A-26 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



Those seveial documents amply refute all the objections to the 

 proposal and render any discussion of them in this report unnecessary- 

 Their best answer is- in the fact that the governments of six ephemerides 

 publishing nations, eompi'ising some of the most conservative countries 

 in the world, have, under the advice of their ablest men, recognized the 

 advantages of the proposal and have assented to it being carried into 

 etiect. The attitude assumed by the United States Naval Observatory 

 is so decidedly different from that of a few years back that the sole 

 explanation which can be made is that the personnel of the observatory 

 has changed. 



Immediatol}' after the Washington Conference of 18S-1. Commodore 

 Franklin, the head of the United States Naval Observatory, desiring to 

 give etfect, without delay, to the resolutions passed, issued instructions to 

 the observatories of the United States to bring Astronomical Time into 

 agreement with Civil Time. This officer was supported by three-fourths 

 of the leading astronomers of the United States, who, doubtless, felt 

 with him that it would be becoming on the part of the nation which 

 had assembled the conference to be the tirst to accept and give practical 

 etfect to its wise recommendations. There was one exception, however, 

 Professor Simon Newcomb, who raised strong objections to any 

 departure from the old system. This gentleman, whose name is attached 

 to the adverse report of recent date, as Professor of Mathematics, 

 U. S. N., and Director of the Nautical Almanac, did not, in objecting to 

 the instructions of Commodore Franklin, express his adverse opinion on 

 the general question for the tii-st time. In 1882, two years before the 

 Washington Conference, the American Society of Civil Engineers form- 

 ulated a scheme of Time-reform, which, in its essential features, has 

 come into use not only throughout the North American Continent, but 

 also over large parts of Europe, Asia and Australia. In order ttj ascer- 

 tain the views of scientific and practical men, this society sent out 

 circulars asking an expression of opinion respecting the proposed 

 measure. A series of questions were drawn up and answers to them 

 were respectfully invited. Among the many replies received and ]ilaced 

 on record in the publications of that society there is one from Mr. 

 Simon Newcomb, whose words read strangely in the general record of 

 assent and ajtproval with which the measure was welcomed throughout 

 the United States and Canada. They are given in the ap])endix to this 

 report. 



The publications of the American Society of (Jivil engineers affirm 

 that replies were received from all parts of the United States and 

 Canada and that 99 per cent expressed opinions diametrically opposed 

 to those of Mr. Newcomb. The unanimity of (opinion was indeed 

 remarkable. In one respect, Mr. Newcomb stood alone in his antag- 

 onism to this scientific reform. In marked contrast to his objections, 



