to denote the hours between noon and midnight by letters of t alphabet. Both })ropo.sition3 would obviate the necessity of adding words of explanation, or otherwise specifying, whether the houi's 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 syuibols employed to denote them. The hours of the first half 6f the day would be known by numerals, of the • • SCHEME. • =- 1 a. <3J d is ^ M »i N v >; e V ves "^ • If '1 s . •1 1 use . -S s 5S "^ ■'^ , •< K^ ■^^ W 1 . ^ « s i H 1 ^ * a < Q r, < C 3; F1 [ n ■* ta •£ i-« F^ 1— 1 r- - and liar ■UOitllOJOJ uooiuaijy "es- ed, < 3 a 1 > "i B 5 1 >n « i« 00 9> o o 1-^ h -> j( ^. > N • bio c If} w r^ X rs p< 1 ■>! M «»i lO ffl t^ S < < » 2 2^-5 O 2 t; ?; < as £ ' the «* s = £ = 9 •liooiiojo^j 'uooiuaijv ind it, om u 1*5 s lo w r- 00 Ci o 1-1 r-l r-t CI r- < i-i O'l m •♦ m 4> e4 1 •« t- 00 O O t-l « H B ^ >< ^ N •er- W i s s= « ^ • » - ^ V -wj ■^ n > ns, 1x2 « s ^ t^ 00 O O f-H C-l M •^ <0 « b- 00 •^ a o rH r^ »-i "'""'"'"'" 1 pt- »< -J. -^ S s 2 s H < < < ^ ' ■ Ui •iioouojo^j •iiootuaijv tf :5 "^ ^ J y * 50 t» 00 « © 1-1 IN r^ (N M ■* us « oni 02 «^ o*^ •« ^-Q-S! i-l r-l 1 — ^ 1 1 3Ut B ti • to )on fe ^ '^ o J- -4 S "^^ • M a OS < Q s > B < 6 t" 00 CJ O rH 1—1 rH M « ^ a ^ »i^ iM N ^ 1^ i 1 1 M S 5 £ 1 MlOOHfUOJ •UOOIU31JV 1 s c w.a O S.cK t- 00 o o -H 9-1 i-H IN M »«< U) <0 t- of CxQu l-l r-t rl OS '^ 1 • on ? O ilH ^ 9^ 1 on V g ^ H X » « » » • « r « « ^ B . » • ¥ 1 > • N he • he ...i 10 SCTJEMJi:. socond half by letters. The second plan would have other advantages to recomniend it. >* ; \. . • . The emj.loyniont of r^osinic time letters to denote the hours from noon to midnight, in Local reckming, would make the designation of the afternoon hours everywhere concurrent. According to the scheme herein submitted there would be, be- ^ tween the Atlautic and PaciHc coasts, four standard time meridians, K, S, T and U. (See Fig. i.) The relative time of the day for a few hours before and after noon under these several meridians would I 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 ~ letter by which the standard m(!ridian of the locality would be known. Advancing westerly, local time would become one hour slower from it meridian to meridian, as indicated by the numerals which denote the I forenoon hours ; while the afternoon letters would everywhere be in I perfect agrecMnent. The time of New York would be regulated by \ (Standard R, Chicago by S^andArd S, Denver by Standard T, and San Francisco l)y Standard U, each standard differing by steps of one houi-, yet at any given hour in the afternoon, say at W, it would be W o'clock at the same moment in absolute time from the Atlantic to the Pacific. •■* < • ■>-'"- " " ■ ' ' '■ '. ■ K. '', ■•' '." 5,- >.'■ ■ V,. ■?- ' f:f QUESTIONS RELATING TO STANDARD TIME. ■ ■/.:■■» ,■',■'■;. y-'J-JMS "^J Submitted hy the Special Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers. by Question 1. — Are yoii in favor of a comprehensive system of Standard Time for North Anxerica i Question 2. — Do you favor the idea expressed insome of the documents referred to, of brinj^ing the Standards of Time of all countries into agreement I Question 3. — In order to attain the object set forth in (juestion No. 2, do you consider it advisable to secure a time syHtem ff»r this country which would commend itself to other nations and be adopted by them ultimately ? Question 4. — Referring to the scheme for regulating time (page 28) does it seem to possess any features which gc:ierally commend themselves to your judgment ? Question 5 — Do you favor the proposal to have the standards of time diffeiing by intervals of one hour, thus reducing the number of standants for the whole of North America to four, viz.: Meridians Q, R, S and T ? (See 18 to 21, page-^. 30 and 31.) Question 6. — Do you favor the suggestion to reduce the number of standards in North America to two, say "^[eridians U and R. (See 21.) Question 7. — Do you prefer having only one Continental Standard, 3ay Meridian S, and having one uniform time throughout the whole oi North America ? (See 21 page 31.) 7 Question 8.— If the scheme set forth in the document referred to (page 28) does not generally meet with your approval, is there any other scheme which you prefer ? Please explain your preference for the information of the Committee, 12 QUESTIONS. ^ Question 9.-Referring to the suggestions under the heading " Division of the Day into hours" Cpage 31) please indi ate which of the three foUowiutr plans you prefer, . *> (A) The alternative plan No. 1, with the hours numbered from 1 to 24 without interruption ? (B) The alternative plan No. 2, with the forenoon hours nun.bered as at present and the afternoon hours lettered as described ? (C) The present division into half days, known as forenoon and afternoon, each half day having the hours numbered ideuticallv from 1 to 12 ? ^ Question 10— In order to secure perfect uniformity and accuracv, do you favor the proposal to have Standard Time disseminated throughout the country by central authority controlled by government. (Page 30.) , Question U.-Have yon any particular views on the question of Time reform, not embraced in the .luestions and replies above given ? If so please state them for the information and guidance of the Committee. (If necessarv on a separate sheet.) ^ '.'■ ■^■ T?"'""''' :;';■ J'i-.,-^','';.^ t-H; NAMES OF PARTIES FROM WHOM REPLIES HAVE BEEN RECEIVED IN ANSWER TO THE CIRCULAR OF QUESTIONS OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE AMEIUCAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. . ■ ». No. NAME. V t 1. W.J.McAlpine.M I.C.P:^ 2. M. Becker* 3. Martin W. Harrington., 4. H. T. Eddy, Ph. D .... 5. Robert Fletcher, Ph. D* 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. P H. Philbrick* E. A. Doane* . . Henry B. Richardson*. Clemens Hcrschel* .... H. Stanley Goodwin*. Official Title. Past Pres. Am. Soc. Civil Eng. . Chief Engineer P.C. & St.L. R.W.Co Director A.str. Observatory ..... Prof, of Mathematics, Astr. andCvl. Eng., University of Cincinnati, Prof, of Civil Engineering 11. Robert Briggs* 12. 13. 14. 15. 16, 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 2(i. 27. 28. 29. 30. S. Spencer C. B. Comstock * . . . M. S. Greenough*. . James R. Maxwell*, Prof. C. E., State Univ. of Towa (^hief Engineer, Rome, WaCertown & Ogdensburgh R.R. Chief State Engineer RR. Commissioner, of Massachusetts Asst. Gen. Superintendent, Lehigh Valley R.R. Co. .3rd V.P, B. &0. RR Lieut. -Colonel of Engineers .... (ien. Agt. Boston Gas Light Co. . Chief Eng. and Supt. of Const'u., i D. O. & O. R. R W\ A. Doane* Principal Asst. Engr., R.W. & O. ! R.R Francis J. Lynch, M, I. C.E In charge Canadian Pacific Ry, office .lames H. Rowan, C. E . . j R. M. Harrod. C.E* , . . . jMemb. Miss. River Commise.'on. . W. A. May* Eng. Hillside C. & I, Co C. S. Master* |Engineer in charge Western Div. W.L. &CJ.RR. James Hall, D.P.S Ex-Sherifif and Ex-M.P Arthur S. C. Wurtelc*. . lAsst. Eng.. N. Y. C, & H. R. R. . W, A. Sweet* | Pres. Sanderson St. Co Wm T. Jennings ;Rest. Engr., C,P,R . P.O. AUDKE.SS. M. G. Howe*.... Robert H. Say re . . , Hubert Moore, C. E*, J. Foster Crowell* .John Notman Eng. and Supt., H. *; T.C.R.R. . . . Supt. and Eng., Lehigh Valh-y R.R. Asst. Eng , .P :i R Queen's Printer. Provinae, Ontario. Bav Ridge, L. I., N. Y. Pittsburgh, Pa. Ann Arbor, Mich. Cincinnati, Ohio. Hanover, Grafton Co., N. H. Iowa City, Iowa. Oswego, N. Y. New Orleans, La. Boston, Mass. Bethlehem, Penn. rr20 Girard st., Philadelphia, Pa Baltimore, Md, Detroit, Mich. 24 West st, Boston Olney, 111, Oswego, N. Y. Ottawa, Canada. W^innipeg, Man. 122 Common st,, New Orleans. Scranton, Pa. St, Louis, Mo, Peterhoro', Out. Albany, N.Y. Syracuse, N.Y. Keewatin. Man. Houston, Texas. Bethlehem, Pa. 102 North 4th St., St. Louis, Mo. East Liberty, Pittsburgh, Pa. Toronto, Ont. Member American Society Civil Engineers. 14 LIST OF PARTIES. No. NAME. 31. T. J. Potter. 32. W. B. Smellie . . . . 33. StephoQ S. Haight* 34. Julius W. Adams* 35. 36. 37. 38. 30. 40. 41. 42. 43. F. N. (iiaborne . .. James H. Harlow* A. b. Cox* Kdward S. Philbrick* Mopcure Robinson*. KivasTully T. H. Terry J W. Putnam* Charles H. 8waii*. . , 44. 45. 46 47. 48. 40. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. Sir Charles Tapper Jos, P. Davis' P. S. Archibald H. E. Stevens* B. S. Henning . . J. Milton ritlow* Vvm. A. Norton. . C. A. Voung . . . . . Robert A. Shailcr*. L. B. Archibild., . R P. Stearns" . . C. S Davidson 56. Edward Maguiro 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. (i5. E. C. Ferris CoUingwood Schreibc Henry (lannett James P. Howley E. P. Alexander. , Official Title. 3r(l Vice-Pres. and Cen. Man., C. B. &(». R. R. (^ODs. Eng., Canadian Pacific Ry... C. E. and City Surveyor Past Pros., Am. So. Civil Eng . . Supt. Tel. Sig. S.:rv., Dom. Canada Eng. Monongahela Navigation Co, Vice-Pres, Cnnadian Institute . . . Chief Eng. L.E. & W. Rd N. O. & M. R R Member of the Am. Met. Soc,,Met. Bnr., A. 8 C E. Minister of Railways and Canals . . Vice-Pres. Am. Tel. Co P. O. Al)I)KE.S,S. Chicago, 111. Montreal, Ca. West Farms, N.Y City. 155 Congress et., Brooklyn, N Y. Ottawa. 81 Wood St., Pittsburg, Ohio Cherry Valley, N.Y. 12 West St., Boston, Mass. Philadelphia. Toronto. Lafayette, Ind. New Orleans. 25 Wabou st., Highlands, Bos- ton, Mass. Ottawa"; Ca. 1 44 Greenwich st , N. Y. City. Monokton, N.B. " St Paul, Minn. Intercolonial Railway U. S. Asst. Engineer Pros Ohio Lo. if W. Co j 1 15 Broad wa' . N.Y. Prin. Asst. Eng., City Hall Philadelphia, Pa, Prof. Civil Eng., Sheffield ScientHc School, Yale College. Prof. Asti'oni'y, Col. of New Jersey. Asst. Supt. Edge Moor I'on Works Supt. Prince Edward Island Ry . . New Haven, Ccaa Prince'ion, N.J. Wilmington, Del. Charlottetown, r.E.i. Atlanta, Mass. ' Asst. Eng.. Boston Tmn. Sewerage. Supt. Hud. Div. N.Y., N.H. & Hartford, Conn H.R.U. Captain of Engineers. U.S.A. . . Engineer D. & N.R.R W. H. Wood F. M. Towar Julius J. Duraye Thomas S. Sedgwick* . Chief Eng. and Cea. Man, Canadian Coveroment Rys. Geographer of Census and of U.S. Geological Survey. Asst. Geologist Yice-Pres. Louis & Nashville R. . . . R. Co. U.S. Asst. Engineer U.S Asst. Engineer U.S. Asst. Engineer Land Agt., Atlantic k Pacific Rail- road Co. South Norwalk, Conn. Ottawa, Ca. Washington, D.C. St. Johns, Nfid. Louisville, Ky. St. Paul, Minn. St. Paul, Minn. St. Paul, Minn. Albu(iuer. 116 117. 118 119. 120. H. S. S. .Smith . . . . Wm. Brydone .lack John B. Hamilton. . Henry F. MoLeod, M.I.. Jacob M. Clark* Geo. C. Wilkina. H. P. D wight... OKFiriAL Tple. Governor of Michigan Commander U.S.N., Aast. to Supt. Naval Observatory. Aatronomer Cincinnati Observatory Prof, Astronomy, K.S.U Pres. University, New Brunswick . Supervising Surg. -Gen. U.S. Marine Hospital Service. Resident Engineer, Canadian Pacific Railway. C. E William F. Bradbury. S. L. We dan T. W Pearl M. Giddinga R R. Call , J. W. Mallett , Fred. T. Newberry . . 121. D. Hudson Shedaker 122. 12.S. 124. 125. 126. 127. 128. 129 l.SO. LSI. 1.32. 1.3.3. 134 1.3.'). 1.36. 137. Edwin Gilpin, jr., A.M., F.G S., F.R.S.C, Ac. ■'ohnTwigg. ... F. P. Dunnington Franc's H. Smith Clarence J. Blake Wm. M. Thornton .... Albert Chapman Savage M. C. Fernald .John H. Plake Ed. Fontauie Fred. Brooks* N. Bouthillier de Beau- mont. Andrew Ingraham JrsephTrutch, M.I.C.E, Alex. S. Christie E. P. Hannaford Supt. Bait. T)iv. Northern Central Ry. and Bait. & Potomac Ry. (Jen. Manager Great North- Western Telegraph Co. Hd. Master, Cambrid^ie High .School Vice Pres. and Gen. Man. Houston Belt Ry. U.S. Asst. Eng P. O. Address. U.S. Consular Agent Prof. Chemistry, Univ. of Virginia. Atst. Eng., Southern Pacific Ry . . Civ. Eng Govt. Inspector of Mines Town Clerk Prof. Anal. Chemistry, University of Virginia. Prof. Natl. Philosophy, University of Virginia. Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences, etc. Adj. Prof. Eng., Univ. of Virginia. City Engineer Pres. State College Lansing, Mich. Washiugtou. Mount Look Out, Phio. Lawrense, Kansas Frederickton, N. B Washington. Dry nock, B.C. 119 Liberty St. , New York. Baltimore, Md, Toronto. Cambridge, Mass. Houston, Texas. Brownville, Neb. Bangor, Me. Newcastle, N.B. AlbermarleCo.Va Townsend st., San Francisco, Cal 425Soutli Broad st Philadelphia. Halifax, N.S. Picton, Ont. Professor, etc., etc Asst. Eng. Ferro Carril Central Mexicano. Pres. de la Societiti de Geographic . Principal Friends' Academy Dominion Government Agent . . . Coast and Godetic Survey Chief t^ngineer, Grand Trunk Ry. of Canada. 226 Mar'iboro'st., Boston. El Paso, Texas. Orono, Me. Boston, Mass. , Jackson, Wis. ' San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Geneva. New Bedford, Mass, Victoria, B. C. Montreal. * Member American Society Civil Slngineers. _.■'.: >a^sr>--!5',;i? ./ i;i(,V., M < 1- / /' : .■. ,4:! I ' V ' ''' ,' i '. ' J -A' .A ■ r REPLIES l\^i': :h.i' LV ANSWEJ? TO CIRCULAIi OF QrTESTfONS ISSUED BY SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. STANDARD TIME. ^ ^^ * 't^^Aic^t-. ,s^ix .1 -■■:^is«l^*'- Id REPLIES'. 3 NAME. QUESTION 1, A n jiiiii i',i fauof of a cumiiri-licH^iw system a/ Stmuluril TiiiK'J'oi yuiih America/ 1 W. J. McAIpino, M.I.C.E. 2 M.J. Becker 3 Mart W, }f arrington 4 H. T. Eddy, Ph D i ilobert Fletcher, rii.D..., (J r. H. Philbrick 7 E. A. Doane 8 Henry B. Richardson 9 Clemens Herschel 10 H. Stanley Goodwin , 11 Robert Briggs. I'J S. Silencer.... Yes. Yes. ] am. Yes, emphatically. T am, ^'e^. <. ^'es. Yes. Certainly. Yea, 1.3 C. B. Conistock. Lieut. Col nel of Engineers, U.S.A. 14 M. S (Jreenougli IT) JumeH R Maxwell 1() VV. A, Doane 17 Francis J, Lynch, M.I.C.E 18 James H. Rowan 19 B. M. Harrod 20 W. A. May 21 C. S. Master 22 James Hall, D.P S. 2.3 Arthur S. C. Wurtele, 24 W.H. Sweet 2.5 VVm. T. Jennings. 2() M. G. Howe 27 Robert H. Sayre. 28 Robert Moore . . . . 29 J. Foster Crowell . 30 John Notman. Yea. • • Yes. . • , , - Yes. . Vea. > \ v^,v ,.. . I am. I am very strong'y in favor of it. Yea. • Yes. ■■ ■■■ ,- ' ' >' " '■,'■■." ,^. -■''■:''. Yea. 1 am most anxious to have it estab- lished.' Not as a new system, but I would favor a uniform railroad time. Yea. I am. Yes. I am, decidedly. Yes. Yes, most decidedly. 1 am, and hope to see it effected soon. 31 T. J. Potter 32 W. B. Smellie 33 Stephen S. Haight 34 Juliun \V. Adams, Past Pres. Am. Soc. C.E. 36 F. N. Gisborne Yes. I think it greatly to be desired. Yes. Yes. ft EP I. lES. 19 QUESTION 2. Do t/ou favor the idea exprenHed in mine of the dfK'iiiiir.iitu referred /o,ii/hriii;fiii;i the Stnndnrds Uf Time ijj aU coxn/rics into wjrccinent! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 U 15 16 17 18 19 20 Yes" Yes '. . . . . No T think it most desirable Yes I do Yes I do Yes Yes Certainly Yes ; but I think it will be best for America to lead and not «vait for foreign co-operation. American t me should have Green- wich for zero meridian. No Yes Yes I do I do Yes Yes ; ... . giTKSTION 3. It) iiri rr to attain thv nhp.ri Mt/nrlh in QifHtion >V". .', do iioii eoiiKider It adi'lnnttle to secure r, time Hjininii Jdr thin cuitiitfii lehirh irt>iilil emn- iiii'iiil itself to other nations Hint tie t"d Itij them idtiiiiatelij I Yes. Yes. No Id Yes. I do. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Certainly. Yes, Yes, if practicable ; if not, ac'. inde- pendently ot them. No. Yes. . Yes. I do. I do. ..."._ i r. f' •■! Yes. t:'."! <', .'• :l ''I Yes. . ■'"■<■-' "I H V- i 21 22 2.S 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 I do, and think it would confer a great benefit on the civilized world. The thing is chimerical : all coun- tries will probably take care of their own time. Yes I do Yes I do Yes . Yes after the North American sys- tem is in successful operation. I favor that i 31 32 33 34 Yes . I do Yea . Yes . 35 Yes Ido. iV. Who could be the judge whether a so- called system wouKl so commend itself? Certainly. Ido. Yes. I think it very desirable. Yes. Yes. Yes, for North America, or rather the American continent. Yes. Yes. Yes. Y^es. I think it will be necessary to take the initiative movement in North America. 30 HErLIES. NAME. 36 James H. Harlow , 37 A. B. Cox 36 Edward S. Phill)rick . 39 Moncnn; Robineon , . . . 40 Kivaa Tully. 41 T. H. Perry 42 J. W. Putnam I itm. I am. I am. Yes. Ye«. QUESTION 1. 43 Charles H. Swan Yes. 44 Sir Charles Tupper '.\ Yes. I «ave evidence of this hy estrtblibhing a stnn.lard time for the . ,, Intercolonial Failway, 8i0 ni les in *^ ■ V - lergth. which was worked on three dis- tinct times, when I became head of the .^ _ . Department of Railways. 45 Jos. P. Davis Yes 46 P. S. Archibald Yes 47 H. E. Stevens " ■' Yes. • •• - ■ • '^ v t '' 48 B. S. Henning ',\ Yes. " ;..-'! f, 49 J. Milton Titlow Yes. 50 Wm. A. Norton ] Yes! " ' '; ■ fi C. A. Yomig Yes ; by all means. 52 Robert A. Shailer Yes, 53 L, B. Archiba'd * ] am 54 F. P. Stearns ',',',,', Yi s. ' 55 C. S. Davidson Yes! 56 Edw. Maguire Yes* v v ^ 57 E. O. Ferris "!!!! Yes! 58 CoUingwood Schreiber Yes 59 Henry Gannett Decidedly. 60 James P. Howley i think it w uld tend greatly io simplify Lime reckoning. 61 E. P. Alexander I »,„, most heaitily. REPLIES. 21 QUESTION 2. QUESTION 3. 3() 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Y*!s Yes. I (In, though it (b a matter of less It would bo hottor for uh to do tho brst iniportuucu to us. wo can for ourHolvcH, and not ^'auiifioo our plan on tho grand idea of revolution* izing the world. I do favor it I 2 «4 ({5 67 W. H. Wood F. M . Towiir .luliuH J. Dumye . . . . Thomas S. Sodgwiok Clco. M. UawMon T. f. Mondeiilmll 68 L. J. l.ci;onte m Edwiml (*. Pickiring. 70 II. F. lloyco 71 7J 73 74 75 76 J. S. So«ell Wrii. H lla/.en, Maj(>r-(jun. U.S.A. •J. M. Huchan (Jcor(;o Kennedy K. I). Aehc Wni. P. Judson YcB. Ye«. Yo8, ' \ am, Vl!8, Yes. Yea, Yes, YcB. Yes. Yes. YOH. Yes. Yes, deeideilly. •■>;*, 77 Wili-on Crosby. 78 W. H. Pratt. . . . Yes. Undoubtedly, 79 (Ico S. riatchcll. 80 H. S. Pritchett.. 81 C J, Ives 82 Asa Horr 8:{ .1. L (iillespie 84 Wni. P. Anderson. 8.3 RufuH Inga'Is 8() W. E, Jacobs 87 VVinsIow Upton 88 H. A. Howe Yes. Yes. Yes. ^ '' ■' ' - Yes. Yes. ^ , . , .. Yes. Yes. ^. . ■... ....;...:,.:.. ..- Yes ; I (|uite concnr with the argunionta in its favor given pamphlet, especially in regard to time. Yes. .'■-:':.- Z-;^ I am. .'.''« various in your railroad 89 D. \\. Taylor . . 90 J. 1{. Eastman, 91 James 11. Barber Yes. I am for the United States. Yea. 82 Simon P. Newcomb. 9.3 DeYoIson Wood. 94 Wm. F. EUicc... Yes. Yes. Yes, it if. very desirable. liEnLtBS, 28 yUKSTloN 2. gUK.STION 3. 62 63 ({4 (I.*) m 07 Yes Yoi '••I it Y- 68 Yea 69 Yes 70 Yes by c<|Uation8 of ('<|iiality. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. if tliey sliould l)0 pleased to so do ! Yes. N'cs, decidedly, for many reasons — this is the place tu beg'u. Yes. Yes. 'i'» '■■ ■••■- Yes. 71 72 73 74 7ft 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes The idea is a good one, but do not ooiihider it now practicable nor CBpf ciuUy important to us. \ 68 Certainly. Whatever be adopted it HJioiild be with that view. Y.s, Yta . sir. Yes ^'ea Yes Y'es Yes, so far as practicable I think it Mould be an advantage, though not to so great a degree .i-s in each great division of tbe world Separately. Yea I do 89 .Yes 90 No 91 Yes 92 No ; it is s'mply burdening the re- form with a useless condition. 93 Yea 94 Ce.tainly Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. ■J< Yes. Highly desirable; the sooner a iv^U t/li/tsfii/ system can be inaugurated the better. 1 do. Y'es. . .V ".', ".,, , Y'es. Yes. • Yes. Certainly. / Moat certainly. Yes ; with ourgrcatexi)anse of country the question assumes greater importance than to any other nation. Yes. i favor a meridian passing through Greenwich, and think that if it is ISO® from Greenwich the W( rid would be more likely to accept it than if it is in any other place. Yes. No. Yes; I think the representatives of other countries should be conaulted even though these nations did not at present af^opt the improved system. No ; we don't care for other nations, can't help them, and they caa't help i.r;. 1 would aim to do .so. Unless we secure such a syste: ■ e fail to secure the objects aimed at in No. 2. ii f m u JiEPLlES. 15 NAME. QUESTION 1. 95 Alex. Murray 96 Edwin A. Hill.,.. f\'if \ ■ -.rl. nf\f:i:j vrtf.M.: ;': 1. ■■!,■! ,:>v^■• 97 C. D. Ward 98 M. C. Meigs, Prig. -Gen. U. S. A. 99 J uliuB Pohlman Most certainly. Moat decidedly. Yea. Yes. Yes. 100 J. C. Wood. Yes, for transportation and ccmmeraial purposes. 101 Lewis Bass . 102 Melville Dui... 103 Chas. A. Scott. 104 Davi 1 H. Jerome 105 VV. T. Samuson , . . Theoretically yea, with the restrictions as to local time hereinafter mentioned. Very strongly. Yes, for the Railroad and Telegraph service but not for ordinary local busi- ness life. Certainly. Yds, for all purposes of communication between different points. lOfi Oimond Stone 107 H. W, 8. Smith 108 W, Bryndone Jac k . 109 John B. Hamilton. Ye». Yes. Yes. Yes. 110 Henry F. MacLeod, M.LC.E..., Yes, I think it would be a great advan- tage. , 111 Jacob M. Clark ..... . .. ... .. . V V - Negative. ' ^^^ ^ f % ? : >'^«* : ;m 112 Geo. C. Wilkins... Yes. ll.S H. P. Dwight Yes. 114 VV illiam F. Bradbury Yr s. 1 15 S. L. VVerdeu Emphatioelly I am. 116 T. W. Pearl Yes? 117 M. Giddings Yes. 118 K, R. Call For the iraveH'ng public it wou.d un- doubtedly be a coDvenieoce; for local purposes its utility would be question- able. REPLIES. m 95 96 97 98 99 100 QUESTION 2. QUESTION 3. C()"8iiler8uch would be of very great I highly approve of the plan proposed al vantage to the whole world if once and believe its success in America would effected. insure its success in Europe. Yes if it can be done Yea, provided that in so doing the system ad pted would bi suite 1 to our requirements and not compromised too ' • much for be sake of International uni- formity. Yes Yes, d cidedly. Y^es Yes. Yes, if possible I would be in favor of standard time ' whether acceptable to other nations or not. Yes, commercial time Yes. . .. , 101 In the spnse of reply No. 1, that would bo desirublo I think. 102 Yes 103 Yes, for all international communi- cations. 104 Yes Yes. Yes. Y'es. Yfs, for the internal administration of all Railroads andTelegrai>hic service only. Yes.but the system should be primarily for the convenience of Americans. Ihmk it dosirable that the standard Yes. used on each pontinnnt for purposes of . communication should be aaopted • after the samo method. X«s '.\\ Yes. •' \«s ... Yes. ^^^ ' No ; the cha ige must be adopted by general treaty or it will never come into use. It is less likely to become general if any single nation originates the move- ment. 110 \ es, and hope it will soon be acct u- Yes The satisfactory working of the P^'^*'*^^^- system in such a vast country as North America would no doubt tend to its ' universal adoption. 105 lOfi 107 108 U)9 111 Negative, except for the civic dale. 112 Yea 113 Yes 114 Yes 115 Yes, lie Yes 117 Yes 118 Y'^es I do. Only to the extent of establishing a prime standard of ri'ference. Yes, by all means. Yes. , ■■■ "■ Yes. ---- ■---;-^-:;.— V ....,.;■—:■ I do. .^;:.; ■'.:■/'-' ■■:.■':;■■ Yes. Very desirable. The adoption and aucoos.- il use of Bunh a system in America would pro. babry lead to it^fcjtablishment in Europe also. 2d Replies. 6*64 NAME. , QUESTION 1. 119 J. W. Mallett 120 Fred. T. Newberry .... Yea. Yes. 121 D. Hvlaon Shodakcr... 122 Edwin (Hlpin 123 John Twigg 124 F. P. Dunnington 125 Francis H. Smith . . . 126 Clarence J. Blake 127 Wm. M.Thornton i2S Albert Chapman Savage. 129 M. C. Fernald 130 John H. Blake Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I am. Yes. Yes. Yc-e. I favor such a syst' Yes. ra. 131 E. Fontaine. 132 Fred. Brooka. Yes, but the coam'c meridian or zero for the calculations of latitude and longi- tude and time should, be at (xreeowich, England. ■ Yes. • ,'- . ' ,''>'; 133 N. Bouthillier de Beaumont. 134 Andrew Ingraham 135 Joseph Trutch, M.I.C.E 1.% Alex. S Christie 137 E. P. Uaunaford.. Not entirely. WJ,_ ...- .-jj,-. .... 1 REPLIES. 27 QUESTION 3. 119 Yes Yes. 120 No. 1 'refer to begin with Nortli First two lines, yes; latter part of no America. particular interest. 121 Yes Yes. 122 Ultimately . Yes - • 123 Yes : Yes! ,' . .; 124 Yes Yes. 125 I do , I ,lo' 126 Yes Yes " • • > 127 Yes Yes.' 128 Yes Yes. 129 Ido Ido. 130 Yes Yea 131 Ye?, nothing is more necessary to satisfy the practically sc entilic wants of the 19th century. 132 1.33 1.34 135 13G 137 The time system for this country and all others can be best regulated at Green- wich, England. ^^^ ' Yes; I think the time system secured ought to be a system for all countries hav- ; ing "othiog dist nctively Am. rican about ' '\ it, so that other nations rould adopt it either before or after the North Ameri- . «an countries, as a cosmopolitan system and not subordinate themselves thereby to North America. ^'^ I do not consider it favorable to obtaia a good result. -V ,'.- 28 REPLIES, QUESTION 4 .2 NAME. liit/(in-i}i!i til the xfJienif fur iviivlatinif time (paye ilii), doeti it neciii (<• jyo^icx.w anii J'vatun'.n which tjeiwmll}! commcml (hcmai'lvcn to n'tur jmhj- inent { 1 Wm. J. McAlpinc, M.I.C.E Yes. 2 M.J. Becker The scheme set forth on pages 28 to 30 seems to cover the entire gruunil within - ' . the limits of reasonitblepraoticihility ;iu(l hope of ultimate accomplishment. 3 Martin W. Harriniiton 4 H. 'J'. Eddy, Ph.D. The siigifest'ons n the main cmimend themselves to my juiz.: .iliriiliiinx, (f, J{, Sand T.' (See IS to .'/, paijcs -in and .11.) Do i/oii favor thr nit;/;fention to reduce the ninnlier of xtandantti in North Ainorica to two, my Meridiann II ami H / 1 Yos ,;.......... 2 Yos ; 3 Yts ...........;..?.... _,.:1... 4 I think this the more practioai)le system. 5 Yes ; this is more in accordance with th« scheme in its general rela- tions. 6 I do, but I would prefer but 10 hours and 10 mcriiiiaus, etc. 7 Yes 8 ■■■. No. No. I prefer the sinj^le meridian for the ccmtinent. • No. .■.;:'■„,- ■ ,*,v' Yes ; if there were 10 in all there would be only 2 in North America. No. 9 Yes 10 Yes 1 1 Certainly No. No. No. 12 Yes ; I am inclined to think this the plan promising most satisfactory results, and most likely to meet with public favor. 13 Yes 14 Yes I pref«r 4 stand ards. ^r No. No. 15 Tdo. 16 Yes . 17 No . No. No. 80 REPLIES. ;i«E NAME. QUESTION ^. Pac'fic well chosen, by reason of its relative pOHition to (Jreenwioh. Tho division into standard time meridians, one honr apait, and desij^nated hy letters, will afford a convenient method of conipurinjr local times, tliough in mat- ter of looal time I advoiate the smallest number of standards found p'aetieable. 18 James H. Rowan, C.E It does generally. With reference, however, to the "time zero" and '"prime meridian" for the whole world, I have to say that, while there is much to com. 1 , mend the zero referred to as l)eing placed in the Pacific Ocean for national and political reasons, there arc h'gher, bettor and cosmical reasons (too extensive to enter into a detail of here) why tho longitude of the Great Pyramid in Kgypt should bo adopted as the prime meridian. 19 B. M, Harrod, C. E I approve generally of the scheme set forth by Mr. Fleming. 20 W. A. May Its simplicity and its basis, as well as its adaptability and practical character. 21 C. S. Mflster Make time uniform for this coun' ry. 22 .James Hall, D.P.S It does. 23 Arthur S. C. Wurtelc I think the scheme complicated and absurd, and think all this fancied uni- formity is a kind of philosojjhers' stone. The prime meidian has been observed ■ (sic) over and over again, but the matter of convenience has prevented any change, The use of letter meridians would only complicate a simple matter. 24 W. A. Sweet Yea ; the scheme seems to fully till all rccjuirements. 25 Wm. T. Jennings The who'e scheme appears to me prac- tical, and would, if carried out, result satisfactorily. 26 M. G. Howe I think tJfiat it • will be only a partial remedy f"'■■"-' '■"'- i„/„t,'l; -. ''Ut would „.for the hour 31 32 33 34 Ihe .]UPHti(.ii arises wlicthcr, in tiiickly SfttK'd nations :iko tlu! I nitcd «tate.s, lialf liour .stations would not be better ? Thus we would have Aew V()tk. Cleveland. Chieauo, Omah •, Denver, ( )gden and San Kian- ciseo tune, vaiyinjr by half hours butagreein<,'ontliegeneralmeridian8, 1 hivor tile lavpc.sal to have four standards for tlie whole of Xortli Anieriea. \'es _ Vea , .Should not consider the reduction of moridians to two or one advisable. No. No. 35 Vea No. 3G Yea: R. S. T. .t U. ' 37 A dilleu'Mee of an hour is too lafe if auythiog " 38 I do. I don't see the advantage of this. 34 liKl'Ll h:s. NAME. QUESTION 4. 39 Moncure Robinson Tt aeeniH to mo to have many. ^ 40 Kivas TuUy Scheme approved. 41 T. H. Perry Y«!s ; from p. 1 to fl, but not agreeable to 6 iintl 7. 42 J. W. I'ulnam 43 Charles U. Swan Yes ; answered more fully in reply 11. 44 Sir C/'liarlea Tupper Yes. 46 Jos. I*. Davis The scheme is a good one. 46 J. S. Archibald Yes ; I can suggest nothing better. 47 H. E. Stevens Yes. 48 B. 8. Htiniiins^ Yes. 49 J. Aliltoii Titlosv Yes. 60 Wm. A. Norton , T approve i>aragraph.s 1 , 2, .*?, 4 and 7. 1 should prefer the meridian of (ireen- wich for the prime meridian certainly ' one running tlirougii some ol)Kervatory tliat all nations migh^ agree upon. I do not favor tlie atteiiii)t to divide tlie day into twenty four liour.s for civil })urposes. 51 C. A. Young I like it in nearly every respect, but would pnsfer geograpiiical derignations for the time standards, f.ij. Atlantic, Mississippi, Mountain and Pacific times, but am not strenuous. 52 Robert A. Shailer N'es. 53 L. JB. Archibald I think the sclieme a good one. Some diHiculties might arise at first in carrying it out, but eventually it would be found a great improvement on our i>resent system. 54 F. P. Stearns Yes; nearly all of the features seem good. I think reducirg tlie number of meridians in Nortii America to two, would cause too large a variation from true local time. 1 do not think standards varying one hour would cause confusion; pa: tiuularly if radroad and other clocks wt re marked on the same dial with the figures of local and the letters of stan- ' dard *• cosmic" time, thus familiarizing people with tlie relations between the two. 65 C. S. Davidson Sec, 1, 6, 9, 13, 14, 15, 17. 56 Edw. Maguire , The scheme appears to me to cover all points, and ia satisfactory. 57 E.G. FerriB.... Yea. 58 Collingwood Schreiber Yes. 59 Henry Gannett RE r LIES. 85 QUESTION 5. QUESTION fi. 2;1 v^""?*' ViV- IdoDot. 40 ioh; for local tunc ^y^ 41 No.......... No. 42 I think not 1 do not 43 Yes: lor municipal time only No ; moie fully answered in re,)licH 7 ,, -- an.l II. t^ Jf" ■• :.... No. "^^ J.^« No. 4<> ^ tJS No. 47 Yds No .7 48 No So' 50 1 do. ...!"'!'■ ■■■' 51 Yes ; Itut I do not like tlie desig- No. nation by letfcm. 52 Yes 53 See answer to Q. 7 54 Yes No ; 1 think four meridians preferable, Set! answer to t^». 7. No. 65 56 Yes Yes 57 Yea, but only one standard should be used in anV one Stale. 58 No 59 I think this preferable to the other plans proposed. No. No. No. No. 86 REPLIES, NAME. QUESTION 4. (K) Jamua I*, llowlcy, The rcheme niipenrit toheaonpita. ore, and if onutt iiniversully ii^'ritrd to would, I hiivo DO doiiht, \i\\v uciit;ral HiitiMt'ao- tion. I would .•iiititi|iatt', !ioM<'ver, much nj>i>o«ition tn it. owiii^' to imtioniil pnjudioeH mid from ii Htrong (ibjtictidii to alte»* in any way tho existing modo of rockouiog time common to each eountry. f)l K. P. Alexander It^aeenia aw simple and perfect as poa* uible. 62 W. II. Wood Yea; except th.^t I think it l.- tter to nuuibjr the standard meriiliany iHt, '2nd, &c.. instead of hitterinjj them. (i.1. K. M, Towar No improvement in tlie suggestions on page 28 presents itself to me. The wlmh' scheme seems to iiave been thoroughly thought out before being presented. (j4 Julius J. Durayo Yes; pre'er to use numerals in place of letters to designate meridians. (3.5 Thomas S. Sedgwick I agree generally with the scheme of page 4. (56 fxoo. M. Dav son The adoption of the cosmic day w. uM render it desirable that all ephemerides for astronomical or nautical , purposes slinuld be calculated for the init'al meridian instead of to difl'erent me idia"8, as at pr sent and result in a great saving of labour. fiT T. C. Mendcnhall 1 like it on the whole l)otter than any other with which 1 am ac(iuain ed. 68 L. J. TjcL'onte The proposed scheme is commendable in every respect. In regard to division of day into hours, however, I fail to see pub- lic necessity of a radical change The first suggestion of 1 to 24 is the most natu al one to adopt tor professional purposes. 00 K I ward C. Pickering; Yea. 70 U. F. lloyco Yes ; it seunis practicable and desira- ble in general, 71 J. S. Sewell I see ao better way. 72 \Vm, li. llazen, Brig. (Jen. T.S.A. Yea. In the main the system com- mends it-elf, but there is no objection to the o-nission of some of the meridians, . and the adoption of some one over a large ' .' ' area of country that is well [lopulated. ' Thus the use of the S. meridian for the whole of the I'. S. is advised as below. 73 J. M. Hnch.in Yes. 74 George Kennedy I approve generally of the schenne. 75 E. D, Ashe Yes ; excepting clauses 7 a':d 12, and those depe ding on thena. HEP LIES. 37 Ql'KSTI(>N 5. QUKSTIUN «. m I ' = ""!!.•' on!."'!. Zf\ i"*'"-^'=^'',;'^ , "•""•IV Htandarcla woulJ, 1 imagine. b« i-> , () one hour bctweoii tlie fur prt'lcDible. h . -^ otaudards Not HO much aH four. We r/.s/- arousing' ignorant prujndici by gcltin;,' R. |j. ' (;.> vr.a tif^e m-.y/rM' out from Holartimo. ^^ ^'^^ No. ^•-^ ^" ••••••• No. "^ N' No. (>(J (J7 Yes ^ •••• No, G8 VcH ; by all means ..,.. -^q, ' ^l y^' No. 7^ i. \ a '0 ^«» No. 72 No ^"' 7'? Yes XT 74 Yes ^«- 75 No "::;::: ^."- • No. t6 replies: 6Z" NAME. ^ HO QUKSTFON 4. 70 Wm. P. Judaon . . , Can see notliin^' to suggest in additioa to the scheme tjet forth. 77 Wil.oa Crosliy Yea, I I 78 VV. U Tratt 1. An absohite essential and nius*; ultinfiately l)e lUnu', even if not at firsst. '2. Th(! only suitabli; unit of measure. ' \ _ 3. Certainly. 4. (,'oncurrenoe of all f*'j- sirable and sure to l»u a^conleil .sooner (>r later. .'). Heat, aa being simpler and av( iding jealousies, &e. (i. Tlje beat diviKifin as being in univertiial use, it w ould be ditliciilt or impracticable to change it. 9, 10, 11, 12, seem to be well arranged. It would doubtless ))e desirable to adopt such plana in det uls as would, while carry- ing out the principle fully, entail th ^ least inconvenience in the way of changes of modes ol^ expression, and of computaticuis for practical jturpnijcs of everydayl ife, with the mass of the people. For scicn- titic i)urpo3es there will be no dilliculty. 79 George S. ( latchcll It dtes. 80 H. S Pritchett Yes. 81 C. J. Ives Yes. 82 Asi Horr Y'es ; most decidedly. Last evening I met with a club of very intelligent busiuesa men to whom I explained the scheme, and after fully discussing its merits and de- merits they unanimously gave it their uncjualiHed approval, ])referring imc stan- dard S for commere al purposes for the North American Continent, .and the numberirg of the hour.^ from 1 to 24. 83 .1. L. (Jdlespie I approve the scheme in general, but think details should be left to the Com- mission asked for in the memoiial of the society 84 Wm. P, Anderioa Yes ; the scheme as a whole must commend i*^^self to every man whose busi- ness is in a:iy way c(jnnected witU 'e- gions lying at some distance'apart. The fixing of a prime mei idiaii, commo i t > all nations, would be of immense commercial convenience, and that chosei would suit the nu e ous Kngli h colonies that now , usetbeffreenwichmerldian. Dr. Barnard's idei of nanrng the ir.eridian-j 1 y the . regions they travel se, is one that would, 1 tliink, be more popular, t an di^tinguisli- iny tiicui by letters of tlie alphabet. JiKP LlkS. QUESTION 5. QUESTION (!. 70 Yes No. 77 Yes. Stan.Urda d ffering by one No ; not at vreseut j t.y the other 5 hour, but tins would ro(iuire 5, first. j "«= owicr j viz. : MiTidiiina Q., 11., S., T., U., and perhaps W. 78 Do not see any dillicultios in the Think the division into four f«r thia ^^'^' country wouKl bs bttter. 79 Ido. 80 Yes , 81 82 No , No. No. No. 83 Have the four standards by all No. ujeaus. 84 I vvou.d not bke to tee sta-dirds No ; Tliere would be great iH-actical tartlK^r apart than one hmr. Kortlu' irconvon eneo from haviuK the tinu- at Dominion ot Canada 1 sliouhl like to some po nts differ as much as it would see both Q. and U. mer.diana used. under this system for local astrononvcal time. >*»",'. •-.» I 40 liEPLIES. >'. go NAME. QUESTION 4. 85 Itufuelngalls The scheme is a move io the right il'rectiou fi)r oonvt'uiotit atandard time. 8(5 W. E. Jacobs....' I approve of the plan generally. 87 VVinslow Upton This system .seems the best that can be 0° • west A; the third C, passing throuyU BEPL fES. 46 QUESTION 5. QUESTION 6. 101 102 For lo'-al times uso each IT) = tn?ri- Strongly no. Either 1 or 4. This dian till all can be taught to uso eomhines disa'^lvflntagoa of b-^th the cosmic time. others. See Acs. 8. 103 I am not in favor of the scheme. . I do not. 104 Ye?, at least to begin with, No. 105 1 do not favor th"a proposition I do not favor this suggesti )n. lOf) Y.'s 107 Vts ]. Ko. lOS Se answer to (jueslion 4 See answer to 4. I prefer that easterly fromOrecnw cii C, the hoar meridian ba dewjiialed »Ji, C-, C; C, (.'5. ^' 46 REPLIES. NAME. QUESTION 4. 109 John B. Hamillon . 110 Heury F. MacLeod 111 Jacob \I. Clark . fJreenwich; tho fourth D 90' west of Greenwich, and which would corresponil to S in scheme proposed. 1< or general Dur- po8P8 Ihe times to irenl of each of these standards up to the next would be the local time of Ih-i stamurd. For the con- 'enience of approximating to tbe local time of places mtermcdiate between the standards, I would use the following notition A", A', A-, A', A', A'', for hour meridians from A" to B'>. Thus if an office on D^', where the clock was keeping the standard time of 1)0, the hour indicated by the clock was 5h. Jom., tho local time at that office would be 2h. I5m., and the absolute time of day would be 23h. 15m. Tho local time half way to D' on one tide »ud to D- on the other would bo approximately to local time of D"', subject to a maximum error of 30 minutes. The local lime of a meri- dian 3 hours fast of D", and which would be marked C-, might be found by adding 3 to the DO time or pubstractiog 2 from the C time. In America it would perhaps be moat convenient to k' ep standard 1)0 time, and adi/, allhougli for Atlantic shipping the other might be preferable, as being in accordance with long practice. Paragraph 5, page 28, seems especially well adapted for the basis ; the avoidance of national jealousy — a not unimportant factor — is assured. The experience of this service in inaugurating the use of the metric system for medical purposes is one that shows us on a small scale how great the opposition to any such radical change as this would ba. When it was attempted to put it into active practice and to pave the pioneers from being c uslied, it ought not to be commenced until the scheme ehall have been uni- versaUy agreed to. It is only a question of time and agitation. Yes. Tlie proposed selection of the prime meridim is very well made. Aa it will not interfere with the computa- tions made for the Nautical Almanac, and with the zero of longitude at Green- wich. Section 1. — For scientific observations onlv. Railroads maj'tseit as connected with local time. Sec. 2. — The basin of slaudj^rd linie ia determinable any where liEPLfES. 4t QUESTION 5. QUESTION 6. T ,i| 109 Yes No, 110 Yea. See pa-re 4 No. Prefer the hour raeridiais. Ill Negative. Negative. 48 IfKPf.fES. i*'j -< NAME. (QUESTION 4. antl is al'uady Hufficienlly FHlahliHhed. It is llic mean . solar tlay for civil lime, and aslionomy re(|uire8 sidereal lime a'so, Sees 3 and 4. — The prime meridian for laiKjitiiilc to be common lo all naliona and eslabl ahed for general concurroncc. Sec, 5. — 'Die prime meridian lo be the best one obtainable for (*// scientilic use, with reference lo geo^^nosy, geodesy, metrology and pbysical geograi)hy in- cluded. The longeal accessible are for the Jiitiirc. The zero meridian lo juvirflrdi/// avoid hal) I able regions. Sees, (i ani 7. — Meridians one hour apart (whatever the length of the hour) to be designated by letters. Sees. 9 and 10. — C'oxniic lime for spcrid/ use : locul lime for . QUESTION «. .;' II 112 Xo 113 Yes 114 Ves 115 No . No. No. No. llfi No .... 117 — .....'.■■!*.!."; lis Yea ; a smaller ' number' of' ■stan- ,^ dards would be apt to create confii- y 8'on as regards local business, more especially in the period of transition trom the old uc-system to the new scandaid. lln Yes 120 No .... 121 Yes No. See No. 5. No. No. No. 50 fnj/'Li/cs. NAME. QUESTION 4. 122 KdwinOilpin The scheme seems generally to be the bust. 12.S Jolin Twigg I have pcniHed the Hclieme as men- tioned on ))age 28 and thu Huitofcding |iages, and I fully concur with it, and hope tha*; it will In; carried out. 124 F. V. DunniDgtoo Am of opinion tliat the H^^htMnn of Qut'H. .'i )f adopted l»v the H. K. of the Tiunk lines only, will so comniond itself that there will he nothing more re((uired to caune its adoption by all newspapuiH, etn. 123 Francis H. Smith It does; almost all of its features are such as I would approve. I f>h(>uld like, however, that some designation of the standard time, Q. K., etc., should he adopted, which would preclude it being called the 'local time,' for poin's of its time not situated on the Htan- dard meridian itself. ^iocal time has a definite and valuable meaning, which I trust it is needless to abandon; so, too, brief and appropriate; names for the errors of a clock on cosmic standard and local time would be very acceptable and useful, ('"H. 'cosmic error,' 'standard error,' 'local error,' apparent or mean) 126 f Marence .T. Blake Yes. 1*27 Wm. M. Thornton See below. 128 Albert Chapman Savage Yes, in its general scope, and in almost all its details, it would seem to be as nearly perfect as is possible. 129 M. C. Fernald Several. 130 JohnH. BI"' Yes. 131 E. Foil I prefer 24 meridians numbered from 1 to 24, to coiresiKind with the 24,000 miles of the earth's circumference and diurnal revolution of the earth at the rate of 1,000 miles per horam nearly ; and the exact time to be determined at the central or cosmic observatory as proposed on page 12. The numbers — capital letters or Arabic figures. The deai^natiotis of the * meridians by letters A, B, C, etc., would not serve the memory or aid simple calcu- lati , Yes, only making R, & T the standards tor reasons hereafter given, 120 i favor standards of time d'ffering I do not hy hourly inttrvaJH. l.SO , 1:J1 No. It w^ould mate the matter too No There shonlrl ho Knf «„ I 3,"; 52 HEP LIES!. x t^H So . NAME. QUESTION 4. 132 Fred. Brooks 133 N. Bjuthillier de Beaumont 134 Anilrev Ingiaham. 135 Joaep' rriitch 13fi Alex o. Christie... 137 E. P. Haiinaford... plorers and iiiorcliants on earth ; and all the calcuhitions of time and place have been made from (irceiiwich as the zero for the greatest lapse of time, and it is in the keeping of a government whose possessions in all tlie zones bt^lt the entire globe, and which (!()nsc(inontlyis the most deeply interested in having all the calcu- lations of time and locality the most acciuately made. The general features ot the scheme* seem to me very meritorious. (Forcriti- ciem of them see reply II) In particular 1 object to any designation of meridians by letters of the alphabet. Because they conceal the dittances apart of the merid- ians, it is diflicult for me to tell \vo\f many hours there are between H and T. I demand the designation of meridians by number, becau.se I can tell by inspec- tion their distances apart. Thus from 23 hours of lonj, itude to 9 hours of longitude is just a 10 hours' interval. I objejt especially ta the use of the English alpha- bet (with the omission < f two letters) because that at once gives a local charac- ter to the scheme. Here io Mexico which is explicitly included in the initiation of the system, we use an alphabet of 27 letters, which does not contain W but does contain ch, II and >7 not m the English alphabet. Numerals are uniform in France, Russia and all civilized countries. On the other hand, Russia, with a peculiar alphabet, is the one European countiy where the scheme has been favorably received. I consider as necessary to bring all the nations meanwhile to the adoption of the cosmopolitan, not national meridian M'hich will be used to the establishment of all the longitudes of the world and of the hour. HEP LIES. QUESTION 5. 53 QUESTION (5. 132 Yes. I am luuler the impression that that will give 5 or 6 standa ds for the whfle of North America without including Greenland or Alaska. No. That would neither aocompli.sh uniformity nor suit local cnvenience : it attempts to 'straddle' and fails. H' I 133 Yes. For the division hy h ours. No. 134 1.33 136 137 54 HEP LIES. V c 'It QUESTION 7. NAME. 1 W. .1 MoAlijinc, M. I. C. E 2 M. U.Becker Do iinit pn-fiT hnriiif) onli, mip Cniifiiieiital Stdiidaril, Hdii Mfriiliiin S, tinil hiiriiii/ ane iiiii/cnii. tiitw thniuyhinit the irlinle of yoi'lk A Hit lien ! (See 4 1 page J I.). No. No. 3 Mart. W. HarriP/zton 4 H. T. Eddy, I'll J)... 5 Robeit Fletcher, J'h.D. I ]irufer the shigle jujidiaa for the continent. No. 6. r. H. Philbritk, 7 E. A. Doane 8 Henry B. Kichardson. 9 Clemens Hersliol... 10 H. .Stanley (ioodwiu. No. I prefer this to the jtlans suggesteil in ijutijtiona 5 and G. No. No. 1 1 Ikoht Briggg No. 12 S. ISptMicer I prefer four standards. ].S C. B. Comstoek, I^t Col. Engineers, No. Not practicable fnr daily life; of U. S. A interest mainly to astronomers, who oau arranjije it for *' "uselves. 14 M. S. Clreenough. 15 Jas. R. Max«ell . 1(5 W. A. Doane 17 Frantis .1. Lynch . 18 JameB H. Rowan, No. No. Yes. No. 19 B. M. Harrod 20 W. A. May 21 C. S Master 22 James Hall, D. P. IS . No. No. Yes. Yes. nEVltES. /)r, QUESTION 8. QUESTION JO. 1/ the xcJieiiii' net forth in the dwvvipiit referrnt ti'ipage JS) iliifs imf (/fni'i-iilti/ nn'rl irith i/diir npiimml, in tliire (iii/i nt her ache me which i/iin prefer f I'leaxe e.v/ildiii iiiiiir pre/ereiwe for the iii/iiriiiatioii of the Ci)iiuiiittee. In order to seen re perfect luiifonmltn nnd aeeu- r/icii,ilo i/iiii faror the priipos((l to hare Staii- ilanl Time Dis.temiitdted fhroii 1 like the scheme, l»ut 1 would have I do. everything on the decimal ])lan —10 * • liour in the day, 10 meridians, 100 minutes in an hour, &c. 7 Appioved Yes 8 Qf course. 9 Yes. 10 I approve this scheme. Yes. 11 _ By all means. J? Yes. few conlroling points in each t late. 14 YfiH 115 — :;:;;;:::: - __ }^' --- Yes. ' ' consider government control abso- ,o mi , ., lutcly necessary. 18 The scheme generally meets wtli I do. my approval. But J siiould like to see for slroug reasons (which I could give were tini'' placed at my dis. posal) the prime meridian placed as previously stated and the leltoring of the others chinged to suit, thai is Great Pyramid Z. 19 If the above scheme is departed CertaiBly. from I prr/er one htiuidard for the world rixed at meridiaa S. 20 Ido. Yes. I 21 22 I prefer no other and am (juite pleased with this. 66 HEPLtES. NAME. QUESTION 7. 23 Arthurs C. Wurlele For Railroad purposes it would be i advantageous. 24 W. A. Sweet 25 Wm. T. Jennings No. I do not. 26 M. G. Howe es. 27 Robt. H. Sayre. 28 Robt. Moore . . . I do not. No. 29 J. Foster Crowell , 30 John Notman I think it loo few, and fancy the hour intervals would be of sufficient general benefit. REPLIES. Hf QUESTION 8. QUESTION 10. 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Let one meridian be fixed on for Railroad lime, bat do not undertake to interfere with local time. Clocks with double dials could be used with diti'ereni colours so as to avoid con- fusion. This meets my approval in every way, and I will do all 1 can to aid in its being carried out. The scheme proposed on page 28 appears most complete, and is evi- dently the result of careful study. The scheme as referred to in (jues- tious 7 and 10 is the best that now occurs to me. As before stated — in 4 — I approve the scheme and have no other to suggest, It generally meets my approval. . . . 30 I would be willing to keep the dials as at present f o prevent erihrgement to incovenience, for we have no dilli- culty in night and day discernment, and it might be unwise to create changes that would bewilder the illiterate great majority, butl advo- cate a prime meridian for the whole world. A 24hour diurnalcomputatioa of one hour in ervals, and these are the two grand attainments with me. These two poinds have become an ftlmosb necessity. The great re- gard now exercised for the main- tenance of human life; the general objection to the settlement of na- tional disputes by war; sl differ so much from apparent time as to lead to various inconvenience. 39 Monoure Robinson I do. 40 KivasTully No. ■ ' 41 T.H.Perry 1 do most assuredly. ' • PEPLfES. 59 QUESTION 8. I visiledl Chicago last week and on my arrival there, and aa 1 in- tended to remain there for a few- days, J realized the propriety of find- ing the difference between my watch and the hotel clock I walked off and when, intending to return, consulted my watch. The difl'erence was so much, but the difficulty arose as to the direction. Was it slow or fast ? A geographical reflect ion solved the doubt, but how many travellers are ignorant in that respect ! The local time difficulties are so frequent, so continuous and po embarrassing as to require no exposition from me, and a remedy would doubtless be a most important reform. QUESTION 10, 31 Answered under 5. .32 The scheme set forth generally com- mend* itself to my judgment. 33 In the division of the day into hours if letters were used for the forenoon hours, as well as for the afternoon, there would be a great advantage derived from the uniformity of all time keepers in the world, they bei ig 80 made that their hour hands would make one revolution in 24 hours. There is Bone. 34 35 36 37 38 3ut lliink it would be better to have one standard time extend over a larger geographical a'ea. Say one '/»«da';'i ''me S. for N. America 2 tor S. Am. rica and say six others on • Jiaslern Hemisphere fixed by the standard pa»8mg through the middle ot a large and well defined geographi. cm tir©^ , 50 • ^ 51 No.. .. J.^'- ko Yes. ^^ Yes. 54 ^ Desirable but not an imimrtant feature l^ocal time balls whioh drop within a fraction of a second answer the purpose 55 M^e\\ as thosecontroUed by (Government. 56 Controlled by Government, 57 \^^- Yesstindard time would be useless 58 No.. "tvilhout Government control. " Yes it appears to me to be the only 59 Practicable way of having it done. 60 ' Certainly. I think it would be absolutely neces- ' . sary to have such a pla 1 adopted other- iwise It would be almost impossible to Koad, I have long contemidated an earnest ellbrt to unite all roads east ^^;;: JL :. . of Mississippi River, in use of Wash- mgtjn city time for all time tables. ;-■ . But Ihis scheme is preferable. It seems to me, too, that i: even nnhi two or three Qi th^ largest R. R. sy tseins of 62 REP LI EH. NAME. QUESTION 7. «;2 W. H. Wood No. (j;^ V. xM. Towar No. (i4 Julius J, Duidyo Yes, 65 'I honias S. .Sedgwick 1 do not. « • 66 George M. Dawson Would suggest Die adoi)tion of this plan « r the use of twice, as nnny meri- dians as suggested in Question 5. 'J'he latter plan would render it sufficiently near local lime for all practical purposes. 67 T. C. Mendenhall N j. 68 L. J. Laconic No. 69 Edward C. Pickering 'No. 70 H, F. Royce '^o. 71 J. S. Sewa'l ■ \o. 72 Wm. B Haze, Maj.Gen, U.S. A. , Yes; merid'an S. 73 J. M. Buchan No. 74 (ieorge Kennedy No. 75 E. D. Ashe Yea. - : HkPLtk^. c^ QUESTION 8. QUESTION 10. (-.2 G3 ('•4 05 the U.S. vhU he.ii'm at onre and adopt the Byslem, it will rapidly spread. The " Division into Hours" part of it nted not necessarily be adopted at once, us on that there maybe less unanimity. The scheme sei forth on page 28 meets my approval. I prefer the suggestion niada on pages 18 for the U. S. Eastern 'J'ime Newfoundland; Atlantic Time, Meridian of New Vork. Valley " " New Orleans. Mountain " •' Denver, racific " " Santa Barbara This is a matter of nomenclature. CO Yes. Yes. Yes. ,r * Yes. Yes, to 1)0 transmitted electrically to each standard. 67 I have always favored the adoption Yes. * of meridians one hour apart as likely to lead to the least confusion, and the most likely to be generally ac- ceptable to the masses of the people. 68 I approve of said scheme in all Yes, for the only reason that I believe respects except as above mentioned that it would be cheapest and most reli- in reply 4. able. 69 I'robably more accurat a limo could be furnished by co-operalion of local obser- tories, but avoiding effects of local storms. 70 Yes. 71 Yes. 72 The practical ditiiculty in deciding This is not necessary; the co-operation upon the lines of division through of the several astronomical observatories a well settled country (which is not would be advisable, met by paragraph 1!>, page ,30) rea- ders advisibie the adoption of a - • single meridian for the whole of North America. 73 Yes. 74 1 have no other scheme to propose. Yes. 75 It. does generally, with the exception Certainly not, knowing, as I do, the of the — to me — unnecessary compli- impossibility of depending on telegraph cations of standard meridians — Z to connection over large distances and at K. If a change i^ made let us at once an exact instant. adopt the most simple method of a J]stablish the difference of longitude universal standard time. of several important points from the prime meridian ; and let these points distribute the universal lime to as great an are* ^ as possible, m I C4 HflPlIilS. < NAMB. 76 Wm, R Judson, 77 Wilson Crosliy. 78 VV. H. Pratt . 79 George S. Gatchell. 80 H. S. Pntchett 81 C. J. Ives 82 AaaHorr, M.D. QUESTION 7. No. No; not at preson'^. Thia would not be as readily accepteJ, I do nut. It seems to me not feasible at the pre- sent time. Iowa being in S would prefer all to come to our time. Yea. 8.3 J L. Gillespie 84 VVm. P. Anderson, 85 Ilufua Ingalls, No. The objection slated in reply G would apply with greater force. The four ttamlard mer'dians seem tlis best system. 86 W.E.Jacobs... 87 Winslow Upton. No see above. By all means. 88 H. A. Howe Most ceitainly not. 89 D.R.Taylor.., 90 J. R. Eastman, No. lam strongly in favor of only one stan- dard of time for the United Stales. 91 Jaa. R. Barber See answer to No. 8. f!K/'LlES. es QTTKSTI(»N 8. itan- QU KSTION 10. 7«> Scheme seomH complete iih given. Ych, through liio inodium of llie aignni sorvice. 77 Vi.H. 78 'I'his is no (loulil llie best, iiideod, pro. liabij-, (lie only fcaMible, ellicioal au'lhud. 7** The Hi;lii!nie sel foilh iiicels my Vea, air. approviil. 80 No, This work can undonbledly bo best done by llie separate obaervatuiioa. 81 Vea. 82 I cannot conceive of any other Yes. sclieniu thai could be pri'feral)le to that already outlined. 8.3 II mn be done in no other way. 84 11 is the only way in which it oouM elTeclively be inaugurated and carried oul 8.5 Having no other schenio before nie Yes. with wliioh to make comparison 1 wouKl say the scheme presented meets with iny approval. SO See at present no sclieme pieferalde Yes and made compulsory on all trans- to the one prepared by Mr. Kleiniofi. porlation comjtanies. 87 One continental standard is prefer- No, Inil ))y Hie several astronomical red : among tlie reasons for the pre- observations, feicnce are : J. Jt wouM be the simplest plan. 2. It Would coi.Mmcnd itself to transportation companies, and be adopted by them at once. 3. It would ijniihiiilhi come into use by the people at large. 4. When once in use there would be no confusion at tlie division lines. 88 On account of the vast extent of the country 1 think it would be beat to have at le.<»sl one lime stalioi for each meri- dian. Each station should be under governmental control. 80- Yes. 90 1 am in favor of a .•y it. 66 < iiEPLJEFi. NAME. QUESTION 7. 92 Siaion P. Newcomb ^f »"t four -use one ; cannot paj' which li easior. 93 DcYoIson Wood I do prefer ore aiamlanl of time. ■ 94 W. F Ellice No. 95 Alex. Murray I Hiirk I hat hrnrly atandards or IH® of lon^dlndo should bepermantiilly estab- lish eil. 96 Edwin A Hill j^ee reply to Question No. (i. 97 C, T). Ward 98 M. C. Meigs, Brig .Gen U.S.A. No. It would be inconvenient to the inilliouf*, and be advantageous only to U.K., andK.n. travellers. REPLIES. 67 QUESTION 8. QUESTION 10. kvhich r 15® estab- h> the Illy lo same hour at the same moment of absohite time V I am perftotly aware that thia would seriously dis- arrange our ideas that are so fixed with reference to noon comirg at 12 o'clock ; but people would soon get used to mid-tlsy coming at 4 or 7 o'clock uo the casi might be. After studying the (juestion I think the disadvantages would be out-weighed by the advantages. 92 Tlie easier and simplest plan is to takeoither New Y^otkor Washington time as the standard, and if necessary use these subsidiary meridains each ditlering an integral number of hours from the standard 93 Not having the document at hand just now, I can not reply, but have a remark under Q. 11. It seems to mo that the objections to several standard meridians 24 are so numer- ous and so strong I hope the scheme, will find little if any favour. 94 95 96 See rc])Iie8 to questions Nos. 4 and o. To the objection urgi'd al Wash- inglon Ibal .'iO minutes is too great a departure from local lime for the masses, etc. I had thought that if tlco o))jeclion were likely lo j»revonl the adoption of tlie sys*em of page 28 subordira'e standards of lOminutos each could be used by the conunon ]teoj)ie for local aflairs, and the hour standards by the Railroads thus re- ducing all difl'erences of time to mul- tiples of lOminu es. Hut 1 should pre- fer the tystem of page 2S if the people could h«'reafterbe induced to adopt it. 97 98 I like the meridian of (JroeLwich or 180 '^ therefrom. The d.ay cannot, in popular use, be made to conform to the astronomical, or sidereal, or sea day. All these are inconvenient to the former. His day is the day tlirough wliich he works n»d Viikes only, Tliis is very des'rable. It would baldly be possible to carry out the plan without co-opt ration of the (liovernment By all means. Yeii, but if the changes arc too radical the system will projiiress but slowly as is the case of the metric system of weights and measures ; and hence while universal time signals transmitted would always be des rable, legislation looking to the c()ini)ul8ory adoption of standard time by the ma-sbs could uut be enforced against their wdl. Yo3. Yes. The national naval observatory at Washington U prepared with the nu'ans of dutermininv time with all pos- sible accuracy. It already drops some time balls,aiid would drop them in every city if the sociity will pioiute fmrn Con- grtss the moLiy 'o pay for the work and the iDstrumcnts, 68 REPLIES. o NAME. QUESTION 7. 9y Julius Pohlman . No. For the same leasoa as above. 100 J. C. Wood. Yes. One unifo ni time for trunsporta. tion and commercial purposes ouly. 101 Lewis Bass. 102 Mtlvillo Dui. I would keep all skemes(sic) [.^/'Jout of aiglit except pure, cosmic ietCered A.-Z. and tixe "-'4 me:idian. 103 Chas. A. Scott. I consider this is unadvisable and iui- pracL,icable fur ordinary local business tian.-jactions and common atfairs of life. 104 David H. Jerome , .... Possibly ultimately. REPLIES. 69 QUESTION 8. QUESTION JO. 99 100 lOl 102 103 104 All the foregoing answers are given in the expectat on of a standard timu for America. A uniforui time. Say meridian S for transportation and commercial purposes, but localities to regulate their time hy their distance h'oiix meridian S. Masses wil (i^k) rebel agenst {sU-) a system that l)rincs noon an hour or more out of tlie true noon. The 15 ^ cliange is always wilhin 30 min. and Will bcaccc'])tod readily. If there is to 1)0 a compromise let it be liy all means cm 8 main meridians i.e. each 45 ° , This harmonizes with the centosinial system likely to prevail in future generations and gives us S for N Am. standard. I do not favor tht' scheme proposed, it does not .strike at tiie root of the evil, puts the majority of the popu- lation between any two lettered meri- dians to constant and intolerable inconvenience ; since near the boun- daries they may be in discord with the sun 'l of an hour or l hour maximuni of e(|uation of time or 10 niinutes, and will titjd themselves an hour out in intercourse witli their neighbours. Confusion in runnirg railway trains across the hourly boundaries still exists. * Have nothing more to suggest than is embraced in your documents. Yes, if we are to obtain any reaulti. Ves. By no means. Time can be furnished from various centres witli greater con- venience and accuracy, and with less expense than from a single one in a coun- try as large as this. In my opinion tlie recommendalion of a single centre for distribution of time would be fatal to the whole scheme. Strongly. Yes. By the national observatory at Washington for the dissemination of Greenwich time. The Signal Service should undoubtedly be. as it is now to a certain degree, the princii)al agents in the distribution of correct time, ))ut in order to have this new system generally adopted it would need, primardy and princi[ially, to be adopted by the railroads. The co-opera- tion of the principal business centres would also l)e, of cour.se, reressary. Local jealousies will doubtless impede its introduction. I think it would be impracticable to introduce at once one Staudiud Coiitincutal Time. Although 70 NAME, liEPhlEfi. QUESTION 7. 105 W, T. Siirnuson T prefer having' a single standard for each continent to be used ])y railroads, steamboats and telej^raphs. 106 Ormond Stone , 107 H. S. S. Smith .' X<,. 108 W. Brydone-Jack Yes. East of S. designated as above an \ referred to (ireenwicli S. des gnated D" and hour meridians next or D^ Mi D^ 109 John B. Hamilton No. 110 Henry F. MacLeod, M.I.C.E No. 111 Jacob M. Clark Negative. 112 (_ieorge V. Wilkins Yes, meridian S, 90 'from Orcsnwich. ll.i H r Dwiglit 114 William ' f. Bradbury ,'.".": No. llo S. L. Warden Yes, bat that the meridian which tra- vtrses the greater distance on land and 8u))serves tlie interests of the greater pro- ducing section which is bound to be the P'jwer sooner or later say meiidian T. 11»{ J. W. Pearl Yes. 117 iM. (biddings 'j'hink this most desirable. lis K. il. CVl See No. 5. nEPLtEl?. 71 QUESTION 10. for id 8, lOVO ited ch. tra- and )ro- ttie ])088ibly this would be the better way in the Olid, and could perhaps be ultimately introduced if the first plan is found to gain popular favor. I favor this plan. 105 I prefer that each continent should I favor this plan, have a single standard to be used for purposes of communication to be regulated from a central observatory which shall also regulate the local time of every place of importance. The standard of each continent to diH'or by an exact number of hours from the other. 106 No. By no means. 107 I think of no change Yes, but should have a number of observatories to prevent interruptions. 108 Yes. 109 I think well of the plan Under naval obseivatory, yes; if a now bureau is to be created, no, 110 Can suggest no improvement Yes. Consider this a matter of great importance and convenience toallc'asses. especially to railway and telegraph com- panies, surveying operations, Ac. 111 The difference between local and Negative under reply 8 : such local or cosmic time is so simple, and the district local standards, if any should be devices by which the perfect know- required, would be best regulated by the ledge of its nature and amount may people according to tbeir needs. Rail- be diffused everywhere are so ready roads, &c., could be safely run by either and inexpensive that effort in that cosmic or local time as advertised. But direction after a prime meridian the diffusion of knowledge on the sub- shall have boen adopted would in ject should be aided by (Jovernmeut, accordance with the answer I have given, very soon extinguish the main difHculties. 112 Yes. 11.3 Yes. 114 Yea. 115 It meets my views to a certain ex- Ye.s, and at the expense of Govern* tent, but the advantages are con- meut. fined and only availal)lc to a class of citizens who are very well satisfied at present other than the establish- ing of a standard of time which is only of moment to the professional and travelling community. Yes. IIG 117 118 By all means the best and most effeC' tive. Without Oovcrnmentcontrol the stan- dard would be difl'icult of maintenance and would soon become a mere iionuitiis umhra. H ■ a! o ■ . liEPLtKS. NAME. 119 J. W. Mulltt.. . 120 Fred. T. Newberry QUESTION 7. No. Yes, adopting the meridian of Wa8h- ington Observatory, 121 ./ Hudson Shedak r No. 122 Ed ward (iilpin No. 123 Junn Twigg Moat certainly J ilo. 124 F. i*. Dunnington No. 125 Francis H. Smith One. 1 2(> Clarence J . Blake Yes. 127 Wm. M.Thornton No. 12S Albert Cha2)nian Savage 129 M C. Fernald I thnik a single standard would be (' " ol)jectioEable. inO John H. Blake ' \ l.*?! E. Fontaine Y > ., that rontiwntal standard is to serve • >r all nations J think there should be but one standard and tliat ought to be tf'lhtrir to be international; only one is necessarv, and I prefer M or Greenwich to S, making my national pride and pre- judice bow to the welfare of all nations. 1.32 Fred. Brooks No. I think that for some purposes only one cosmopolitan standard and uni- form time throughout the whole world may be used and tliat would not be meridian 8. For local purposes i believe as many as 24 standards needed. 133 N. Bouthilier de Beaumont. 134 Andrew Ingraham 135 Joseph Trutch 136 Alex. S. Christie 137 E. 1\ Hannaford No. REPLIES. 78 ,8h- be to lid je is Ax re- 13. les li- d »e ve QUESTION 8, 119 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 •130 131 rrefereace for a atandard tiim; fur Itailroads, Steamboats, kc ,ou which the daj' from niidni^'ht to midnight is divided into 10 jiarts. All nub- division being deciuiaiti thereof. Local time rot to be interfered with. No preference for any other schenir. the I am perfectly sati&lied vvith scheme mentioned on page 28. On the whole I prefer the proposed scheme, yet I append under rejjiy No. 11 (juite a s-erious objection not met in this sdiemc. The scheme I regard a good one, but suggest consideration of a single feature of it presented in reply to No. 11. It does meet my approval. The general scheme of the commit- tee is excellent, and I have nothing better to offer than a condensed electicism of the whole plan, which only needs the additi' n of details for practical use. 132 133 134 135 13li 137 Opposed to the division by 24 hours instead of 12 so useful in ourrehitions. QUESTION 10. Yes. • Yes. ^ 03. The private interests of railroads would render l'. S. aid unnecessary. Ido. Yes. Yes. Yes. Such a .system of disseminating time is very desirable. Yes. Yes, just as the Government regulates the currency and as it should control navigation commerce, the inter-state, and international telegraphic and railway lilies and prevent their corrupt and injurious management by swindling and oppressive rings and monopolies. I don't know about the Mexican and Canadian ( Jovernments, but I objec'., as a proud citizen of the U. S. A. having my Government undertake this business. The separate State Governments may if they like. The National Government does not regulate the clocks of the coun- try. It buys what it needs for its own use like any other corporation. It should use the cosmopolitan time, as it probably now uses good clocks in preference to poor ones. . But the setting of clocks right every twenty-four hours as well as the manufacture of clocks that will go uniformly seems to belong to science and not to politics, and not to be provided for in the constitiition. I do not find necessary the control of ( Jovernmeut. m 74 JiEPL/L6. QUESTION 9. — Reffrrinij to the Hurjfjestionn under the headimj "Divixion qf the Day into Houra" (paye >^1) please indicate which of the three JoUowinfj plaiix i/oti prefer. NAME. 1 2 3 4 5 W. J. M'c Alpine M. J). Becker. Mart. W. Harrington .. H. 'I'. Eddy, Ph. D Robert Fletcher, Ph.D. (A) Tlie alternative plan No. 1, witti the hnuri, nu inhered /mill 1 to i't without iuterriiption. Yes. Yes, Prefer this plan. Prefer this system. This is the best plan for popular use. 6 1». H. Philbrick , 7 E A. Doane 8 Henry B. Richardson, y Clemens Herschell . . , 10 11 12 13 14 15 10 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 H. Stanley Goodwin. Robert Brings .S, 8i)eucer C. B. Comstock, Lt.-Col, neerp, U. S. A JM. S. (Ireenough Jas. R. Maxwell W. A. Doane Francis .1 . Lynch James H. Rowan Entti(>}i.'< umh-r the fiemlin;/ *'Diris!oti ttf f/,e Day into Hoin-M" (/>a;/f::/)p/m.v'miliraf,' whirl, of the three folloiriii;/ platm t/ou prefer. (ft) ///(■ (ilti-rnatirf plitii \o. .', nit/, the forenoon tioiirs niinihercd iik at /jie^eitt ami the after- noon houiK lettered ax denciilied .' 1 i> 3 4 5 No No Not to be pre(er.o(l to A. The advantages of H are inoru than met by the simplicity of A . Don't like it . (C)The preHfnt dlviKion intitliulf duiin, known n* /orenoon and (4jteinoon, eaeli'halj dan haelmj the hourx ninnliered identlealhi J'foni l to /* / No. No. This ehould be abandoned iu any case. Don't like it. / 8 9 10 No 11 The alphabet arrangement could not be fixed. 12 .... 1.3 No. 14 1.5 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Oil No This is preferable Decidedly objectionable , I prefer this. Would be absurd. 26 No „. 27 No sir 28 Inferior to plan No. 1 29 Too complicated .... 30 31 Yes. Don't see anythipg new in that. No. No. Inferior to plan No. 1. A relic of ignorance. Yes; retain as nmcb of the present system as possible without serious con- flict. 76 liErj./t!S 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 4G 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 5() 57 58 50 60 (51 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 W. B. Smeliie Tbe hours numlicroJ frinn 1 to 24. Steiihen S. Haiglit Julius W. A(l»iii8 Tliia l>v nil means. Past PrcH. Am. So. (" ll. F. N. < linhonie ^'o.^. James H. Harlow ^'es. A. B. Cox Tlie rotation of the hours can 1>e changed at any time, and it would be better to leave it alone until a standard time can be Hccured. Edward iS. Philbrick 'Phis is good enough, and has already been used and tested a long time in Italy, &c, Moncure Robinson Kivas Tully Numbered from 1 to 24. T. H. Terry , From 1 to 24. J, W, Putnam I think this plan or divided into 20 hours jtreforable, and if practicable, the hours to contain 100 minutes. Charles H. Swan Possibly. Sir Charles Tupper I have preference for this. Jos. P. Davis 1 prefer plan Xo. 1 . P. S. Archibald This i)lan I prefer. H. E. Stevens Yes. B. S. Henning Yes. J. Milton Titlow . , Prefer the above, Wm. A. Norton C. A. Young Yes, for some purposes, Robert A. Shailer . , I prefer plan 1. L. B. Archibald [ prefer plan A. E. P. Stearns . . . . Yes. C. S. Davidson 1 concui'. Edward Maguire Yes. E. G. Ferris I prefer this. Colliugwood Sclireiber I prefer this plan. Henry Gannett Yes. James P. Hcwley 1 think this decidedly preferable. E. P. A. Alexander 1 prefer this for Iv. R. schedules only, as perhaps possible to bring into common use. VV. H.Wood Yes. F. M. Towar I favor this division of time. .1 alius .T. Duraye Yes. Thomas S. Sedgwick This. 8ec 22, part firstly. Geo. M . Dawson , Would prefer this plan decidedly. T. C. Mendenhall I prefer this plan A. L. J. LeConte This is naturally best. HE r LIES. 77 QUP^STION 9.-B. QUESTlOxX 9.-C. 32 33 This on account of jtH uniformity throughout the woiM. 34 35 No xr 30 . No. 37 •■•''.'.'.'.'.'■'.'.'.'.'.'.".'.'.'.'.'.'. 6 """ '"""'"u. iPSd, and leading,' to contusion. 39 ... 40 .. 41 No . . . ', — : — This must be made hy a mechanical contrivance of the clock to shew botli S. and L. till communities are educated 42 to the one standard system. 44 ^ Should l)e abandoned. 45 ...'..'. 48 ■ 47 No ;.' 40 No J."- 50 '•'■'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.,.[ 52 '.'_ , I^" i>ot object to this. 53 ' 54 No '.'.'.'.'..'.. ■;^ 55 No .... ^J^- 66 No : No. 57 Don't like it.... '..!;; Kn i ^ 1 1 i 58 , . iNo. 1 would be an improvement. 69 . \\'.'.'.'.'.'.'^.\'.\'.',\\\\\\\" 60 The lettered liours oould not he in- dicated by sound i. e. striking clocks — a great incorwenience. 62 No 64 No No. 65 No .... No. 66 No. 67 No .....'.' ~ — : , i 78 /iKr LfES. NAMK. Kdwanl (y'. IMokeritif,' .< H. K. Kcyce J. H. Sewall Wm. 15. Hoziii, Maj. (;un. U. S, A J. M. itiicliiin 74 George Kenut-dy 75 E. D.Aslie 70 71 VI 73 7y all meium. , Yes. i prefer tbis plan. Too radical for practice. I have decided prefereire for this, Hours numbering 1 to 24. The principle i.n the right one, but the number of figures on the dial might be confusing and the itrikin;/ time a ditti" culty. This if the common people could be in- duced to adopt it, which I doubt. [Compjire metric system.] This plan decidedly. No. Prefer this for railway and commercial purposes I should favor this by all means. No. (See No. 11.) By far the preferable and satisfaotory. This by all meane. li t: r I, I ES, 70 QUESTION !>. -IJ. QUESTION 9.-C. <»!> Mot nniiroved v^* ^ yjj . •' i>ot approved. 71 No 72 No 73 — . . 74 No '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.." 15 This liivs tin; saiiio (.i-juctioii as A M aiui I'. M. liavt;. 76 Yes. Kxcej)t that tin; P. M. hours should bu ik-notctl I)v Homan nuiricralg. 77 7H I'crpltixinir and not iikdy to be' ac- ccptable. 79 .. 80 81 — 82 No 83 ■■'■'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'..'.'.'.'.'" 84 This Mould lu- ol)jtcti..ti.il)Iu if (.iily on account uf th.' .iiliiculty in cal- culating tlie intoiwil between dif- teront hours. So ... 8() 87 No «S 89 Of) 91 I tiiink this better than C, but A the beat. 9? Too radical tor practice No. Yes. No. No. See I{ei)iy 1 1. » This is one of the groat proientme W'tli a double dial face, 1 think would be convenient. 96 Do not favor this..., \Vh;i» r in advanced above lead me to indicate C. 97 98 No 99 — 100 Not considered practicable. 101 — '02 No 104 ?ons es. ^.jj^';;""^*' «''"Plify its aloption every. I'lcfer this for local lime. 103 ot^ionawc.,, uHic,,-.: ;; ;;;;:; S^SSe tr " '"' confusing. 80 55 . JfEPLIES. NAME. QUESTION 9, -A. 105 W. T. Sampson, Com. U. S. A. KN) < Jrmond Stone 107 H. S. S. Smith 108 W. Brydone-Jack lOif John B. Hamilton 110 Henry T. Mcl.eod I j)rcfor plan "A." In doubt. 1 prefer numbering the honrs 1 to 1.4. "KirHtly" approved. Prefer tiie hours to number 1 to 24. . . Ill Jacob M. Clark 112 Geo. C. Wilkins 1 1.8 HP. Dwight 114 William F. Bradbury, 115 S. L. Werdea 116 J. W. Pearl 117 M. (iiddingH 118 R. K. Call Metrical hours to nun.ber consecut "vely round the circle. Prefer this. Ibis plan. Prefer Ibia. 119 J. W. Mallet 120 Fred. i\ Newberry . . 121 H. Hudson Sliedaker 122 Edwin (iillesjiie .... 123 Jtbn Twigg 124 F. P. Dunnington 125 Francis H. Smith 126 Clarence J. Blake 127 Wm M. Thornton 128 Albert Chapman Savage. 129 M. C. Feriiald 130 John li B'ake 131 Ed. Fontane 132 Fred BrcoKH 133 N. Bouthillioidj Beaumcul 134 i^.idrew higraham ,- 1.35 Joseph Truteh 136 Alex. S. ChriHtii 137 E. P. Hanuafoid Prefer No. 1, No. I Ihink this is the best. I prefer the consecutive numbers 1 to 24. Jiest for railroad tables. 1 like No. 1 best. Thin. I prefer plan No. 1 . I regard thi;-: '.l.c ^"st plan. Thi«. I have already answered these four ()Uerie.s. Time should be measured by 24 divisions regardless of the various shifting siiadows of the earth distinguish- ing night and day. Yes ; I prefer No. 1, because with that Ihe intervals betwteiKliflerent hours ni'iy be .seen. From 6 o'clock to 13 o'clock is 7 hours fir instance. No. HEP LIES, 81 QUESTION 9.-B. QUESTION !». C. 10;-) .. 10() ''■'■'■'.'..'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'..'' 107 In doubt, bul sliyiitly "preferable to A. 108 Ido nol like Ih'.s No. 109 No 110 Think the lollens in thi' afternoon would cauwe confuaion in adjoiniuL' towns " 111 Negative x' . " Negative. 1 prefer this. 1 would not very nnieli objcd lo tJii.s t It will be found bard lo clian;,'c. ' ' but No. Prefer A 112 114 115 Yes 116 B 117 — ^^^■'^v^v.'.'.'.v.'.','.\',[ '' 118 The alternate plan No! *2, as mosl easily .sbuwing the connection be- Iween the standard of the place and the eoHinic day. ]j'J . •" 120 No .' 121 No .... J22 123 -. No intcrferen t ;\ith local t No. Yes. inir, 12-1 12.-. 12(J 127 life 'f'hia has many ad\ auta,i,'eK in |ii'i\a(H 128 This seems the better plan.. 1-'J> \ht not like the letters. v- . VM) No. £««>t8ogoodas A. VM 1 ^o- 132 1 object to this. If beg alal )oringman I object t.. Ibis, but J.ns to work at N' ..ul end at W, local dTy bo. in.si.sl Ibal II now many hour.s do.'s he work How will the clock strike W iisal nidnighl, nol If 1.33 i;m 135 13f3 1.S7 oec hir J. Herschel-.s Oullinesof A.sln." »on.y. He condemn h Ihe tmiriirr of astroaomers l»eginiiinc at noon. ^ 08. 82 REPLIES. ' QUESTION 11. 1' 1 ^%S>^ NAME. is Ilawi I/01I any particular views mi the qiiention of Time rffirr)n,iiot embraced in the iinextimix and replies abimc j/inen > If .so, pleane ufatc them for the information and (jiiirKSTI()N II, as I'lawd. s. i'iiiii)iifk 'A'J Moiicurt! Kuliinsoa , -Id KivjlH 'I'lllly II I'. II. IVrry \-2 J. M. I'utinuu a('Cunite,tlioy would make the ueceBsaiy ullowanci! in Ht;tting their time pieces. I have noticed that when; an hour or two during the day ia Htruck on tlu; alarm bellH, UH it itt done in Honie placei, thu time pieces are regulated and are kept exact. When in .such phices the railroad time varieH from the local time, the peo- ple know that the dillerence i.s constant and allow for it when they travel. Hut I don't think any Het of ])eople would Hubmit to have the 8un rise and set half an hour before or after he should. They would simply use the standard time to regulate their local time by. Have not given the subject sullicient study to criticise the scheme with intelli- gence, but it iiKicts my hearfcy approval. If adopted the habits of all civili/ed j)eo pie will soon conform to th(! change, ami and after a few months the wonder will be why they tolerated the present clumsy and outgrown system bo long. I have no particular views on the(|Ue.H- tion of time reform not embi-aced in the (|U(!8tionR and replies abov*; given. A'ctended meeting at the ('anadian In- stitute, Toronto, when the (piestion of standard time was discussed, and agreed with the decision that there should bo a " prime meriilian" inacconlaneo wit!i the recommendation of Sandford Fleming, (J.H., CM.G. 1 can sec no just reason for altering that deci8i(m. The only objection that can |)088ibly be raised to a standard tinui will arise in identification, i'eople will Ik; slow to abandon local time marks, and while they may become reconciled to a stand- ar NAME. (,)UESTION 11. 65 Thomas S. i-'etlywick f)() (ieoryc M. Dawson, I favor sectional time areas for tlie running of railroads. J.ines east of Hud- son Hivtr to l)e run at Hontontinio, tlioso west and cast of Alleghany Mountains on W'iisiiingtdu time, 'I'liose next, west and east of Mis.sissipiii liiver, Indianajioii.s, thence to I'tah Viilley, Home central timr, Cheyenne or Denver, or Austen, Texas, on the Pacific .Slojie. ""Sacramento time. 1 lie changes to ]»! niade at convenient places as suggested on l>age 18. In the regulation of time hy standard meridians a dithcuity suggests itself in llie time of rising and s';tting of the sun, moon iuid fctars. Instead of rising at the same clock time in all ji'aces on the same parallel of hititude, the rising and setting would recjuire to hs given separately in almanacs, etc. , for every locality. Besides the actual change in timedueto latitude, an artitical diti'erence . Ha/en, Major (Jen As a minor matter, 1 would sugrgesi that it would be well lo use the name " U.S. standard" or " American lime" in preference to "standard S lime" or "90" (h-eenwich lime. The people at large wouhl not understand the significance of • , the letter .'^., and prejudices against the system might bo awakened by the iiso of the word •. !»l n J: /, SO NAMK. fi(5 W. K. JncohH . N7 Winslovv I'l*! m 8S II. A. il IIW(! 89 D. R. Taylor . !»0 .). R IvLstiimti !tl . rallies R. harlcr... •.••2 .Simon !'. Xowooiul). [VA DeN'olson Wood (^HKSTION 11. It would help thn movfUKMit if an aliiianac wore puhlisliod, giving' IJio liinu.s of wnniiHe, cli;., in Hm; ntandard tiiiK! of tliu country at different plact-B. 'I'liis would ]•■ a iiscfnl Mi|)plt,'ini'nt lo the time tallies iH.sncd Ity tlit; railway c(iiii|ianieH. Ah to tlio diviHion of tlio I'. S., I ihivk a8 follows : The division Blionhl l)(! liy State?, so l|i;vt everybody no- <|Uainttd willi tlu; treoj^'ruphy of tlio I'.S. would (ind no ditliciilty in iinder- standiii^I I he seheiuw. (Ith from (ireeii- wi.'h, Ihe States liorderint,' upon Ihu Mississippi and tlinso lakes (Superior, Mulligan and Hiiroi) togliu-r with Alabama; ,"itli, from (iieenwieh all easi of Ihe (ith Stotos; 7th, from (Jreeuwieli tlio double row of Stales webt of tliu (;L!i Stales; (Sili, from Oreunwich, all Stales west of Ihe 71 h States. I 8 / V /A 'ij,^ 92 nEPLIES. NAME. 04 William F. Ellis (to Alex. Murray.. . . 0(5 7':dwinii.Hill. 07 C. D. ■ Ward . . QUESTION 11. of absolute time as simple as possible. For this country only, the meridian of Washinton would commend itself. Next, for the scientiHc,Greenwhich would have the first claim; but for the world at large a meridian in tho Pacific Ocean has the strongest clnim 180^ from CJreeuwich. Do not call it "Cosmic," — that would kill the entire pcheme. Call it "Clock Time" or ' R. R. Time" and present time "Sun Time." Absolute time will not^take the place of local time, the former will be used generally for business, the latter for the convenience of a com- munity or for the town. For the purpose of regulating local time conveniently, I think the principle proposed by Mr. Sandford Fleming at fig 7, page 20 of bis pamphlet of 1878 is all that can be desired. None except those given in my letter to Mr. Allan I fear that having standards of t'me, differing by intervals of one hour, would still give great trouble, especially to rail- roads, as they vrould be compelled to state what standard was to be used, and every- one wouM be uncertain which standard their watch was set by when travelling. At places half way between the standard time meridians, there would be great contusion from ignorance as to exactly where the change of tlie one hour was made, or knowing it, it would be often forgotten. I would propose that "Co.w)«V" or "Cosmopolitan Time" sliould be used, the time zero to coincide with the initial or prime meridian and thus the time pieces around the whcle world could be always indicating the same Iioiir nii(( nil nil ft'. This would be much more convenient for railroads, telegraphs, &c., than any other system, and seems to l)e perfect so far, but for the local civil day, it would bg impossible to iTiake one day end and another begin during the busy hours of the day, but the difficulty would be gotten over by beginning the local dpy at each jjlac^ as now, 12 hours before the sun passes the meridian. This would, of course, bring odd hoMra HE PLIES. 93 93 M. ('. Meigs, Brg.-Gen. U. 8. A. 99 Julius Pchlman 100 J. C. Wood for the beginning of tlie day. as, for in- stance) here in New York the day wouhl begin at 5 o'clock aa indicated by th« time piece, though it would be midnight all the same, and noon would l)e about 17 o'clock, This plan would rendfr unnecessary the designating of 24 standards one hour apart. This plan, of course, has its objections, but is, I think, simple, and would soon become familiar, and would render un- necessary any resort to the use of letters for numbering which would be re?-// tnmblesome indeed. In all great reforms success depends greatly upon making the steps convenient If you derange the habits ot a people too much they will have none of it. We travel greatly, but moe millions stay at home than go abroad. The house wife keepa the time for the hours of meals and retiring. We men and b^ya only follow. No clocks are accurate. • I'^he best do not keep universal time, but have a ruling + or -. Sometimes both + and - are in- variable. It reqires correct observers by good instruments of the Heavens to know what hour for tlic clock is wrong. It is always wrong. ^Vhile it would be v.iry nice to have a crsmopolitan time. I don't think it would benefit the public as much as a purely standard time for the American cont'nent would. If we take the first standard meridian for America through New York or Philadelphia, we will have local and standard time less than one hour apart, all over the Continent, and eve ybody will find that reasonable and plain. But if we count time from the Behring Straits meridian, we will find it to be a gracelobs and severe task to make the average man believe that it IS easier and better to call, for instance, his 12 o'clock noon 19 o'clock or 7 o'clock, or |,.(/r]. If the hours of the day of commer- cial time are numbered consecutively, and the hours of the day of local time as at present, I think it would tend to make the timt so distinct tha^ there would be b.ut few mistakes. Time pieces with dials to i agister the ^4 \)l REPLIES. < x\AME. QUESTION 11. 101 Lewis Bass. 102 Melville Dui. hours would soon he introduced, and Dersons would learn to designate the time ([uoted- with &ome distiDguiehin^ aflix. I must confess to liaving "views" on this suhject. 1 hojio to ]ire8ent them at the Mcmtreal meeting of the American Society for tlie AdvanceinenI of Science, when the committee on standard time, of which I am a member, nieels. We should not attempt to secure whac is impracti- cal)Ie. To abolish local time is not, in my opinion, even ideally desirable. If we could have a standard "traveller's time," I think it would be a good Ihing. (Ireenwich time for tiiat, [lurpcse scjms to me just what is wanted. So far as my observation goes, even the travelling ])ul)lic are not very anxious aliout it Still I think they would acknowledge the great bene6t if the system could be in8uguratel)', one character for each hour. 2. It carries its own explanation and cannot be confused with any other time. It in clmreHf, 3. It is itself the cosmic universal time, .saving all translation and pos- sibility of error. It is mod iinirersdl. . 4. Jleing only cosmio time it may be ItEPLULH. 05 6^V < NAME. QUESTION 11. 103 Charles A. Scliot given to tlit' pul)lic in the Hiiuplest and l)riefest uxplivratiou of all plans pro- jHised, and tlie gri^at public must have a very brief and simple description of the new plan, or they will reject it. It is fa»ii'st (-.ijt/a'uK'd. ,"). It is applied lo present clocks and watches, i-wli'-sf oitil cimtpext. Single symbols lettered m old dials (with a l)«n) putting the proper noon letter for each locality under I'l would do it all. In changing localities the traveller would simply hold his watch with the proper letter at top, and the eye would recognize instantly (he time relation to noon c.tj,, my dial has now R at 12. I may go to New Orleans where noon is 8., and 1 tak-j my watch out and hold it with 1 at top and S under it, and recognize T. IJ., Lc. as ecpuvalent to old 1 ami 2 p ni., though my old dial luvs 2 and 3 above tliem. The habit of reading liositiou or dials is stronger than the figures. A number of cheap antl practical devices for marking the noon letters occur to me, when it shifts from old 12. An under.-'corj circle of red or other mark on dial. A bit pasted on dial or crystal, an inilex attached and moveable, or more perfect (and costly) a plan of setting works, so in the case in 12 varying portions, so the ring and stem could be always over the noon letters. 1 Hnd this plan meets all the ditti- culties which arise for all the others, and hope it may be adopted. Each locality would learn its fore- noon letters, as easily as the report shows, it would learn its p.m. letters as eijuivaleiit to old !), 10, &c. This method has simphcity, economy, accuracy and practicability, all in a higher degree than either 1-24 or 1-12 and cosmic p.m. letters. 1 sincerely hope the efl'ort will be for the adoption of the plan above. If I am wrong in any of my conclusions, I should be grateful for correction, as 1 wish to prut the skeme in our bul- letin. To express my views in brief : I favor the us» of local mean time for all ordin- ^iJ^PLlES. NAME. QUESTION 11. ary business of life, everywhere as most natiindanA ronreiiii'nf (a large city wil', of course use I be siune central tirne.a devi- ation from it of Im will, tberefore be rare) all Ulcgraph conipunys and niib-oad corporatioi s to use Greenwich civil mean time ('^ounted from midniglit to mid- night, 24 houra) for purposes of ADMIN- ISTRATION, I bus all (rains to be run by, and all telegraph messages in any place, or country, to be used by Green- wich time. Bui ail lime tables, arrival and departure of trains at every place to be started in Ivntl mean time liiniriahl;/. The showing of (>ieenwich time at de- pots or offices to be marked (Jreenwirh time otherwise the clocks are supposed, and should give local time, which latter only is of interest to the public a"; large. The introduction of this scheme will not interfere with the habics of the people, and. accomplish all thai is necessary for the regulation of intercourse and safety of travel. 104 Da\ i I H. Jen. me 105 W. T. Sampson 1 think the plan of dividing the c n- tinent into time zones of one hour each is objectionable, because I think i'. would be found to increase the difficu'ties which now exist in railway travelling. The mainlines of K. R. running east and west have already divided the country into time zones in the most practicable way. For instance the Boston and Albany R. R. run on Boston time, and the N. V. U, on New York t-me the Lake Shore & Michigan Central on Columbus time. I'he officers of er.eh road always use the sanie lime, which is" a consiJeration of vital importance. A division into time zones of one hour each, would in some cases rt'(iuire a train to chaige its lime e/t. roufp, iO() Ormond Stone I am in favor of a number of standards, each ditiering by one hoar. As to what meridian .shall be initial I do not care at the present time to commit myself. 107 H. L. S. Smith — • ' 108 VVm. Hr\ d.ne-.Iack 109 .John H. Hamilton 110 Henry F. McLeod No. I take much interest in keeping cjrrect local time, and generally establish an astronomical meridian wherever 1 may I>e, as I have done here for the purposa of HEP LIES. Ill Jacob M.Clark gelling Ihe Sun's mcridisn transit with convenience. The greatest error in clocks aa compared with local lime will only be half an h- iir slow or fast, as the place ia east or west, of Ihe nearest stan- dard meridian ; but the clocks in two adjoining placea, regulated hy different adjoining standards will show a difference of one hour. This cannot be avoided ; and the advaiitage of Iiaviug theexact hour difference, vvilh synchronal minutes and seconds, will probably more than com- pensate for llie inconvenience. Tune reform is so inlinialely connected with general metrology that I think no radical change should be made except those which are in harmony with a gen- eral system, as scientifically perfect, as possible. Tli9 first step is a rational metrical division of Ihe circle, which we do not at present pos8es9,allhough there are rational features both in the general division and that for lime. Then the division for lime should be identical with that for general purposes. Also longitude .should reckon consecu- tively around the circle, the same aa lime; the zero ujjon the nether cosmic meridian. 11 would then harmonize with right ascension and greatly simjilify all a,3lronomical and chronological work. Such a cliange would be specially accept- able by navigators. My dissent from some of the positions taken as 1 understand the documents by no means implies doubt of the import- ance of the main objects souglit or the great value of the suggestions made. But to me the subject appears so comieot»d with metrology that I believe its l)est solution will grow out of the general adjustment as a matter of course, or if found in ad- vance will be in that direction. A fundamental objection to interference M'ith local time is that it tends to derange the order under which natural pheno- mena appeal to the intellect. Experi- ence of nature is the very mother earth and habitation of science — day and night— the processional cycle— are not •98 REPLIES. NAME. QUESTION 11. more inevitable ilinn that human iictivity follows the sun. Aod the iincieni thcorcni soiii*!t)m<'s obscured of a cosmos in wliich tiie known and un- known firn alike ri-lali.'d ro intinite in- telligence under all pervading; mathe- matical laws revt'dls no way of sup- planting Keiiffal by special factors, without as it wnc lendei-ing the dues of science lo Caesar. The natural order is the scienlilic one — and ilic advance of apparent time from east lo wi'Sl is, even to the ludest of nncii one of It.e uiosL striking and thought-awakening things Im nature— and where the rudi- ments of popular education exist, its rale in distance and longitude is likely to be frtirly understood as a Ihin^'^ of precept in the school and folk lore at home, and I am convinced thai for all main purposes tbe peop'e will .idliere lo local time the mftre persistently as they advance in knowledge. Dfmestic clocks will be set by the sun accoi'.ling lo tiiealniana < Surveyor s,navigatorsandexplorers must find iizinuith and position in terms of Iccal timi!— ,uid observatories must 1)3 erjuipped .ind observations conducted strictly according to the local meridian. Communities will seitle standards of local reference better and more ac- ceptably without civil inteivenlion than with it, and of the thousand (jr more millions upon earth the comparative! few who need refer spooifically to cosmic time are mainly of those most competent to make the calculation for themselves. The dilfoience between cosmic and local time can be made ap- parent everywhere by the simplest means. A concise table for instance, a diagonal line upon co-ordinately ruled paper, a dial with a revol'dng rim and in various ways. 'l"he division of the day into '24 consecutively numbeted hours which I ihouid insist upon is rather small lor mfirking lime dials esjicciaHy walche?. I would continue the numbers upon an inner circle and so of the cosmic symbols on the re\ olv- ing rim. The reckoning commencing at midnight the outer row of each would REPL lES. < NAMK. 99 MITESTIOX II. designate forenoon hours. New dials at trifling (^nst wtxiM save all existing machinery.exrepi where (ho second hund might bt'come important in coso of decimal sub-division, and tnen then but one menibei' of the Iriiin would have to 1)0 chdngcd, and so tim^^ pif-cos could show boLli local and cosmic time by simply adjusting the rim. And it is clear to me, that by adopting some sucn device, tivinspurtatioii and telegraph rnanagei'3 could conduct their alia lis with pt'rlect saloty by convention eithci- according to local or cosmic time, as they might please to advertise, audit might be doubtful whethei'<}o\t'rnmenls need go further in this particular beyond permissive legislation than to settle upon a prime meridian aceordinifto the broadest retjuironieiits of science, to aid the people through signal siTvice and otherwise in fully uuderslanding the subject, and te a fair extent and at the proper juncture in re-forming their dials. And loi- reference longitudes being known, it is as easy to compare local time with that of any one stand- ard meridian as with that of another ; and vastly simpler to have only one, than a greater number however symmetrically disposed. I would by all means have but one standard, the cosmic, for all purposes o^' reference. The statement I ventured that time should be reckoned aceording to a me- trical division oftherii ;lr, and that lon- gitude should be marked around the circle to (correspond, and so har- monise with right ascension was made without being clear at the tinje what that metiical division is. f think, however, it can be understood by seekin;^ the gieatesi commoa divi- sor of all the commensurable ares which can be obtained by pure geometry without repeating a method. Such re- petition is of course a blunder which eflectually " begs the f[uestion" by in- troducing a special factor out of its place. .Without resorting to bisection of chords (the only general means of subdividing arcs geometrically) we oh- i i 100 REPLIES. Uiiiiiiino comnicnsnrablc arcs. One (jC thf'sr tlin (lotaiit, liiis its tang'Til eijual lo nnlius, find is al the same tirrif thf sum nt' t\V(i incoiiiincnsuiablt^ arcs whose tan^'enlsar(!comm<'nui(ibl(' with radius. Hiscri it, and we exhaust thi' methods with ii resuil of ten cona mensurable arcs, viz., the A, h h «- A- i- l-'O- 1-1'2, 1-15 and 1-1(1 of the eircu inference and their greatest common divisor is l-2i0. Now if we select the coinmen- surdble ([uadric ur.'s, or those wliich have a trififoiiomelrical co-ordinate com- mtMisurable with radius namely \, }^, ^ and 1-12 their jrieati'st common divisor is l-2'i. This lixes the },'rand divisiono at 24 fcr all the re(|uii'ements of ti'igo- nomotr\ , and indicates decimal sub- division by the main result as well us by the iinud)cr of factors, and this accords strictly with an indestructible law of the mind, whereby ukmi arran;,^e categnri( s in simple groups and divide into simple! fractions for simple oil-hand purposes, but I'nr extended eninnera- lion or indelinitc' subdivision invariably proceed, under the powers of ten— and the 1-240 by its outer and innei- polygons lixes the j) ratio (^orrect'to tlu^ f(mrth decimal. Kor these leasons I i-egard the 1-2 'i as the metrical unit of circular measure, the tenth of this the metrical degree, and decimal subdivinon, both for time and ai-cs the metrical metliod. One of th(!wa\s Jty which a metrical system might grow out of this arrange- ment would be this, the metrical degree would span upon the earth at)out 100 niles, aiul it we lakeCallets suggestion made 100 years ago, of the axes of the earth — a straight line— foi" a Itase, it contains 500,500,000 English inches very closf ly. Increase this inch by its i-1,000 part, as has been i)roposed, and it becomes a metrical inch and 25 such inches a metrical cubit 1-10,000,000 pai t ofthesejui axisanda pendulum at the equator beating, 4.ti<«i tiiiKw nil li'inr wnulil measure ;JI,ii0'2 iiiotrlriil .'),iii'n •• -JO.'ir. iiH'lir^ KMKKp " :,y,f> (very nearly) 5 digits=5 inchnded hand. '25 inches-tho cubit llio natural arm's length, also the legionary stcip, 10 inches the natural lodl— and there might rpsull: For (he arts: inch (docimallv sub- divided): ' 10 inches— 1 fdot. 1(» feet— 1 reed rbiiihlers, BhipwrijfhU), eto. K) reodH-40 ciil)it.s (chain of loO feet 83. J2 KiiKlish foet. For rural purposes (convertible), Foot cubit reed and chain as above. 40 inches— 1 jard or ell (cloth, etc.) .">() inches— 2 cubits -1 Btaff (wn.Hletc.) (Ki soli 1 cubits— 1 cord.) 20 feet— 8 cui)it.s— 1 rod. •2.50 feet \ 100 cubits , ., ^ , 12i rods — lat're suIe-»)8..')i-l()0Knjrli8hfeet -l] chains j lO.OoO 8(|uare cubits ) 1 acre— l:i,48!t«-10 English 62,.|)00 square feet l" S(iuare feet. KxlstinjT acres reduce to metrical hv addinL' l-fi of 1 per cent. Engineering and Geodesy. (Cubit decimally Kub-divi(:ed): 10 cubits -1 pole (base bar). 100 cubits -1 acre (a convenient lenjrth for steel tajHi chain). 1,000 cubits -1 stand (tally or halt). l(i,f'00,000 cuMts -polar nidius. Levellinj4byeubits-.Solid cubit, the measure of enffmeennjf work— Geographical, road and ftea measure. 0,2(i-24 cubits () .50-100 inches ) 10 span.s -1 fathom. 10 fathoms -1 road chain. ,-—1 .span. \ Knot meaure, jjIuhs llOOof anhour. Mast ' 'i the height 1 ■ hich the horizon ,•„„-., , , ,. In. vrs 10 miles away. 100 fathoms -1 stailium. 12.5 fathoms— 1 furlong (cable length.) 1 mile , i mile 41 rods. 5,472 ' ' ' ■ Knglish iS of a furlong -41 cubits. 1-1(1 of a stadium— 41 feet. 8 furlongs 10 stadia :V28 rods 2,024 cubits I feet. «,.5(i0 feet ' 10 miles— the ofBiij^. 100 miles! degree (mean terrestial un(m radius of volume), 240 degrees— the circle. SOUND .NGS I\ CI'HIT.S. The ofBceuof geographical measure to Wliicli iho civil mile really belongs, is ■;! 102 BEPLimS. t! ' s|incilinilly ilLsiincl: hiuI il mii>^l in s(im(! way involvf tlin ^) fnclor which W out of jtloce ill lirii'nl, sfjuare or solid iiH'Hsiin'. By the abovf schomc. how- I'ViT, I his iHclor is (i(s ill Ihf stfidiuiii and I'lirlong— and fxcepfin;.' I hi' lut'iiii oH'cot (.r.'lliltlicily radius lit'iiig 10. 100. 10(10 (•iil)its, and so on, tht* span and othor decimals or tlu? mile art! lengths oC lh(> nii'lrical dcprt-e. For po]iultir com- parison the Froiich kiloiin'lrt' ibdIO of mt'li i-al mill' and so on. For I'xplnra- iioiis itinerary odomi'Sti-e work, and I ho liki', till' mi'trii'iil mih' will ho loiind incomparably the Id'sl. So long as miilhemalicians chose to ri'lain two divisions of Iho cin^le geo- graphical mcasnri' (uight tc conlbnii lo that whii'li is logically Iho hi'st 1 hi' rodiiiMiig factor is I ho sanio cither way hy inversion. As to measure of weight and capacity 1 will only siiggesllhal the avoirdupois ]iound o» water, measuring 'i?..")^^ metri- cal cubic inches, contains not far from 10,000 drops, and the pint contains 2S.7S9 such incites; and 1 think that by fairly disposing fintors a metrical sys- tem of simple design might be reached expressed in tolerably familiar terms. Tin; I'lll.MU MKHJlllAN. To insure speedy and ])e!inanenl adoption it might be well to select the Cosmic meridian on such principles as would attract the spontaneous and con- stant notici! of scii'iililic men the world over, from other high ronsiderations along with those connected with time and longit e. It need not intersect any obsi'rvalory, provided " ordinate he known. Maury is accredited with . ..gindi. cated a zero meridian some distanc^e east of Greenwich. Its nollier lo avoid in- habited parts, and so obviate the difli- culty complained of as to dates, I cannot J)elieve so eminent an authority overlooked I he advantages of the longest accessible arc, for connected observa- tions for th(! higher aims of geodesy and ipeteorology, thetigures, dimensions auc} REP LIBS, 108 QUESTION 11. density ol' the earth, mugiielisiu and tho law of storms. Those who have; not given specifil altcnlioii lo the suhj.ict can iindersttind cleuriv tlie numerous find trying dillicuities "whirh beset llu- experim.'iil orass-mhlini,' seiiiiored arcs howcvfi' am}tli> nnd perr.vi the data, by rradin},' sonn- irciures hv I'rol' Sanlield Merriman, published in '\an Nostronds Magazine, vol. 22, p. p. .i.'], | \:, ,„jcj -13. The lon^fest land arc is in alxnit 25® east longitude, from near North Cape to t he southern sweep of Africa. Tlirouyh Elurope its posilion is unexcej)lionabh' J)ut south of thi> Mediterranean its' siretch of '1,000 milcv is largely in Avaste and untenable ri'gi(.ns. Cronstadt and 8t. Petersburg are ncaivr tin- mark But, aecreditinK Stanleys latest disi covei'ies, the meridian of eitner place mnsfora longdistance Ifcnythw fse upon an unexplored divide, for ooo miles more, lengthwise tluough a svstem of inland seas as yet imperfeclly known and for another (iOO, the best, incon- veniently lo one side of Ihe future main thoroughfare, the Valle\ of the Nile Probably there is no better lino afterall than of the Pyramiil. It is 100 degrees present division in amplitude. For 1,600 mdes, the northern limb is through the heart of a populous and pro- j,'ressive empire of \ ast i-esouices whoso eollaborateurs in scieni^e are perhaps second to none. The southern limb ]ia.sses mainly between the great in- terior lakes, and in fair |troximitv to the j)oints for primary Irianguhition. It ascends along the Nile for '.',000 miles lothe eijualor, wheie it attains a mean altitude of some 4.,j00 feet, which it maintains for 1,>200 miles among the liead sources of the Nile and the Liviiii-- stone 01 Congo and the Zambesi, cross- ing th« divides at rijjht angle*-, respec- tively in lU^ and [•- south latilude and ccntif.ues ihn.ugh the Tr.msvaal and Ihe Zulu couiilrv to Port Natal in 30° south. Through ihe central pla- teau it traverses the regions already ex- plored by Jivingstone, ytanlev and others, in kingdoms which, thougk I 104 nEPLlhja. NAME. nidc, an' in pari frioiidly mid incliiU'd towards civili/ation. TIic wliolc cxtf'iil of (i/JOO milos is, with iii-npor ontcrprisn, ninjj(!able, t;x- (;epl, aci'Oi-s Ihn Medilernin<;aii and Black Seas, iind allbrds a jjfreater niiin- ])i'r of eligible positions for connected observations than can elsewhere be found. It. is symnielrita'ly situated witli respect to the grt'at Indian arc. Its nether lra\erses Alaska for somi'700 mill's and nearly or ipiile strikes Otahoilc. This may prove an advan- tage in I'espoct of snpj)lementing the main arc ))y pendulum observations. Those of US who have advocated what is here termed the cubit as a metre, have found it somewhat diflicult to con- nect it logically with geographical measure in a sidljciently simple way. This diflicidty is removed in a mea- sure by the introdu(;tion of hour meri- dians. And it need not disturb the bearing offaelstiiat some have proposed the same metre, as well as the Pyramid as a reference for longitude, partly on esoterical grounds. If we adoi)t Callels suggestion, the most sensible one ever made, we liaM! but to choose between the cubit of 2.') and the unslridable slalf of 50 inches. And if we enbM'tain in its full scojje, Maury's grand idea of a meridian arc, we can scarcely avoid the astonishing proportions of lh<' oldest monument on earth. And it would seem that no JDiire heir- looms of a i)re-histori(5 metrical system, if such there was, ha\ e survived the dis- persion, (>\cept the decimal factor (some claim tile inch — the\ might intdude the Guz of Araltia) the hours— emphatically the four and twenty cldersofastrononiy, and the older twelve, the regal glories of her amazing zone. The rest sa f'Urs strongly of the sarcasm of the seers upon Babylon — convolution- a rejte- tend — without which no man may buy or sell. REPLIES. 106 NAME. QUESTION 11. 112 Geo.C. Wilkina I H'"gla.l that the American Society of tivil Engineers have taken the initi- 1 13 H. P. Dwight '" '"°^' imnorlaul movement. 1 It WiUian. F. Bradbury' ." ." ! 1 ! ; ! . i i ." '. Though it makes no diflbrence and does not artecl in any way your daily time suggestions, I hope the days in the month may be better arrangei. The odd • nionths say having .SI,! he even .-{O— add- ingonelooneoftheHOdaynionlhsforleap year. Feln-uaiy is a nuisance now. Janu- uary. March May. July, September. November, .31 days; February, April 115 S. L Werdcn '^»"«. Augu8t,0ctober, December, 30 day^ vvuclcn Ihe only feature that is apparent to me IS tliat in the lettering of 12 out of the i?4 hours, the danger of collision or accidents either by rail or water is less, and the chances of serious accidents resulting too fre(iuently therefrom re- ,, T ^\' duced. 1 16 J. AV . Pearl With afhrmation to questions 5 and 6 division of day into hours should have torm A; as with form B, a time piece numbered for one meridian would not 117 M. (iid.iings be adapted to another meridian. 118 K. n. Call...' .'.".. ".'.*; 1IJ» J. W. Mallet : : ; ; None, save that if such a system as tlie one proposed were adopted, it would seem desirable that for a series of years at least all the principal time signal stations should be maintained in teleg.aphic connection w.tli all the trustworthy, permanent astrononrcal observations, so as to bring up to the highest all ainable point of accuracy, the knowledge of longiiu.le .lifferences and 120 Fred T Newbcrrv eonse.iuent differences in local time. i^rea I. JNewbeny I he importance of the subject herein sel forth requires no words of introduc lion: all that has been said and writ- len thereon has not fatlx.med its depths but in that direction to look for relief from the perplexities into which we are rapidly drifting is an excee.lingly difhcull matter. ^^ The railroads which are one of tlie • greatest civili/.ing powers of the age in which we live are the greatest disturbinK ^*"8.«' ani 5.375 Ex Die. The whole numbers will have a value in civil lime of 2 hours and 24 minutes, the first decimal 14 minutes 24 seconds ; the second decimal 1 minute 20 4-10 seconds ; the third decimal 8 G4-100 seconds, which we think will bo fwund a small enough sub- divisicm for all practical purposes. 'Ard We propose the meridian of the observatory at Washington as the zero of standard time ; in its favor we agree that it is an honor we concede to the capital of our nation. It being also the headquarters of the signal service, whose officers would be, ci-officio, the executive officers of I he standard time signalling corps. Having regard also to the fact tiiat the longitude of all important cities and places of the United States is already published and known in reference to the meridian at Washington ; also that the facilities for telograpliic connection between Washington and all parts of the United States are second to none in the country. 4lli. The notation proposed for this service is entirely different from that of Civil Time and is expressed wholly in decimals ; the major division of the day being in tenths and the minor divi- sions in continued series of decimals, for instance, 44 minutes past nine o'clock a.m. at Washington would be 4.055 Ex. Die., 44 minutes past 9 o'clock P.M. at Washington would be 9,055 Ex. Die 108 HEP LIES. NAME. QUESTION 11. It is apparent that any aggre- gations of aniall intervals can be readily expresHcd in days and parts thereof. It will also be found much more convenient in communicaling l)y telegraph with employees, to send state- ments of time in this notation, and also nmch more concise, and with much less liability to error than tlie same expressed in terms of Civil Time. r)th. It is evident that no possible ex- tension of the railroad system could possi- bly outgrow the limits of our pro])08ed system, when once the prejudice of our foreign neighbors was overcome to receiv- ing time from Washington all would 1)6 plain and straightforward as in our own States, One other advantage is, that the rail- road centres receiving time direct from Washington each day, and the longitude of the railroad depot being known, the change into lucivl time is at once obtained, . so that the inhalutants of that locality are at once delivered from the cai)ricea of dealers in watches, etc., who generally consider that to stand well with the com- munity they should have a time of their t)wn, which of course no rival establish- ment would think, it wise, prudent or jtolitic to foHow. All time tables for the government of employees would be made out in terms of Sfinnhirii Time, and they would be l)rovided with timepieces corresponding thereto. Clocks upon which the electinc current from NV ashington will act and regulat ^ automatically will be maintained at ttio principal depots. Time t.ablcs for the public will all be made out in local time corresponding to the locality of all im^iortant cities, and Htations, railroad crossings, ferry land- ings, etc. By means of an apparatus (design sub- milted) the conversion of standard time into local civil time is readily furnished, DO as to avoid all possible errors in calcu* lation. In conclusion, it becomes manifest that standard time thus outlined, being ac- cepted and generally adopted, that at any instant, say 4.36 Ex. Die,, the actual posi- RrpLIEfi. 109 NAMK. QUESTION 11. Wo" oi any !.rain i inning according to the Fchedulo, would become known all over the I 'niled States. Operating time tablcH would be readily exchangKl and fully understood, and tlic movementB of trains fixed with good judgment, would be carried out with certainty and confi- dence by those iu charge, though the light of day be obscured l»y fog, or in the blackness of stormy night. 121 D, HndFon Shcdaker No Sir. 122 Edward (Jilpin 12,3 John Twigg. , . . I have explained in my replies to the foregoing (|ueries and I think their sub- stance is sufficient, and I have to express the wish that objecis .sought for will be o1)lained. 124 F, r. Dunnirgton In reading an account of any occurence in private life, when there is litlle differ- ence in lal "I udo (••«>/ longitude) we can correctly assume llie advance of day by tiie (present) local time when given to lis, but if the time were quoted in the proposed standard we might need to con- sult a map to determine whether the occurrence was before or after eunset, sometimes a very important difference, while now we need only call to mind tlie time of the year to settle such doubt. 12.') Francis H. Smith I have uotliing to and at present. 12(1 (.larince J. HIake 127 Wm. M. Thornton It is to Ixi regretted tliat it is not possi- ble to introduce concurrenlly with this reform the "metric" or centessinial divis- ion of the quadrant, giving 400 degrees of longitude, dividing the day into 4 periods of 10 hours each, using 40 stan- dard meridians and having a maximum deviation of local from convertional time of only 1 SOtJi of a day, in our present units, 18 minutes. The modification in pure and ap))lied mathematics will, in time, surely come, but it is perhaps too soon. 128 Alljevt Chapman Savage I would only say with reference to my reply to ([ueslion (5 that the standards N and T seem to divide the territory better than those mentioned, Ror Allan- * lie time wtmld thus control all territory east of the Mississippi Hiver ; and T oi mountain time all vest of it in the United States: British Columbia or Alaska time would be controlled by standard W. Trains run now to this point from St. I no REPLIES. ii j|w NAME. 120 M. C. Fernftld , 130 John II, Blake. 131 E. Fontaine... 132 Fred Brooks. QUESTION 11. Louis on Jefferson City, Mo., 'Ime, west of here, on San Franoi .co time, 2 hours earlier. Instead of using the letters A,B,C, etc. why rot ase the numbers 1,2,.S, etc., since the letters are hut arbitrary sym- bols, and all Ciinpiitations as between standards must be b>liili'(l ill I wo impiTs pniiliMl byll"' AiiM'riciiii Mnl,i'o|o;j;ical Soridylo which Prof. Kfflcsori ol" your CoiiuniiUfo will |iroliiibly ^:i\r jicoess. Tlniy wi-re n^ad br'Toro lluil, sixioty in Miiy |S7S and hdct'iiiltor 1878. (Jnc of llii'in was iiii-luiiMii also in an arlicl)^ in Van Noslrands Maga/ini' loiJiini' 1878 cn- lilitMl •' Deriiiial ami cIIhm' arilliiiiolical notations. ■ I lliink tlial a movoiiiont lor altering •ingiilar and lirar iiinasun's should Ih' iiiilial«d by usIronoiiHirs ratiicr Ihiiri h\ Eni-^Mi'iM's who aro larts each of which, for conveuienctj in speaking, wo may coll a dekagrade ofliiu'3. Then ifT be a sUmdard meridian iiere in Central .Mexifio, and people should be in the the habit of desigiialiiij.' a time as T, 2 hours or other lime of the cloi'k, to introduce the change I suggest, would necessitate two things : one the intro- duction of the dekagrade of lime as the f lU PEP L FES. I I I I ■vt 1 ■^ NAME. 133 N. Boulhillicr de Beaumont QUESTION II. unit instead of tho prcsont clock hours, and the other tlic use instead of T of somc^ other designation of the meridian of nsforencc, as meridian T would cease to he at a convenient dibtanco from the otiier reference meridians Jf on lliu olhei hand the standard meridian be indi- cated as 7 hours from (Ireenwich and time in Tentral Mexico as 7 h + 'l h or other time of the clock, then to introduce the (;haDge I suggest would he sub- stantially our operation instead of the two hours or 'M4 of a day of local time wo would have us before to siibstitute 3,333-40ths or 3,333 dekagrados of time. Instead of the 7 hours of longUtude or l-Vi of.a circund'erence, we fhouid have by an operation of exactly the same nature, to substitute li. GO 7-40 of a cir- cumferen((; or 1I.G67 dekagrades of ai-peu to think that if it were the established custom to divide the day into 40 units of time, as it is the estab- lished custom to divide il into 24 iinils that it will be much moi-e convenient to adopt exactly 40 local times for all the local business of the world, than it now is to adopt exactly 24 local times for all local business. I hav(* no invincible objections however to any other system of decimalizing time and longi- tude besides that one here used as an illustration. The thing I wish to sug- gest to the (lommittee is simply that the door be left open in their project of uniform standards for any jjrobablo re- form in luiits of measuremont. The establishment of the Isl meridian must be independent ot all nationalities, must be perfectly ck^ar and natural by its situation on the surface of the world HEPLJKii. 134 Andfow Iiigmlinm. and known by all nations. Tli.- \h'h ring's strait .lividin^' exactly th,. con- tin.'nt?, scorns to nic Idvouiablc ibr this ojioice. Thus Ibr ex. (wipo of I'ri,u;e oC \Vules .,h (luldni^'hl). WnshinKton h, centre ot iiiuojM^ Pi h (mid-dny) ii- Ih(! li.vution or the hours llius J.v 15 per (legrdo is nunihereil hy twelve on cuch sidf! of the meridian liiid-dav In heu of answer to the l j (nresiions containedni your circiihir, please accept the lollowuig. ' I. Modern lif(> is },'rowing mure and nioronidilleront to the distinciion of day and ni^ht; science, l»nsin."ss,lahor,pIea- sure disregard it more and more. ' The evidence ibr the statement uhounds hut Its truth might ho inlerred Irom our knowledge of the m«ans nt our disjiosal for turning day into nigh! and night into day. 2. The more radu-al the rhange, Hio less It IS connected wilh the hinguage and calendar of any parli.-ular nutioii. the more likely ji is i„ mrut wilh "en- oral acceptance. 3. Local lime is easily provided for Tho snn and the stars, tln^ ordinary time piece, almanac, newspapers, ^Vc, insure sulhcient accuracy. its relation to universal time can he ea&ily settled oven by mechanical eonlrivances which will save the trouble ef icckoiiirg. 4. Let the passage of the sun (moan sun) across the iiif,,ricr meridian of (Treenwich, be the iiegimiing ol' the lirst Hemer; and each suhseipienl pass- age be the beginning of aiiother liemer; let this Ilemor be divided into any convenient number of parts, or for instance ten, to be again subdivided into ten and so on. and let a thousand oJ those Homers make an Eter (or what- ever other name may be prefered). Let the time of the beginning of the liist Eter lie hxed by the position of the planets, and recorded and published bevond the possibility of loss; let almanacs, calen- dars, timepieces or pictures that will illnstrata their nature be introduced that will follow Hemer time. J. Such a system independent of an- 116 HEP LI ESI. 135 Josej.h Trulcli. niial sun iirtM^i'ssioii itl' f(|iiiti(ixi'H intfr- fuliilioti cliun^'i' of stylt'.iV';., would servfl as II stun. In 111 (if i")iii|iai-iHOii lor all OlhlT riileillliirs, lllld ill' III)! llllWHlcomi' i thf hislorii'iil iiiiil i;lironolo«iral Ht» Jil.wliili* thi'ilay ialiorers wliohavn foifio li'ii llii- stars ami .'Vi'ii liiivto lull l!!U)> lis Ihff siiii, I'lMilil Iti'giii ami (|uit work liv till' Di'c.iti's III" ilonier i'mw, as wi'll as liy till' lioiir of loral tim*'. In a yonr rioiii now all iho railroads of this coiiiiliy iiiif-'lil Jn' niii on IIoiiihi' liino I'liriiislicd i>y soim'ohst'rvalory.aiid aKrciM wpon aiiioriR tliiMiiselvi's willioiit waitinj:: fur tJn' I'slalilislinii'tU of an • ICti'i"' or iiiiy gi'iioriil arlion on Iht* siihji'ci. Tho ili'tails oT tin- dnvi'lo|»iiienl nl' Jiiy sui;li plan as lliis mnst Ix; iel'l to loinpelenl inimis hy wtioni. indi't'd, it iiia> JiHve alri'aily hi-'i^n ••onsiilcri'd ami ri'jo(!<''.i. Having bi'nn ii'ipu'sli'd to express my viows on lliis ipiMstion, I iwin only say that alli'r cari'lul iic.-iisal of lli<' various jiapers horowitli, I fail to porroive that Iho aysti'm of Standard Timo proposed therein to ho siiJisliliiU'd fortho oxisliniJ: practici', i:oiild he cariM'd into eli'i'ct witlionl cnlailini,' at least as nmny, and as inalerial coniiilicationsas occur under the natural system of nieastn-ini,' record- ing:; Time wliii'li now prevails. TheonMically the proposal systiun would no doiihl he a seienlilie improve- ment ill sonii' respects on that now .idopti'd, ami wliirli is eslahlisheil hy the jiractice of ajfes, hut its introduction into }j;em'ral iisf would — so far as I can jud;/e — he productive of hut little prac- tical heiielit ; whilst it would O'-casion anomalies in time reckoning,' as jxitween jilaees closely adjiceiii to each other hut on opposite sides of the proposed arbi- traiy lines oftiino limitation, liitle if at all, loss considerahle limn those now cxistirip;. Un the wiiole I think the halancij of advantages of the existing and proposed systems, so, even that I cannot favor the change whicii is suggested hy these papers. nEPLfKS. 130 Alex. T. Chrislic. I. Ailopl primi- iiKTitJidii limp Un- nil longiliid.'s. Hi'Diiii Ihn (iidiiiniy dial luin.'d lliiougli (in imKln doiihlo i.r ih,. loiigiliidi'. Willi (•or-lniiy sign. This lirings till" lioiirnlliical nit'iidiiui Ininsil or mean sun to Hit- /<■ lilli iil' llitsdinj and dis|if)S('s llif hours oi the natiu'iil day 8yninn'lri('.(ill.\ with n'spctl id this /cnilii When Ihu dial is nnnihtMod u> 'i\, luiM it thmugh an angle ('t(uul lo ihtt loiigiludc. 'i. To overcome a porhaps disagrt'(>- nl»lt« diss\ninn'liy o/llio niiinhors in Ihi- pi-('<('ding scIkmik), sujieisedc thoni by symbols having no inuntTic^ai signiii- c/mco— say by Up ^odiaii'ilsymbols.and al tliH prinii! infri ..aiis. .'{. PrdjHct llio carlli itsi-ir upon ihi. dial \)\nU\ north pole to ccnhc, E(Mit|i pnit', t'qnator or any cdnvcniiwit parallel lo (Mrcumli'rcnce. Dcline and properly desigfiale-,"! nieiidiansat lionr inlt;rvals, • •ring lh« local niPridian to the zenith ol' Ihe dial, and direcMlie hour hand to iho iiKi'in sun. Us(! one of the meridians- say Hehrings Sirait - to mark the dis- oimtinuity ol'tlii! day, and the /erool'tho minnl(i hand, (a' j 'ace IIk; minute hnnd with tim second liand in an eeeenlrie rircle (large as |)ossibli') divided to sixty parts. The quadrants .sav (1) Paelic, (2) Asia. (;J) Europe an(i Alriea, (4) Amorira might b,>, distinguished by colors or otherwise, ami by the actual forms of th(( land and water di\ision8, leaving the observer to grapple more n.'adily with IIk^ live* included merid- ians of a ifuadrant, etc. It will be senn that I ami 2 arH the jiresenl system modilied so that stan- ilard meridian lime might possiblv serve the purposes of locij lime and exclude the latter; 3 does awny with the odious distinction altogether by dropping the crude and artilicial, I might say barbarous device of numlxTS, and substituting the earth ilaelf for the dial. The Sun is then the iiid(!x,and we have returned to thi^ simplicity of things as wo find them in nature. The great •Mock maker or the great clock to tell what time ills, islo tell where the Sun is, 118 REPLIES, 1.37 E. \\ Hannaford. nnd tlie answer must Jxi llio sumo in all i|uarler3 of the Crlobe. I mjed not troul)lc Iho Committee at |jres(!nt, witii (If'tiiiis ; siionld liic scheme meet with any degree of approbatirm. I am at their service with snch details as they may call for. I may sayth/it I iiave sullicient conlideiice in the practicability of thr' plan, to be willing to test tJif matter in iiny public school in the city. A rougfily drawn diagram partly, perhaps snllic:- ently, illustrative of my views acconi- panifis this paj)er. Not having seen the (pieslions sent out by the Secretary A. S. C. E. I can only say that the plan of 2i lines of discontinuity |)roposed in the paniphlfM, on S'andard Time set mjeclionablo. liiit to a(Joj)t either cawi', and to destroy the terms A.M. aii midnight also with th-Mu. Hence then! is a conlliction that slujws the divisions A.M. ami P.M. with 12 hours to each to be necessary, dividing us iliev do the night from the day,. The iimchanical alteralions of the works or dials of all clocks and watches would be objectionable. The dials must bt! numbonid from to 2 '» in one circle, or by a double series of numbers and llu! i.ino\alion would not be hailed witli htvor, unless perhai>s bv clo(;k and watchmakers. Putting th(! zero meridians in Beh- '■'"/s straits and making (Ireenwiih 180° partly overcomes a dilliciilty that would otherwise entiri'lv nullify the charts commonly used liv iiavigalor« VIZ., those of (ireat Britain. The (;om- Jilimeiit to that country is deserved but il IS only partly done"; and sentiment aloiK! stands in the wav of naming (.reenwich UK-ridian (Z) zero instead of meridian M, Cities like -New York, Ci.jcago, Ptc, will, I think, fei'l slighted -m a meri- dian passes to the f:ast or west of them and their own local lime now standard has to b.* sacriliced for a meri- dian pas.sing through a village or ia tln' country districts; and this will be 120 REPLIES < KAME. QUESTION 11. fiugmtMited as capilals und otlier cities come midway helwecii these slaiidards Then it w ill bi; that a conllictioii of clocks will take place involving three diliereiit tiiiiop, viz., the standards east and west and local or true time and each clock or watch will have to Jj-^uir on its face the initial letter meridL.u it lepresents oi- there will he still more confusion. The foregoing are some of the reasons which in my Judgment are against the the proposed system, and it fui'ther appears to me the more llie project is worked out in detail, the more dilli- culties will arise, and that the present method of time, dividing the day into two series of 12 hours (?ach, A. M. and P. M., has been devised with a knowledge of our acquirements and which has sto(jd the lest of time and ex- l»erience. I beg to say with all deference to the 8))e(:ial Committee of tht- Associd- tion, I fail in my experience to trace a single accident to the system of time now in use : and if, j)ei'chanci', engage- ments are broken by reason of the change of time, I think it must be con- ceded that it will b(! so under the pro- jtosed system, and that midway betwe n two meridians will especially be unen- viable l(>calities to reside in, for they will b? subjected to three diiferent times as I have explained, and these having a maxinnim dilference of one hour between them. Hence, I think, the proposition of meridians at stated inter- \als, and irresju'Ctivc of the cities they would pass through, together with the alteration of time, making the hours consecutively to "2 'i. and with no divisions of day and night, w«uld be impracti- cable, and as ajiplied to all peoples throughout the world wovdd be opjjosed to the laws of nature. />/ 3sr O T E. It. has been comidered advisable to give the replies in precise conformity with the written text : consequently the numbers of the pa,,e, as thmj are found in the Pamphlet of the American Society Civil Engineers have been retained. This course exacted the retention of the same figures in the questions. The equivalents in these pages are as follows : Pamphlet Am. So.. Oivil En«. Present Pamphlet. Page 28 jrag( i 4, 0. " 29 = * * • * (f 4, 5. " 30 - u 6. " 31 = • • • . << 7. " 32 = • • ... << 8. " 33 = • . a 9. *• 34 = • • • u 10. i:v\ ALPHABETICAL REFERENCE. NAME ^^ y,-< A Ailams, Julius W H4 Alexander, K. P 01 Aniiersoii, Will. P 84 Archibald, L. B 53 Archibald, P. 8 46 Ashe, E. D 75 B Barber, James R 91 Bass, Lewis lOl Beaumont, de N. Bouthillier ; . . 133 Becker, M. J 2 Blake, Clarence J 12(5 Blake, John H IHO Braflhury, William F 114 Bri^'jfs, Kobert . . 11 Brooks, Fred 132 Brydone-Jack W 108 Buchan, J. M 73 C Call. R. R 118 Christie, Alex S 136 Clark, Jacob M Ill Comstock. C. B 13 f^ox, A. B 37 Crosby, Wdson 77 Crowell, J. Foster 29 D Davidson, C S 55 Davis, Jos. P 46 Dawson, Geo. M 66 Doane, E. A 7 Doane.W. A 16 Dui. Melville 102 Ounnington, F. P 124 Duraye, Julius J 64 Dwijfht.H.P 113 e Eastman, J. R 90 Eddy, H. T 4 Ellice, Wm. F 94 P Fernald, M. C 129 Forris.E.G 57 Fletcher. Robert 5 Fontaine, Ed 131 G Gatchell, George S 79 Oannet, Henry 69 Oiddintfs, M.! 117 Gillespie, J. (j 83 Gilpin, Edwin 122 Gisborne, F. W 35 Goodwin. H. Stanley 10 Greenough, M. 8 16 NAME 3g ■ii H Haiffht, Stephen S 3» Hall, James 22 Hamilton, John B 109 Hannaford, E P 137 Harlow. James H 3ft Harrinj^ton, Mart W 3 Harrod, B. M 19 Hazen, W'n. B 72 Honninff, B S 48 Herschel, Clemens 9 Hill, Edwin A 96 Horr, Asa 82 Howe,H.A 88 Howe,ivI.G 26 Howley, James P 60 Ing'raham, Andrew J'-A In^'alls, Kufus 85 Ives, C.J 81 Jacobs, W.E 86 Jennings, W. T 25 Jerome, David H 104 Judson.W.H 76 K Kennedy, George 74 LeConte, L. J .68 Lynch, Francis J 17 91 ■ Maguire, Edward f>6 Mallet, J. W 119 Master, C. S • 21 Maxwell, James R 16 May, W. A 20 Meigs M. C 98 Mendenhall, T. C 67 Moore, Robert 28 Mnrrav, Alexander 95 MacLeod, Henrv F 110 McAlpine, VV. J 1 N Newcomb, Simon P 92 Newberry, Fred T 120 Norton. Wni. A 50 Notman, John 30 Tearl, J. W 116 Perry, J. H 41 Philbrick, Edward S 38 Philbrick, P H 6 Pickering, Edward C 69 Pohlnian Julius 99 ALPHABETICAL REFERENCE '/'-,< 3» 22 109 137 36 3 19 72 48 9 96 . 82 . 88 26 , 60 . r.A . 85 . 81 . 86 . 25 . 104 . 76 . 74 . 68 . 17 . B6 . 119 . 21 . 16 .. 20 .. 98 .. 67 .. 28 . 95 . 110 1 . 92 .. 120 . 50 . 30 .. 116 41 . . 38 .. 6 .. 69 .. 99 NAME ^'i -/;■< P Potter, T. J oi Pratt, W. H 78 Pritchett. II. S '.'...'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.[ 80 Putnam, J. W ' '" 42 B Richardson, Henry B g RobinHon, Moncure 39 Rowan, James H ....'..'.'." 18 ;ioyce, H. F 70 S Sampson, W. T jqs Savage. Chapman Albert l-'8 bayre Robert H 27 Sehreiber, Collingw'ood 58 Schott, Char. A ........ 103 ^