146 LONGITUDE AND TIME-RECKONING. 
sented on the surface of the globe by twenty-four fixed meridional 
lines, at one hour’s distance from each other, would establish the 
standards for local time everywhere. Perfect uniformity would thus 
be secured in all the clocks in the world. The minutes, and indeed 
all the sub-divisions of time, would be concurrent ; the local numbers 
of the hours only would differ.* 
The position of the twenty-four secondary meridians is governed 
by the selection of a primary meridian ; and hence the first step to 
the consummation of the scheme is the establishment of an initial 
meridian as a common starting point. 
Is it too much to affirm that the meridian suggested will fully meet 
every requirement? To the writer it seems, that with the concurrence 
of those nations acknowledged as the fountain heads of civilization, 
it might at once take the place of all other initial meridians which 
have hitherto been employed. It could be established without any 
clashing with existing customs, or any violent departure from the 
rules and practices and traditions of the great majority of: mariners. 
By its adoption the expression so familiar to us, ‘the longitude of 
Greenwich,” would simply pass out of usage, and some other name take 
its place. There would be no favoured nation, no gratification of any 
geographical vanity. A new prime meridian so established would be 
essentially cosmopolitan, and would tend towards the general benefit 
of humanity. As the line of demarcation between one date and 
another it would be of universal interest, and a property common to 
the hundreds of millions who live on the land, and the hundreds of 
thousands who sail on the sea. 
Since the foregoing was written, I have seen the weekly edition 
of the Times of the L7th ultimo. (Jan. ’79). The following extract 
* One of the unavoidable, results might be held to be objectionable, but, it may prove 
less disadvantageous than anticipated. Only on one meridian would the ordinary local day 
correspond with the unit of time. 15° west of that meridian it would be one hour later, 
80° west it would be two hours later ; and for each 15° degrees of westing one hour later still. 
Thus the epoch of change from one cosmopolitan date to another would occur at midnight in 
one locality, at noon in another, at six a.m. at a third, and at every hour of the 24, as the 
longitude would determine. This peculiarity would doubtless be felt to be an inconvenience 
during a brief interval of transition from the present to the new system. The accompanying 
plate illustrates the variation of changes, and shows that, while cosmopolitan time would be 
absolutely identical in every locality, local time Would vary one hour at each fixed local 
standard around the circumference of the globe. 
