UNIVERSAL OR COSMIC TIME. 19 
ITALY, TURKEY, 
JAPAN, UNITED STATES, 
LIBERIA, VENEZUELA. 
In the negative : 
SAN DOMINGO. 
Abstained from voting : 
FRANCE anp BRAZIL. 
Avis 22. Nors I. 
There was less difficulty and even greater unanimity displayed 
when the consideration of Universal Time was submitted. The Con- 
ference adopted the principle of a Universal Day without a single 
negative vote. The resolutions carried are substantially in accord 
with the essential principles, if not with the precise features of the 
proposals set forth in the proceedings of the Canadian Institute, 
published in 1879. 
The resolution defining the Universal Day reads as follows: “ Re- 
solved, That this Universal Day is to be a mean solar day ; is to begin 
for all the world at the moment of mean midnight of the initial 
meridian, coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date of 
that meridian, and is to be counted from zero up to twenty-four 
hours.” 
This definition, taken in conjunction with the other resolutions of 
the Conference, is fraught with important consequences. 
When it is mean midnight at Greenwich, that moment it is mean 
noon at the meridian 180° from Greenwich, as indicated by the solar 
passage. Hence the Anti-Prime Meridian practically becomes the 
Time-zero for the world. 
The initial instant of the twenty-four hours of each successive 
Universal or Cosmic Day is the moment of mean solar passage on 
the Anti-Prime Meridian. The first hour of the Cosmic Day is at 
the solar passage on the meridian 15° westward ; this then becomes 
the lst Hour Meridian. The second hour of the Cosmic Day is at the 
solar passage on the meridian 15° still further westward ; this be- 
comes the 2nd Hour Meridian. And so on in turn, each meridian 
which is an exact multiple of 15° from the Time-zero becomes an 
Hour Meridian corresponding in number with the numbers of the 
successive hours of the Cosmic Day. 
