STANDARD TIME IN THE UNITED STATES. 18 1 



feasible and very desirable for all railways to be operated by one 

 common time, and the first step toward this is plainly the certainty 

 that the time-signals which are now regularly sent from the Naval 

 Qbservatory shall reach each railway-station once daily, at least. 



It should be remarked that this change, as well as the changes it 

 would imply, and which would follow as natural consequences, is not 

 by any means so violent as the change from the English system of 

 measures (feet, pounds, bushels, etc.) to the metric system (metres, 

 grammes, litres, etc.) often proposed, and now partially adopted. In 

 the latter case, the units are altered, and for the first generation, at 

 least, continual reference will have to be made from the old system 

 to the new ; whereas, in the first case, the units remain the same, and 

 the point of reference only is changed. Once familiarize a citizen of 

 Detroit with the fact that his local mean noon is to be called 12'' 24 

 instead of 12'' 0"", and the transition would hardly be noticed. If by 

 any chance all watches, clocks, and time-keepers in New York City 

 could simultaneously be turned back 12" 10.5' (i. e., to Washington 

 time) unknown to their owners, it is probable that the number of peo- 

 ple who would be aware of the change would be extremely small. 



Besides sending the signals which regulate the New York clock of 

 the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Naval Observatory at 

 Washington has for several years sent daily (except Sundays) a tele^ 

 graphic signal at Washington noon over the lines of the Western 

 Union, which signal is already widely distributed. 



To increase the usefulness of this signal. Admiral Davis entered 

 into arrangements with the officials of the Western Union Telegraph 

 Company by which they will contract to deliver such a signal daily 

 to subscribers (for a year) at extremely low rates. The company 

 will connect the house, office, or manufactory of the subscriber with 

 its local oftice (for the present the arrangement is confined to offices in 

 towns having 20,000 inhabitants or over) in his town for a sum to be 

 settled according to the length of wire required, etc., and will fur- 

 nish him Avith a telegraphic sounder, or such other form of appa- 

 ratus as may be suitable. 



The price of such a connection is to be settled according to the 

 various circumstances of each case, and each subscriber will of course 

 bear the necessary expense, which will be met in the form of an annual 

 rental. Besides this charge peculiar to each subscriber, the company 

 will chai-ge a certain small sum for transmitting the Washington noon 

 signal to its own office for distribution ; and this sum, if there is but 

 one subscriber in any town, must be paid by him. Two subscribers 

 halve the expense, for three each pays one-third, and so on. For 

 New York and other large cities this expense will be almost nothing, 

 so that the real cost of a transmission of the Washington noon signal 

 will practically be the annual rental of the wire used to connect the 

 subscriber's premises with the telegraph-office. By the method of 



