PROCEEDINGS— APPENDIX A A-3 



THE UNIFICATION OF TIME AT SEA. 



MEMORANDUM (w/f/t Ajipendices.) 



EoYAL Society of Canada. 



Ottawa, October Utli, 1896. 



1. While the unification of lime at sea will .siJecially confer benefits 

 upon practical naviiçation, it has an intimate relationship with the broad 

 question of reckoning- time throughout the world by a defined common 

 standard. 



2. It is but a few j^ears back since every place on the surface of the 

 globe followed an independent reckoning of time ; the consequence was 

 the development of complications, as the twin agencies of human progress, 

 steam and electricity, were gradually ap])lied to rapid transit by sea and 

 land. To obviate the difficulties Avhich had arisen and were every day 



I becoming more serious, a movement was made to reform time-reckoning. 

 It had its origin on the American continent from the circumstance that 

 the confusion incident to many independent reckonings had been ex- 

 perienced to the greatest extent in the United States and Canada. This 

 fact will be easily understood when it is stated that so late as fourteen 

 years ago, there were, between the Atlantic and the Pacific, no less than 

 seventy different standards of time referred to in the working of the 

 different railways. These various standards were unrelated to, and inde- 

 pendent of each other, and it can be readily seen that no trifling confu- 

 sion and inconvenience resulted. 



3. The investigation of the subject suggested the conclusion, that the 

 same difficulty would sooner or later be experienced not only through- 

 out America, but likewise on the European continent, in Asia, in 

 Australia and eventually in Africa ; consequently it was the common 

 interest of the human family to attain by international agreement 

 a system of reckoning to minimize the difficulties alluded to, which could 

 generally be followed. The Congress of the United States recognizing 

 the importance of the principle of uniformity and simplicity m reckoning, 

 passed a joint resolution, with a view to obtaining such an international 

 agreement. Soon afterwards the President of the United States invited 

 the governments of all civilized nations to send representatives to Wash- 

 ington to consider the subject in its various ramifications, and generally 

 to estabhsh the course most advisable to follow. Eepresentatives of 

 twenty-five nations met in Washington in 1884 and after a conference 

 extending over a month, reached conclusions of great importance. Seven 



