79 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



half an hour shorter than the afternoons. In view of the importance 

 attached by some astronomers to the use of exact local time in civil 

 life, it would be interesting to know how many villagers have remarked 

 this circumstance. 



It is essential to bear these facts in mind when we have to consider 

 the extent to which local time regulates the affairs of life, and the 

 degree of sensitiveness of a community to a deviation of half an hour 

 or more in the standard reckoning of time. My own experience is 

 that in districts which are not within the influence of railways the 

 clocks of neighboring villages commonly differ by half an hour or 

 more. The degree of exactitude in the measurement of local time in 

 such cases may be inferred from the circumstance that a minute-hand 

 is usually considered unnecessary. I have also found that in rural 

 districts on the Continent arbitrary alterations of half an hour fast or 

 slow are accepted not only without protest but with absolute indiffer- 

 ence. 



Even in this country, where more importance is attached to accu- 

 rate time, I have found it a common practice in outlying parts of 

 Wales (where Greenwich time is about twenty minutes fast by local 

 time) to keep the clock half an hour fast by railway i. e., Greenwich 

 time, or about fifty minutes fast by local time. And the farmers 

 appeared to find no difficulty in adapting their hours of labor and 

 times of meals to a clock which at certain times of the year differed 

 more than an hour from the sun. 



There is a further irregularity about the sun's movements which 

 makes him a very unsafe guide in any but tropical countries. He is 

 given to indulging in a much larger amount of sleep in winter than 

 is desirable for human beings who have to work for their living and 

 can not hibernate as some of the lower animals do. To make up for 

 this he rises at an inconveniently early hour in summer and does not 

 retire to rest till very late at night. Thus it would seem that a clock 

 of steady habits would be better suited to the genius of mankind. 



Persons whose employment requires daylight must necessarily 

 modify their hours of labor according to the season of the year, while 

 those who can work by artificial light are practically independent of 

 the vagaries of the sun. Those who work in collieries, factories, or 

 mines, would doubtless be unconscious of a difference of half an hour 

 or more between the clock and the sun, while agriculturists would 

 practically be unaffected by it, as they can not have fixed hours of 

 labor in any case. 



Having thus considered the regulating influence of the sun on ordi- 

 nary life within the limits of a small community, we must now take 

 account of the effect of business intercourse between different commu- 

 nities separated by distances which may range from a few miles to 

 half the circumference of our globe. So long as the means of com- 

 munication were slow, the motion of the traveler was insignificant 



