‘ 
70 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
from the representatives of some sixty thousand miles of railway, 
ninety-eight (98) per cent. of whom have given expression to their 
sympathy with the movement, to abandon the old practice of halving 
the day, designating the two sets of twelve hours by the abbreviations 
A.M. and P.M., and are prepared to adopt a simple notation of 1 to 
24 in a single series, The great telegraph interests of the country 
are likewise in full sympathy with it. The President of the Western 
Union Telegraph Company, Dr. Norwin Green, states that their 
telegraphic traffic is equal to the transmission of forty-four million 
messages a year, and the general adoption of the 24 o’clock system, 
as it has been designated, would be cordially welcomed by telegraphers. 
It would reduce materially the risk of errors, and to the company 
over which he presides, he says it would save the transmission of at 
least 150,000,000 letters annually. 
The branch literature bearing on the two questions of Universal 
Time and the establishment of a Prime Meridian, has been enriched 
by a series of papers whieh have appeared during the past year in 
the International Standard, a magazine published in Cleveland, 
Ohio. These papers are by the following gentlemen connected with 
the International Institute :—Rev. H. G. Wood, of Sharon, Penn- 
sylvania ; Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland ; 
Professor John N. Stockwell, Astronomer, Cleveland; Mr. Jacob M. 
Clark, C.E., New York; Mr. William H. Searle. Pennsylvania ; 
L’Abbé F. Moigno, Canon of St. Denis, Paris ; Commodore Wm. B. 
Whiting, U. 8. Navy ; Mr. Charles Latimer, C.E., Cleveland ; and 
others. 
It will be seen from what I have submitted, that the proceedings 
have neither been few nor without success, That since this Institute 
published the first issue of papers on Time and Time-reckoning, the 
subject has received much attention on both sides of the Atlantic. 
Societies with kindred pursuits, men of recognized merit in the 
scientific world, have turned to its examination and aided in its de- 
velopment. Some few men have acted in concert. The labour of 
others have been independent. Some of these names I have been 
able to record, but I fear that I neglect to include many of eminence 
because they are not known to me. It is this varied and widely 
diffused eftort which has rendered possible the realization of the 
practical results which I have the gratitication to record, and all 
