52 SANDFORD FLEMING ON TIME 
and inseparable has already been set aside throughout the United States and Canada ; 
only on five meridians, the 60th, 75th, 90th, 105th and 120th, is it heid to be 12 o’clock 
at the mean solar passage. In all other longitudes throughout North America the identity 
between solar noon and 12 o’clock has practically been swept away. 
These modifications in time-reckoning must tend to remove the idea that there is some 
necessary connection between the numbers of the hours and the position of the sun in 
each local firmament. The force of habit has heretofore associated noon with 12 o'clock, 
but in due time it will become obvious to every one that the hour of the sun’s passage at 
any one locality may with as much propriety be distinguished by any one of the twenty- 
four numbers as by the now generally received number 12. So soon as this new idea 
comes generally to be accepted, so soon as it is understood that the numbers of the hours 
are arbitrary and conventional, it will not be difficult to take the final step in time-reform 
and entirely supersede the present system by a notation which will give to mankind 
throughout the world simultaneous dates and hours and minutes. 
The final step may appear to involve serious changes in much which concerns every 
individual, but it is not to be supposed that it will in any way interfere with the periods 
for labour, sleep, meals, or any ordinary usage. The one change will be in the numbers 
of the hours. In social affairs the regulating influence of daylight and darkness will 
always, as now, be paramount. The terms “noon” and “midnight” will continue to 
preserve their present meaning, although the numbers of the hours at which these periods 
occur will vary in each case according to longitude. Each separate meridian will have its 
own midnight hour distinguished from the midnight hours of other meridians by a distinc- 
tive number. So also with the noon hour, which as already stated will invariably agree 
with the longitude of the place. It is the midnight hour in each locality which will con- 
stitute the initial time-point to regulate the legal hours for opening and closing banks, 
registry and other public offices. The midnight hour may be arbitrarily chosen and be 
established by statute as circumstances may demand. It will be held to be the local zero 
to govern the hours of business, working hours, the hours for attendance at church, at 
school, and at places'of amusement, and generally to regulate all the social affairs of 
life. While the seven week days will practically remain unchanged in every longitude, 
the simple expedient of numbering the hours so that everywhere they will correspond 
with Cosmic Time will result in securing the general uniformity to be desired. Thus it 
will be obvious that in all matters relating to time, whether local or non-local, the same 
hours, minutes and seconds will universally be observed at the same instant. In cases 
when business men separated by long distances make contracts by telegraph, the engage- 
ments will be free from all ambiguity as to time. Both parties will be bound absolutely 
by the same notation. 
The Cosmic Day is a new measure of time, entirely non-local. It will be held to be the 
date of the world, and the change of date will occur at the same instant in all longitudes. 
On the prime meridian the change of date will be at midnight; to the east it will occur 
after midnight ; and to the west of the prime meridian it will come before midnight. It 
will be one hour before or after midnight for every fifteen degrees of west or east longi- 
tude. Fortunately, in nearly all the important countries on the surface of the globe, the 
change of date will occur out of ordinary business hours. 
It will thus be seen that while the contemplated reform will interfere as little as pos- 
