1S6 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1884. 



INTERNATIONAL MERIDIAN CONFERENCE. 



The full text of the final act of the luternational Meridian Conference 

 is given below, extracted from the ofQcial publications. 



The President of the United States of America, in pursuance of a 

 special provision of Congress, having extended to the Governments of 

 all nations in diplomatic relations with his own an invitation to send 

 delegates to meet delegates from the United States, in the city of Wash- 

 ington, on the first of October, 1884, for the purpose of discussing, and, 

 if possible, fixing u])on a meridian proper to be employed as a common 

 zero of longitude and standard of time-reckoning throughout the whole 

 world, this International Meridian Conference assembled at the time 

 and place designated ; and, after careful and patient discussion, has 

 passed the following resolutions : 



1. " That it is the opinion of this Congress that it is desirable to adopt 

 a single prime meridian lor all nations, in place of the multiplicity of 

 initial meridians which now exist." 



2. " That the Conference proposes to the Governments here repre- 

 sented the adoption of the meridian passing through the center of the 

 transit instrument at the Observatory of Greenwich as the initial me- 

 ridian for longitude." 



3.." That from this meridian, longitude shall be counted in two direc- 

 tions up to 180 degrees, east longitude being plus and west longitude 

 minus." 



4. " That the Conference proposes the adoption of a universal day for 

 all purposes for which it may be found convenient, and which shall not 

 interfere with the use of local or other standard time, where desirable." 



5. " That this universal day is to be a mean solar day ; is to begin for 

 all the world at the moment of mean midnight of the initial meridian, 

 coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date of that merid- 

 ian ; and is to be counted from zero up to twenty-four hours." 



6. " That the Conference expresses the hope that as soon as may be 

 practicable the astronomical and nautical days will be arranged every- 

 where to begin at mean midnight." 



7. " That the Conference expresses the hope that the technical studies 

 designed to regulate and extend the application of the decimal system 

 to the division of angular space and of time shall be resumed, so as to 

 permit the extension of this application to all cases in which it presents 

 real advantages." 



The action in the various countries upon these propositions, so far as 

 it is known, is as follows. It should, however, be premised that no one 

 of the Governments concerned has yet notified its decisions and that 

 the action taken is, in a sense, unofficial : 



England.— ThQ Astronomer Royal has ordered that the universal day 

 be adopted within the observatory at Greenwich. And the public clock 

 at the gate in Greenwich Park has been set to the new time, i. e., back 



