SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS, 101 
division of the day into day and night by Nature is grounded on an 
equal duration of the hour, as it continued with the Romans. But 
the division of the same into equal parts by the passage of the sun 
through the line of mid-day is sustained by no natural principle which 
can stand the test of proof. The very name mid-day testifies not to 
the division of the same into two parts, but only the middle of an un- 
interrupted whole. It appears to us not entirely improbable that the 
division of the day into two parts of the like number, specification 
and dumation of hours, has especially found a point of support in the 
theory that in the infancy of the art of clock-making, the technical 
means were wanting to the clock-maker to show upon the dial-plate 
sufficiently and satisfactorily divided one from the other, all the 24 
different hours ; especially with watches. This supposition is strength- 
ened by the circumstance that in some countries, namely in Italy and 
Bohemia, even to the latest times, clocks on the towers, of which the 
larger size permitted all the 24 hours to be shown on their dial plate, 
had them so marked and with works adapted to the movement. In 
the present condition of the art the cause for shorterting the notation 
of the hours has entirely passed away, and at the same time the possi- 
bility presents itself of getting rid of the inconvenience which was 
called forth by it. If this end be attained in coming time, the 
Washington Conference from the impulse which it has so far given 
to it, has rendered a great service to all mankind. 
