RECKONING FOR THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 51 
“ During the past year the seed sown has been fructifying and many who held back 
have been won over and have given their adhesion to the movement. Among the many 
important railways ready to coüperate, some appear to see no necessity for further delay, 
and desire to secure at once the advantages which will result from the change. At this 
date it is publicly announced that the Canadian Pacific Railway Company have deter- 
mined to adopt the 24-hour system, and are actually preparing to make the change at an 
early day. Such proceedings can be accepted as indicating a proper appreciation of the 
reform which the American Society of Civil Engineers has advocated, and equally shows 
the discernment of those who direct the management of the youngest of the trans- 
continental railways. This practical commencement will, without a doubt, be speedily 
followed by other railway companies, and before long we may look for the 24-hour system 
coming into general use.” * 
There is undoubtedly a growing feeling in many quarters in favour of the twenty- 
four hour system. It is reported to be used with great advantage on the whole of the 
cables and other lines of the Eastern Telegraph Company, and its connections extending 
from England through Europe and the Mediterranean to Egypt, and from Egypt to South 
Africa, India, China and Japan, Australia and New Zealand. 
It is a pertinent question to ask, what influence these various changes will have in 
preparing the public mind for another, and it may be said a final change, the adoption 
of one uniform time in every longitude? For it must be evident to the thoughtful ob- 
server that the movement for reforming our time-system will not have attained its object 
until this end be accomplished. 
Those persons who have been in the habit of finishing their daily work at 6 p.m. 
under the twenty-four hour system will end it at 18. Those who retired to rest at 10 or 
11 p.m. will seek their beds at 22 or 23. The idea that solar noon and 12 o’clock are one 

1 At midsummer 1886, the Canadian Pacific Railway was opened from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the 
twenty-four hour system went into force in running “through” trains. The example set by the railway company 
has been followed in the Towns and Villages along the line, and the inhabitants generally having experienced the 
advantages of the change, no desire is expressed in any quarter to return to the old usage. 
*The following foot note is 
added :— “It is proposed to adapt 
clocks and watches now in use to 
the change, by having inseribed on 
the existing dials the new numbers 
of the afternoon hours,—thirteen to 
twenty-four (13 to 24) inclusive, as 
in the Plate. The only practical 
difficulty to be overcome is met by 
the simple expedient of placing on 
the face of the watch or clock a 
supplementary dial showing the 
new afternoon hours in Arabic 
numerals within the present Ro- 
man figures. The supplementary 
dial, must be of thin material, and 
it has been found that by being 
made simply of paper and secured 
to its position by any gum which 
will adhere to an enamelled sur- 
face, the object is attained with- 
out any further alteration of the 

watch or clock. The Committee is 
aware that these seem trifling mat- 
ters to bring under the notice of 
the Convention, but questions of 
greit moment not seldom hinge on 
small details. It is evident from 
what has been set forth, that every 
person in the community, may at 
the cost of a few cents in each case, 
adapt his watch to the 24 hour 
system. The Committee accord- 
ingly repeat their conviction that 
with the disappearance of the only 
practical difficulty at an insignifi- 
cant cost, there is nothing to pre- 
vent the Railway authorities and 
the Community at large adopting 
the change as soon as they become 
alive to its advantages.”—Report 
at the Buffalo Convention of the 
American Society of Civil Engi- 
neers. 
