232 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. I. 



vigorously directed attention to the 24 hour notation. It has a special Com- 

 mittee, whose duty under the authority of the Society is to correspond with 

 Railway Managers on the subject, and in every proper way to promote 

 the adoption of the new notation. The communications which have 

 been sent out by the American Society of Civil Engineers to the leading 

 railway men throughout the country have elicited a very large number of 

 replies. They embrace the opinion of, it is believed, a considerable ma- 

 jority of the managers of all the Railway Companies in North America, 

 and of all who have been heard from about 97 per cent, are in favour of 

 the adoption of the 24 hour notation in the railway service of the country 

 at an early date. It is quite obvious^that there is a widespread feeling in 

 favour of the change, and it only remains for the General Time Conven- 

 tion, an organized body representing all the railways in the United 

 States, to take decisive action in the matter, so that the new notation 

 may be brought into use simultaneously in every section of the country. 



24. Canada, in adopting the hour zone system and in introducing the 24 

 hour notation, has undoubtedly taken the lead in carrying into effect, in 

 the most practical manner possible, the essential principles of Universal 

 time. The 24 hour notation has likewise been introduced in the Railway 

 service of China, and it is not a little remarkable that one of the oldest 

 Eastern civilizations conjointly with the youngest Western civilization 

 should set an example in breaking through the trammels of custom to 

 inaugurate a reform which every intelligent person believes to be desir- 

 able. Universal time will be substantially adopted in North America so 

 soon as the 24 hour notation is brought into use throughout the United 

 States. There is but one step necessary to secure to Great Britain all the 

 advantages of Universal time, that is the adoption of the 24 hour nota- 

 tion ; this one reform concerns the railway system and railway travellers 

 especially, and in a country where all travel more or less, I cannot but 

 think that if English Railway Managers were informed as to the ease 

 with which the change has been introduced in Canada and the satis- 

 factory results which have followed, they would very speedily take 

 means to obtain similar advantages. I am confirmed in this view by an 

 examination of the letters which have been received by the Science and 

 Art Department, South Kensington, copies of which I have been 

 favoured with. These letters go to show that the resolutions of the 

 Washington Conference on this subject are cordially favoured by the 

 following important bodies and Departments, viz : 



1. Royal Astronomical Society. 



2. The Royal Society. 



3. The Board of Trade. 



