KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 31 



sun is slow aud behind the average sun, the difference between apparent sun 

 time and railroad time is more than half an hour, and yet no one notices the 

 difference. The only advantage gained by a multiplicity of standards, and 

 we have seen that it is purely nominal, is the only disadvantage of a standard 

 common to a wide area. 



The advantages that would accrue to navigation, railroad interests, news- 

 paper dispatching, telegraphic communications of all kinds, scientific obser- 

 vations, and other similar but more general interests, can be fully realized 

 only from a wide extension of a common system. In a State the advantages 

 are more personal. Sixty minutes make an hour. Five minutes here and 

 ten there, wasted because two railroads differ in their standards, will soon 

 amount to considerable lost time. If the local time is slower than the rail- 

 road time, the forgetting this fact may involve a full day's delay. Persons 

 coming from Lawrence to Topeka find that their watches are a quarter of an 

 hour slow. The journey from Topeka to Wyandotte involves a change of 

 twelve minutes in the other direction. While these may seem trivial con- 

 cerns, they have, in reality, a decided influence on the convenience of most 

 people. 



Should a system of common time be established in this State, as has been 

 done in Connecticut, the selection of the proper meridian would be one of 

 the first questions to be settled. In doing this, regard must be had, not alone 

 to the convenience of the majority and to State feeling, but also to the fact 

 that it is quite probable that within a few years there will be established a 

 system e:xtending over the whole country. The outline of the plan is that 

 there shall be four "times," differing by even hours, and in use respectively 

 in the Atlantic States, the Mississippi valley, the Rocky Mountain region, 

 and the Pacific States. The leaders in the movement have not yet deter- 

 mined which of the two principal meridians (Greenwich or Washington) shall 

 be chosen as the base. It would seem that the meridian of Greenwich would 

 be the better. 



The six meridians that are available for use in this State are these: 



1. The meridian of the observatory of the State University, at Lawrence, 

 where the time would be determined and sent over the State. 



2. The meridian of the State Capitol building, at Topeka. 



3. The meridian of Kansas City — the practical commercial focus of the State. 



4. The meridian that is one hour west of Washington. 



5. The meridian that is six hours west of Greenwich. 



6. The meridian that is seven hours west of Greenwich. 



These times will be in error, as compared with true local times at the eastern, 

 and western boundaries of the State, as follows: 



East. West. 



1. Lawrence meridian 2 m. slow. 28 m; fast. 



2. Topeka meridian 4 m. slow. 26 m fast. 



3. Kansas City meridian , m. 30 m. fast. 



4. Washington (one hour) meridian 11 m. fast. 41 m. fast. 



5. Greenwich (six hours) meridian 19 m. fast. 49 m. fast. 



6. Greenwich (seven hours) meridian 41 m. slow. 11 m. slow. 



