802 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for all in any particular place, or to be continually changing them in 

 communications from place to place, whether by railway, telegraph, 

 or telephone. When universal or world time is used for railways and 

 telegraphs, it seems not unlikely that the public may find it more con- 

 venient to adopt it for all purposes. A business man who daily travels 

 by rail, and constantly receives telegrams from all parts of the world, 

 dated in universal time, would probably find it easier to learn once 

 for all that local noon is represented by 17 hours U. T. and midnight 

 by 5 hours (as would be the case in the Eastern States of North Ameri- 

 ca), and that his office-hours are 15 hours to 21 hours U. T., than to 

 be continually translating the universal time used for his telegrams 

 into local time. 



If this change were to come about, the terms noon and midnight 

 would still preserve their present meaning with reference to local time, 

 and the position of the sun in the sky, but they would cease to be 

 inseparably associated with twelve o'clock. 



The introduction of universal time would practically involve the 

 adoption of the system of counting the hours in one series from to 

 24, instead of in the two series to 12 a. m. and p. m., for, as applied 

 to universal time, the terms ante-meridiem and post-meridiem would 

 be meaningless, except for places on the meridian of Greenwich. The 

 use of the 24-hour system on railways and telegraphs would naturally 

 assist in breaking the spell of habit which associates noon and midnight 

 with twelve o'clock. 



It may be mentioned that the Eastern and Eastern Extension Tele- 

 graph Companies already use the 24-hour system throughout their 

 extensive lines of telegraph to avoid mistakes of a. m. and p. m., and 

 to save telegraphing these unnecessary letters. In this connection the 

 President of the Western Union Telegraph Company in the United 

 States has stated that the adoption of the 24-hour mode of reckoning 

 would, besides materially reducing the risk of error, save at least 

 150,000,000 letters annually on the lines of his company. It is also 

 noteworthy that ninety-eight per cent of the railway managers in the 

 United States, representing 60,000 miles of railway, have expressed 

 themselves in favor of the adoption of the simple notation from to 

 24 hours. 



Considering that the only change which we are called on, in ac- 

 cordance with the Washington resolution, to make in our time- 

 reckoning on railways is the adoption of the 24-hour system, it may 

 be hoped that our railway companies will not be behind those of the 

 United States in appreciating the simplification in railway time-tables 

 which would result from this reform. 



