NEW TIME-RECKONTNCr. 347 



support of its arojnnicnl iiiniiy ])crtiii(Mit facts, and points out that tlie 

 gigantic systems of railways and telegra])lis which in modern times 

 have been established in both continents have developed social and 

 commercial conditions which never previously existed. These condi- 

 tions have so alfected the relations of time and distance as to establish 

 the fact that our inherited system of notation is defective; that it is 

 inconvenient to men of business; (hat it ]>rodiices confusion and fre- 

 quently results in loss of life, and leads to other difficulties; that under 

 the circumstances which have followed the sul)stitution of steam for 

 animals as a motive power, the ancient usages as retained in our nota- 

 tion of hours and dates are generally imippropriate. Moreover, the use 

 of the telegraph in our daily lives practically subjects the whole surface 

 of the globe to the observation of civili/ed communities in each individ- 

 ual locality. It leaves no interval of time between widely separated 

 l)laces proportionate to their distances apart. It practically brings 

 into close contact the opposite sides of the earth where daylight and 

 darkness prevail at the same period. By this agency noon, midnight, 

 sunrise, sunset, and the whole range of intermediate gradations of the 

 day, are all observed and recognized at the same moment. Thus in 

 matters out of the domain of local importance confusion is developed 

 and all count of time is thrown into multiplied disorder. 



Again, under the usages now observed, a day is assumed to begin 

 twelve hours before — and end twelve hours after — the sun i)asses the 

 MK^ridian of any place. As the globe is constantly revolving on its axis, 

 afresh meridian is every moment coming under the sun; as a conse- 

 quence a day is always beginning somewhere and always ending some- 

 where. Each meridian around the circumference of the sphere has its 

 own day, and therefore it results that there are, during every diurnal 

 revolution of the earth, an infinite number of local days all beginning 

 within a space of twenty-four hours and each continuing twenty-four 

 hours. These days overlap each other, but they are as perfectly distinct 

 asthey^are infinite in number. While a day is nomiTially twenty-four 

 hours in length, as a matter of fact forty-eight hours elapse between the 

 first beginning and the last ending of every week day. Taking the 

 'whole globe into our view, Sunday actually commences in the middle of 

 Sat urday and lasts until the middle of Monday. Again, Saturday runs 

 into the middle of Sunday, while Monday begins twenty-four hours be- 

 fore Sunday comes to an end and continues twenty-four hours after 

 Tuesday commences. Similarly for all the days of the week, as time is 

 now reckoned. Except those on the same meridian, there are no simul- 

 taneous days on the earth's surface, and as the different days are always 

 in the various stages of advancement, discrepancies aud errors must 

 necessarily result in assigning the precise period when an event takes 

 place. The telegraph may give the exact local time of an occurrence, 

 but the time so given must be in disagreement with local time on every 

 other meridian around the globe. An event occurring on any one day 



