MC) MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



foreign powers, be invited delegates from all nations to a scientific con- 

 ference at AVashington in wliicli the subject should be fully considered. 



The conference met in the autumn of 1884. Twenty -five nationalities 

 were represented. The proceedings extended over the mouth of Octo- 

 ber, and they resulted in the almost unanimous adoption of seven reso- 

 lutions bearing upon time-reckoning. 



As no records can be in accord unless a common starting point be 

 agreed upon from which computations are to be made, the first resolu- 

 tions had reference to the determination of an iuitial meridian. The 

 meridian i^assing through Greenwich was selected. 



In the fourth and fifth resolutions the conference laid down the follow- 

 ing important principles : 



IV. " 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 desira- 

 ble." 



V. " That the universal day is to be a mean solar day ; is to begiu for 

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

 coinciding with the civil day and date of that meridian, and is to be 

 counted from zero to twenty-four hours." 



The opening of the national Congress at Washington shortly followed 

 the international conference. The President regarded the importance 

 of the proceedings to bo such as to call for si^ecial mention of them in 

 his annual message. General Arthur thus expressed himself on the 

 subject: "The conference concluded its labors on the 1st of November, 

 having with substantial unanimity agreed upon the meridian of Green- 

 wich as the starting iwint whence longitude is to be computed through 

 one hundred and eighty degrees eastward and westward, and upon the 

 adoption, for all purposes for which it may be found convenient, of a 

 universal day, which shall begin at midnight on the initial meridian 

 and whose hours shall be counted from zero up to twenty-four." 



There was no exaggerated importance in these allusions, for the con- 

 clusions of the conference are productive of most important results. 

 They make provision for terminating all ambiguity in hours and dates 

 and for establishing throughout the world, free from national suscepti- 

 bility and caprice, perfect uniformity in reckoning time. Some years 

 may elapse before the new notation becomes the one recognized mode 

 of reckoning ; but when it shall have been generally accepted in the 

 l)ractice of daily life, it is calculated to sweep away the difficulties now 

 experienced, and it will add greatly to the general convenience of civil- 

 ized man. 



One of the first practical eiforts to direct public attention to the rap- 

 idly growing necessity for a comprehensive reform in time-reckoning 

 can be found in a paper published in the Transactions of the Canadian 

 Institute, Toronto, for the session of 1878-'79.* This paper adduces in 



* Time-reckoning and the selection of ji prime meridian to be common to all nations. 

 By Sandford Fleming. 



