210 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Members of the Eoyal Society will remember a cognate case which 

 presented itself on this continent thirty or forty years ago. Tlie de- 

 velopment of the Railway System of this country was the direct means 

 of forcing the matter on our attention. The establishment of the 

 Canadian Railways, extending from the Maritime Provinces westerly to- 

 wards the Pacific, brought to light dilTiculties in reckoning time. It 

 was discovered that generally speaking every town and city had its own 

 standard by which the hours of the day were reckoned. It was found 

 that there were nearly a dozen standards of time between Halifax and 

 Sarnia, and there was every prospect, in the absence of a proper system, 

 of having eventually nearly a hundred standards between the Atlantic 

 and the Pacific. This was suggestive of confusion, and worse than 

 confusion, in operating the railway system of the future. Among the 

 records of the Eoyal Society will be found a detailed account of the 

 means taken to avert these evils. A scheme was evolved by which tlie 

 difficulty which presented itself was completely solved, and not only 

 Canada and the American Continent, but all countries on the face of 

 the globe were benefited. 



In May, 1870, the matter was brought to the attention of the Mar- 

 (juis of Lome, then Governor-General of Canada, by a memorial from 

 the Canadian Institute, Toronto. Ilis Excellency took means to bring 

 the question to the notice of Her Majesty's official and scientific 

 authorities in London, and through the Home Government the attention 

 of foreign governments was directed to the subject. 



This was the first practical step taken, and the world is more in- 

 debted than it knows to the representative of the Queen in this 

 Dominion — to the same British nobleman who, a few years afterwards, 

 became the founder of the Royal Society of Canada. This step led 

 eventually to an International Conférence being held at Washington 

 from which, as a direct outcome, tlie meridians of the globe were 

 standardized, and the reckoning of the hours of the day simplified by 

 having one definite standard for the world. 



I venture to think that the question of simplifying the almanac 

 can be dealt with similarly. 1 see every reason for memorializing the 

 Governor-General on the subject, in the hope that His Excellency may 

 take the first practical step in a movement of such general and wide 

 importance. May we not be justified in the expectation that in due 

 time an international conference may be assembled, possibly in Ottawa, 

 to consider the matter, and that, as a result, all civilized nations would 

 have a simplified and greatly improved calendar for their common use 

 and benefit in reckoning the days, the weeks, and the months throughout 

 each and every year. 



