STANDARD TIME FOR THE WORLD.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1622, 25 November 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

STANDARD TIME FOR THE WORLD.

At one of the sessions of the American Society of Civil Engineers in Washington, a report on the standard time was presented by Mr. Sanford Fleming, chairman of a committee appointed to invest9gate the subject at a meeting of the society in Montreal last year. In response to the request of the society, at its meeting in January, the committee has submitted to a large number of persons directly interested in the matter, the following scheme for the establishment of a 'prime meridian, and an uniform standard of time, with a series of questions to which replies were requested. Tp these questions some hundreds of replies were returned, 97 per cent, of the writers approving of the scheme, and 92 per cent, favouring a numbering of the hours from 1 to 24 consecutively. The scheme und.er discussion proposes : . First— To establish one universal standard time, common to all peoples*4hroughout the world, for the use of railways, telegraphs, and steamboats, for the purposes of trade and commerce, for general scientific observations, and for every ordinary local purpose. Second — It is proposed that standard time everywhere shall be based on the one unit measure of time denoted by the diurnal revolution of the earth, as determined by the mean solar passage at one particular meridian, to be selected as a time zero. Third — The time zero to coincide with the ' initial or prime meridian, to be common to all nations for computing terrestrial longitude. Fourth — The time zero and prime meridian of the world tq be established with the concurrence of civilised nations generally. Fifth — For the purpose of regulating time everywhere it ia proposed that the unit measure, determined as above, shall be divided into 24 equal parts, and that these parts shall be defined by standard time meridians established around the globe, 15 degrees of longitude, or one hour distant from each other. Sixth — It is proposed that standard time shall be determined, and disseminated , under governmental authority;, that time signal stations be established at important centres for the purpose of disseminating correct time with precision, arid that' all the railway and local public clocks controlled electrically from the public' time statidh, Or otherwise kept in perfect agreement.. i. Seoenth^-rhe adoption, of the system in the United, State's and Canada, would, exclusive of Newfoundland and Alaska, have the effect of ; reducing the 's/iuidar^ of Atinie, to four. TlieBe;four^Btau^ar48 A pr^cisely;~one hour apart;. ; iwoqld'fgbvexnj the, time "of.'sthe whole Icpuritry, each would .haye.the simplest possible relation fof *&f}psp^M v allr^puld;'ha^ #?, all s simple'relations to" the other standards' of the „>\ >■ ,i> f .;*>W; isSproposed ttvo v have or^y^one^ &e'ne|Jc^^^