SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS. 45 
(LRANSLATION) 
REPORT ON UNIVERSAL TIME AND ON THE CHOICE FOR THAT 
PURPOSE OF A PRIME MERIDIAN ; MADE TO THE IMPERIAL 
ACADEMY: OF SCIENCES, ST. PETERSBURG, BY M. OTTO 
STRUVE, MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY AND DIRECTOR OF THE 
OBSERVATORY AT PULKOVA. 
{Read 30th September, 1880.] 
he two papers (Sandford Fleming, “'Time-Reckoning and the se- 
lection of a Prime Meridian,” and Cleveland Abbe, “ Standard Time, 
Report to the American Metrological Society,”) sent to the Academy 
by order of the English Government, owe their origin to the great 
necessity felt in the United States and in the English possessions in 
North America for introducing into some branches of the public 
service, namely, the railway and telegraph departments, an uniform 
and rational system of time-reckoning. In the report of Mr. Abbe 
the problem is considered principally from a local point of view. He 
sets forth the motives that have engaged the American Metrological 
Society to adopt a series of resolutions with the view of lessening the 
defects in the system at present in use in the United States, a sys- 
tem which has been introduced, little by little, so to speak, without 
recognizing the wants of the traveller or the management of rail- 
ways. There is, in this paper, but one resolution of a more extended 
range, that of recommending to the Government and the public, the 
exclusive use in the United States, of Time corresponding with the 
Meridian situated six hours to the west of Greenwich. The Metro- 
logical Society admits in principle the desirability in the future that 
an uniform Time should be introduced over all the globe, and it pro- 
nounces itself in favour of the Time reckoned from the Meridian, 
situated 180° from that of Greenwich. 
The memoir by Mr. Fleming, supported in his conclusions by the 
Canadian Institute of Toronto, is of a more general character. It 
proposes directly the adoption of the Meridian, situated at 180° from 
Greenwich, as Prime Meridian for the whole globe, and the introduc- 
tion of a Standard Time, reckoned from this Meridian, for the use of 
science and for certain purposes for use also in every-day life. This 
Time might be called Cosmopolitan Time to distinguish it from local 
Time, and his memoir presents different propositions in view of facili- 
tating its general introduction. Nevertheless the arguments in fa- 
vour of its universal introduction are merely stated in the said me- 
moir as suggestions which may attract the attention of the world on 
this important question and lead to ulterior discussions. For the mo- 
ment the author of this paper desires only to get from competent au- 
