NEW TIME-EECKONING. 365 



time is resumed, and coutiunes, witli daily changes, until India is readied. Arriving 

 at Bombay, the traveler M'ill find two standards employed, local time and railvs-ay 

 time, the latter being that of Madras. If he has not altered his watch since he left 

 England, ho will find it some five hours slow. Should ho continue his journey to 

 Chiua, it will have fallen eight hours behind. 



In the United Kingdom the difficulties due to longitude are only felt in a modified 

 form. The greater island, embracing England and Scotland, is comparatively limited 

 in width ; one standard of time is therefore used. It is only in respect to the sister 

 island, Ireland, that the difference in longitude calls for a diflerence in time. In the 

 whole United Kingdom, consequently, there are practically only two standards, viz, 

 Greenwich time and Irish time, the difference being twenty-fir^ minutes. No one, 

 therefore, whose experience has been confined to the United Kingdom, can form an 

 adequate idea of the extent of the inconvenience arising from the causes alluded to, 

 where geographical circumstances render necessary the use of a multiplicity of stand- 

 ards. 



The railway system is the principal agent in the developing of the difficulties re- 

 ferred to, and the still further extension of steam communications in great continental 

 lines is forcing the subject on public attention. Canada supplies a good illustration 

 of what is occurring. The railways built and projected will extend from the eastern 

 coast of Newfoundland on the Atlantic to the western coast of British Columbia on 

 the Pacific, embracing about 7IJ° of longitude. Every Canadian city has its own 

 time. Innumerable eettleraents are now being formed throughout the country 

 ultimately to be traversed by railways; and in a few years scores of populous towns 

 and cities will spring up in the now uninhabited territories between the two oceans. 

 Each of these places will have its own local time, and the difference between the 

 clocks at the two extremes of Canada will be fully u\c hours. The difficulties which 

 will ultimately arise from this state of things are apparent. They are already in 

 some degree felt, they are year by year increasing, and will at no distant day be- 

 come seriously inconvenient. This is the case not in Canada alone, but all the world 

 over. 



The division of the day into two halves, each containing twelve hours, and each 

 li-TAmbexed from 1 to 12, is also a fertile source of error and inconvenience. 



Travelers who have had occasion to consult railway guides and steam-boat time- 

 tables will be familiar with the inconvenience resulting from this cause; none know 

 better by experience how much the divisions anie meridian and post meridian have 

 baffled their inquiries, and how often these arbitrary divisions have led to mistakes. 

 Were it necessary, innumerable instances could be given. The evil, however, is one 

 80 familiar that it has come to bo looked upon as unavoidable, and is, as a matter of 

 course, silently endured. 



The halving of the day has doubtless long been in use, but beyond its claim to 

 antiquity, is a custom that confers not a single benefit, and is marked by nothing to 

 recommend it. 



SCHEME OF COSMIC OR UNIVEKSAL TIME. 



1. That a system of universal time be established, with the view of facilitating 

 synchronous scientific observations, for chronological reckonings, for the purpose of 

 trade and commerce by sea and land, and for all such uses to which it is applicable. 



2. That the system be established for the common observance of all peoples, and 

 of such a character that it may be adopted by each separate community, as may be 

 found expedient. 



3. That the system be based on the principle that for all terrestrial time-reckonings 

 there be one recognized unit of measurement only, and that all measured intervals 

 of time bo directly related to the one-unit measure. 



4. That the unit measure be the period occupied by the diurnal revolution of the 

 earth, defined by the mean solar passage at the meridian twelve hours from the prime 

 meridian established through Greenwich. 



