27^ 



NATURE 



[Feuruarv 20, 1 90S 



tions slands in strong contrast to the very inadequate 

 and xinsalisfactory 'diagrams; that representing a 

 section I'roiii the Trent valley to the coastal plain is 

 about as misleading to the general reader as such a 

 thing could be made; the vertical scale is nearly 

 one hundred times the horizontal, and the dips are 

 proportionately exaggerated, Irom the actual 2° or 3° 

 to something like 65° or 70°. It is an aggravation 

 of the oPfence to waste fine plate-paper on such a 

 monstrosity. 



Despite this and some minor blemishes the book 

 is an interesting one, and should do something to 

 stimulate an interest in the scientific study of the 

 scenerv of a region that is replete with beauty and 

 charm. 



L 



THE SUN AND THE CLOCK. 

 A.ST week a Bill was introduced into Parliament 

 by Mr. R. Pearce, M.P., having for its object 

 the better accommodation of the hours of business 

 to the 'hours of daylight, to be accomplished by a 

 device which, though simple in appearance, would 

 in practice prove very troublesome. Custom and 

 habit have so arranged the hours of the working day 

 that the general tendency is to use more hours in 

 the afternoon than in the morning. This unequal 

 division is attended with many inconveniences, one 

 of which is that we use artificial light for more hours 

 than would be necessary if we would consent to 

 divide our time more symmetrically with reference 

 to the sun's meridian passage. It is not impossible 

 but that greater economy and more healthy conditions 

 for labour might follow, and so far as this is the 

 purpose of the Bill, which owes its initiative to Mr. 

 Willett, we can all sympathise. It would be an 

 evident advantage to employ sunlight, which costs 

 nothing, in the place of gas and electricity, which 

 are expensive luxuries, and it is probable that it is 

 this obvious benefit which has enlisted the good will 

 of many well-known authorities to what on close 

 examination seems to be rather a childish measure. 



Mr. Pearce, who holds a brief for Mr. Willett, is 

 anxious to begin the day earlier; he does not propose 

 to curtail the hours of labour in any way, but simply 

 to shift the hands of the clock so that for part of 

 the year noon on the clock dial would not coincide 

 with the transit of the mean sun. Since it is the clock 

 and not the sun that regulates all affairs of business 

 or pleasure, suitable arrangements could be made, but 

 whether those proposed bv the Bill are the most satis- 

 factory is an open question. The Bill provides that 

 on each of the first four Sundays in April standard 

 time shall be advanced twenty minutes, making the 

 clock gain on the sun eighty minutes in the course 

 of the month. Ordinary office hours would therefore 

 begin at 8.40 a.m. instead of ten o'clock, and, of 

 course, end at 3.40 p.m. instead of five o'clock-, as 

 reckoned by the mean sun. In this way there would 

 be approximately symmetrical distribution of the day 

 on both sides of the meridian. In winter, when we 

 use all the daylight available, nothing is gained by 

 advancing the clock on solar time, and it is proposed to 

 bring the clock and sun again into coincidence 

 bv putting standard time back twenty minutes on 

 e.ach of the first four Sundays in September. 



This pushing the hands to and fro on the dial 

 is, we are told, the whole cost of the scheme. Unfor- 

 tunately, that statement is misleading. The hour 

 chosen for this abrupt dislocation of continuity is two 

 o'clock in the morning, an hour when very few people 

 would care to make the necessary adjustment, and 

 many a man on arriving at the station on Monday 

 morning would find that his train had been gone 



NO. 1999, VOL. 77] 



twenty minutes, or that he had to wait twenty minutes 

 before it was due, according as the time of the year 

 was spring or autunm. This continual interruption 

 of uniformity would be intolerable. One can more 

 easily accommodate himself to a burden, however 

 grievous, if the pressure be constant, than to the 

 petty irritation arising from frequent change. 



But we would seriously ask the supporters of Mr. 

 Willett 's scheme where is the necessity for this aggra- 

 vating policy of perpetual alteration? We suspect, if 

 ive could get at the truth, that this constant inter- 

 ference is a concession to inherited instinct, and a 

 desire not to depose the sun too hurriedly from that 

 position of preeminence which he has hitherto enjoyed. 

 The author of the scheme manifests a cautious hesi- 

 tancy lest some mischief should arise from separating 

 the clock and the sun by too great an interval, and 

 thinks to appease the possible objections of more con- 

 servative minds by pointing out that it is only for 

 half a year that the clock is wrong. It looks as 

 though he were afraid of his own measure, for what 

 possible advantage can accrue from putting the clock 

 back in .September? If the measure be wise and 

 acceptable, why not boldly alter the time one hour 

 by one and a final interruption? In summer we 

 should get nearly the same advantage as that claimed 

 for this policy of pin-pricks, and in winter we should 

 be no worse off. 



It is quite a different question to ask, is such a 

 measure desirable? or, further, whether the proposed 

 remedy is the most judicious? It might be more 

 satisfactory to effect some change in our habits and 

 customs more in line with those that obtain on t'ne 

 Continent or in India. The hours of business or of 

 social functions may in those countries be dictated by 

 a desire to avoid heat and glare, but the point is 

 that we should do well to follow the example of 

 those who have considered the sun as a factor in 

 regulating their affairs. Such ends cannot, however, 

 be accomplished by legislative action, but b}' the 

 decision of Society with a big S. To ask a man to 

 dine at six instead of at eight would be a drastic 

 revolution that few would feel themselves competent 

 to inaugurate. 



The Astronomer Royal has raised a point of great 

 importance, at the same time hinting that the authors 

 of the scheme have thought too much of the con- 

 venience of their own order and too little of that of 

 the great majority of the public, whose daily life 

 bi'gins far earlier than Mr. Willett seems to imagine. 

 Where life is strenuous, in factory or workshop, in 

 dock or on railway, toilers quit their homes soon after 

 five o'clock by the sun. It is easy to conceive that 

 earlier rising would entail a hardship. Those who 

 minister to the comfort of Mr. Willett and his class 

 accomplish much before the more leisured day begins. 

 The handling of perishable articles and the distribu- 

 tion of food in great centres of population goes on 

 all night. To shorten that night by an hour or more 

 to get the same amount of work done in a shorter 

 time would tax resources to breaking point. 



There is, too, another consideration which is not 

 without its weight. England has succeeded in secur- 

 ing the recognition of the Greenwich meridian as the 

 origin of time throughout the world, and with some- 

 thing like uniformity time is reckoned from that 

 meridian. Is it desirable to commence an agitation 

 which involves a breach, though only nominal, of that 

 uniformity? We have admitted that there are some 

 advantages to be derived from the adoption of the 

 scheme, but when weighed against the disadvantages 

 arising from a fretful disorganisation, it may be 

 " belter to suffer the ills we have than fly to others 

 we know not of." 



