650 REPORT — 1897. 



2. Report on Electrolysis and Elee'ro-chemittr!/. 

 See Reports, p. 227. 



3. On the Unification of Time. By John A. Paterson, 2f.A., 

 President of the Astronomical and Physical Society of Toronto. 



(1) Time reckoniiigr, as at present conducted, presents curious anomalies. The 

 civil day begins at midnight and ends at the following midnight. The nautical 

 day begins atnoou and concludes at noon of the next civil day. The astronomical 

 day begins at noon and ends at the following noon ; it is therefore apparent that 

 any given date may extend over or into three difierent days. 



(2) Principally through the efforts of members of the American Society of 

 Civil Engineers and Mr. Sandford Fleming, now Sir Sandford Fleming, an inter- 

 national conference was convened at Washington to consider the whole question 

 of time reform. The representatives of twenty-five nations, as well as the 

 Canadian representative named above, met accordingly in Washington in 1884 at 

 the invitation of the President of the United States, and after a conference extend- 

 ing over a month passed seven resolutions, the first five of which have been prac- 

 tically and generally accepted by the civilised world. The sixth resolution of that 

 remarkable conference was carried unanimously, and is as follows : ' That th& 

 conference expresses the hope that as soon as may be practicable the astronomical 

 and nautical days will be arranged everywhere to begin at mean midnight.' 



(3) The question of time reform remained in this position until the year 1893,, 

 ■when the Astronomical and Physical Society of Toronto, in co-operation with the 

 Canadian Institute, appointed a joint committee, with Sir Sandford Fleming as 

 chairman, to suggest the best means of ascertaining the views of astronomers- 

 throughout the world. This committee accordingly addressed by circular letter 

 the following question to astronomers and other scientific men throughout the- 

 world: — 



'Is it desirable, all interests considered, that on and after January 1,1901^ 

 the astronomical day should everywhere begin at mean midnight ? ' 



The replies received were in number 171, of which 108 were favourable to the 

 change, and 63 unfavourable. In classifying the replies from astronomers accord- 

 ing to the countries from which they were received, 18, including England and the 

 United States, were in favour of the change, and 4 were unfavourable to th& 

 change. Cla.ssifying the results according to the shipping, the countries favouring- 

 the change represent 65 per cent, of the world's marine. 



(4) Captain W. Nelson Greenwood, of Lancaster, England, ably assisted the- 

 Astronomical and Physical Society of Toronto in obtaining the opinion of ship- 

 masters on the question. The result was that 98 per cent, of those heard from 

 were in favour of the change, representing a total tonnage of 45.5,810. 



(5) An eflbrt towards securing unanimity amongst the nations of the world 

 has been put forth by the Astronomical and Physical Society of Toronto and the 

 Canadian Institute by communications addressed to the Lords Commissioners 

 of the Admiralty through his Excellency the Governor-General. In June 1897 

 the American Society of Civil Engineers passed a resolution in favour of the reform,, 

 and on June 25, 1 897, the Royal Society of Canada passed a resolution to request 

 the British Association to co-operate with the Royal Society and other Canadians 

 societies to influence her Majesty's Government to adopt the proposed change. 



(6) Hipparchus, the father of astronomy, counted his hours from midnight to 

 midnight. Ptolemy changed this and counted from noon to noon. The present 

 system is a Ptolemaic error. In 18C4 La Place proposed to unify astronomical 

 time with civil time, and it was so done until Le Verrier retrogi-aded to the old 

 system. Le Bureau des Longitudes in 1894 reported in favour of the sixth 

 resolution of the Washington Conference. 



(7) Very many high authorities can be quoted, such as Sir John Herschel, 

 Cleveland Abb6, Burckhalter, Comstock, J. E. Gore, Hadden, Garrett P. Serviss, 



