SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS. 59 
graph was unknown and the horse was almost the only locomotive. 
The system is based on the theory that time is regulated everywhere 
by the passage of the sun over the meridian of each separate locality, 
that the period between any two solar passages, at any one place, is 
divided into halves, known as ante-meridian and post-meridian, each 
half being subdivided into twelve hours, and that the two halves 
together ccnstitute a day. 
According to the recognised theory, as already stated, every spot 
on the surface of the globe differing in longitude has an entirely dis- 
tinct day, and a local time peculiar to itself. Mxcept on the same 
meridian there are no simultaneous days, or hours or minutes. 
Everywhere the days and divisions of the day vary, and the varia- 
tions are infinite. 
In the case of North America the continent extends across one 
hundred and five degrees of longitude. Within its extreme eastern 
and western limits it is possible to draw many thousand distinct 
meridians, and following rigidly the prescribed theory, we may have 
as many thousand standards of time, not two of which would be in 
harmony, ‘The railway authorities have come face to face with the 
difficulty, and they have from time to time met it as circumstances 
dictated. In order to operate the long line of railway with some 
degree of safety, each separate manager has been obliged to ignore 
the different local times and arbitrarily adopt a special time for the 
movement of trains on the particular lines under his charge. The 
railway guide books publish at least seventy-five (75) irregularly 
chosen standards of time, employed for the running of trains in the 
United States and Canada. Every city and town of importance has 
its own time, occasionally coinciding, but frequently differing from 
the nearest railway standard. The public have been obliged to 
accommodate themselves to this irregular system, but it has become 
exceedingly inconvenient and irksome, and a scheme which will in- 
troduce a time-system characterized by uniformity and simplicity 
cannot fail to be cordially welcomed. 
For the reasons stated, an earnest movement has begun in America 
with the view of establishing reform in time-reckoning. The ques- 
tion is engaging the attention of the Canadian Institute, the Ameri- 
can Metrological Society, the American Society of Civil Engineers, 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and 
other Societies. The community generally and the great railway 
and telegraph interests are being awakened to its importance. 
It is felt that the question is one in which all countries have an 
interest, and although it has presented itself perhaps more promi- 
nently in America than elsewhere, it is eminently desirable that 
Americans should take no narrow view of a scientific matter of 
world-wide interest. 
