430 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 188S. 



maximum duration of totality is found to be 3ra. 50s., the central eclipse 

 with the sun on the meridian falling in longitude 102° 0' E. and latitude 

 53° 47' N. The Greenwich list includes four occupations of Aldebaron 

 during the year and one of Regulus. 



The average annual sale of the Nautical Almanac during the last five 

 years has exceeded 15,500, though many maritime nations have now 

 their nautical ephemeris. (Nature.) 



It is stated in Nature No. 741 that in the French budget the sum of 

 $200,000 is annually given by the Department of Public Instruction as 

 a subsidy to astronomy and meteorology. This is exclusive of subsi- 

 dies voted by the municipalities of Marseilles, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and 

 Lyons for their astronomical observatories, as well as of the grants (by 

 cities) which partly support the meteorological observatories of Besau- 

 con, Puy de Dome, Montsouris, and Pic du Midi. 



New standard railway time. — The convention which met at the 

 Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago, in the autumn of 1883, to fix upon a 

 general standard of railway time, was presided over by P. P. Wright, 

 general superintendent of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Kail- 

 road, and W. F. Allen, editor of The Official Railway Guide, New York, 

 acted as secretary. About sixty representatives of the principal rail- 

 ways of the United States were present. Secretary -Allen, who has 

 taken the lead in this very important arrangement, announced to the 

 convention that he had succeeded in getting companies representing 

 78,000 miles of road to favor the adoption of a uniform standard time, 

 and that the proposed system was already in use upon 10,000 miles of 

 track in the Eastern States. The representatives of twenty-nine roads, 

 representing 27,181 miles of road, voted in favor of the change, and the 

 representatives of two roads, representing 1,714 miles of road, voted in 

 the negative. I'he pi an is to divide the territory traversed by the railways 

 into four sections, between which there will be exactly one hour's dif- 

 ference in the time, and all the lines within each division are to be run 

 upon ui.iform time. The division lines of these sections are to be the 

 75th, the 90th, the 105th, and the 120th meridians, and the following, 

 as adopted by the convention, will show the territory comprised in each 

 section : 



" 1. That all roads now using Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Balti- 

 more, Toronto, Hamilton, or Washington time as a standard, based upon 

 meridians east of these points or adjacent thereto, shall be governed 

 by the 75th meridian or Eastern time (four minutes slower than New 

 York time). This includes roads run by Krtland, Providence, New 

 London, Montreal, Albany, Richmond, and Charleston time, in addition 

 to those specially named above. 



"2. That all roads now using Colu.ubus, Savannah, Atlanta, Cincin- 

 nati, Louisville, Indianapolis, Chicag >, Jefferson City, Saint Paul, or 

 Kansas City time, or standards based upon meridians adjacent thereto, 

 shall be run by the 90th meridian time, to be called central time, one 

 hour slower than Eastern time, and nine minutes slower than Chicago 



