CHANGE IN THE TIME SYSTEM

Dunstan Times, Issue 1191, 26 December 1884, Page 3

CHANGE IN THE TIME SYSTEM

A cable mes-age has been published that on anl after the Ist of January next the Greenwioh.Observatory will alter the present system of reckoning the time of day, and , will adopt the method of naming the hours from I to 24. We are not informed whether the change is intended to he commonly adopted or only in public departments, nor whether "the civil day will; as heretofore, be add to commence and end at midnight or at noon. Neither do we know what has induced the Greenwich Qbservatory to thus unexpectedly announce a decision which was approved of by its representatives at the meeting of the International Geodetic Association in Rome so long ago as October, 1883, when a resolution was passed to the effect that, in the interests of public convenience, the hours ot the day should be universally numbered from Ito 24. Nevertheless Mr Kllery, Government astronomer, has given us some interesting information respecting the cablegram. He points out that the determination of the Greenwich Observatory has no legislative effect, and that the new system of numbering is not likely to he used, except by the Admiralty and in the compilation of railway and other time-tab'es, for many yearn to come, and until p°ople become gradually, accustomed to the alteration and sensible to its advantages. The change is not by any means a novelty, as all obs“ryat ries have 24 hour dial clocks. Greenwich timetables are already made up in accordance with the counting of the day as one period ■ of 24 hours, and in early days a few clocks had dials marked in the same way, until it waa found that they could be much more easily constructed by dividing the day into the postmeridion and ante-meridian periods, which sometimes occasion mistakes and confusion. In spite of this, people now living are, in Mr Ellery’s opinion, unlikely to hear even public clocks striking 24, and watches as a rule will retain their present familiar feature s. Tt would be ver/ unwise, Mr Ellery thinks, to alter the present hour of commencing the day, aud although the cable is silent upon the subject, be dbos not apprehend that this will be done. It is almost unneces savy to say that the new registration of the hours ot the day will in no way affect the time now recordsl at any place in the world, this being a matter of longitude which also engaged the attention of the International Geodetic Congress at the meeting in Rome previously referred to. The question discussed" has since become one of. international interest—viz., whether, for purposes of navigation a id geography, the present-system of reckoning loiigir. tude from all th - chief cities of different countries shall be continued, or some standard meridian agreed upon to form an initial point for all nations alike. The result of this, as far as the first meeting in Rome was concerned, ■w s a consensus of opinion in favour of adopting Greenwich as the initial meridian, for obvious reasons, more particularly as by far the largest nnm-. ber of charts used for navigation are constructed on this basis. At a subsequent meeting of the Congress at Washington in October of this year the whole question was re-discussed, all representatives agreeing on the adoption of Greenwich with the exception of the French representatives, who voted for some initial point intersecting one of the Atlantic Islands. It was therefore considered that Greenwich was virtually adopted. Meanwhile the first practical step towards the unification of time has been taken by the railway companies of the [Tinted States and Canada, which have adopted throughout their system of railways, 100,000 miles in length, standard time reckoned Irom four meridians respectively five hours, six hours, seven hours, and eight hours west of Greenwich, and thus agreeing with Greenwich mean time as to the minutes and seconds. Time signals. in accordance with this system were, commenced by the f ale College Observatory on No vember. 18, when the new' standard <■ Eastern time” five hours west of Greenwich was substituted for New York City Hall time, which is 3 min. 58 4 sec. fast “of Kastern time.” The chief advantage of the change is that travellers going less than 900 miles reckon by the time of the place whence they started, and for each additional 900 miles their watches are exactly one hour fast or s’ow, according to the direction in which thej are travelling

By this means reference to time tables are greatly simplified.— Argus.