228 



ASTRONOMY. 



Proposed scliedule of standard times. 



Geographical section. 



-s^ 



■- ® H 



O IH 



T3 t. 



o^. 



U3 



Standard time slower or faster ttan 

 true "local times." 



Designation of 



proposed 

 standard time. 



Newfoundland . . . 

 New Brunswick . 



Nova Scotia 



Canada 



Maiue to Florida 



OMo to Alabama 

 Lower Lakes 



Mississippi Valley. 

 Missouri VaUey . . . 



Upper Lakes 



Texas 



Kooky Mountain region . . . 



Pacific States 



British Columbia . 



66 



105 

 120 



h. m. s. 

 4 0V 



6 



7 



8 



29 minutes slower than St. Johns, N. F 

 24 minutes faster than St. Johns, N. B 



14 minutes faster than Halifax, N. S. . 



15 miuutce.4lower than Quebec 



18 minutes faster than Toronto 



16 minutes slower than Boston 



3 minutes slower than New York 



8 minutes faster than ■Washington . . . 



19 minutes faster than Charleston . . . 

 45 minutes faster than Montgomery . 

 14 minutes taster than Buflalo 



30 minutes faster than Detroit 



38 minuter faster than Cincinnati 



minutes faster than New Orleans . . 



1 minute faster than Saint Louis 



12 minutes faster than Saint Paul 



18 minntes faster than Kansas City. . 



19 minivtes faster than Galveston 



10 minutes slower than Chicago 



minutes faster than Denver 



28 minutf 8 faster than Salt Lake City 

 12 minutt's slower than San Diego 



10 minut»'8 faster than San Francisco 



11 minutes f;ister than Olympia 



12 minutes fiister than Victoria 



> Eastern time. 



> Atlantic time. 



> Valley time. 



> Mountain tune. 



■ Pacific time. 



The evils spoken of undoubtedly exist, and eventually the number of 

 local times in use on railroads and elsewhere must be reduced in the 

 interest of every person who uses accurate time. This is not the place 

 to discuss what changes would be best suited to meet the wants in the 

 case, and the editor cannot here set forth in full his reasons for believ- 

 ing that this plaR of the American Metrological Society will not be 

 adopted by the people of the United Stiites in general, who in the end 

 will have what is most convenient to themselves. Nor can the grounds 

 of selection of different standards of time (for in a country so large as 

 the United States, there must be more than one standard time) be set 

 forth here. It may suffice to quote the recent action of the State of 

 Connecticut, which has adopted by law the time of the meridian of the 

 City Hall in New York as its standard, and which obliges railways, 

 etc., to conform to it. In the same way it seems to be wise for the West- 

 ern States of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois, to unite upon Chicago 

 time as their standard, instead of taking the time of 6 hours from 

 Greenwich. In this way every user of time will be supplied* with the 

 time he requires most often, and the growth of local standard times 

 will be on a solid basis of use, and not a forced one of an artificial sys- 

 tem. 



The following note with regard to time-balls in the United States is 

 of interest in connection with the subject of standard time. 



The first time-ball established i«i the United States was dropped from 

 the dome of the National Observatory at Washington, D. C, in 1855. 



