114 TIME-KECKONING. 



of the twenty-foui' divisions into which the unit of time is divided, 

 shall be assumed to correspond with certain known meridians of 

 longitude, and that the machinery of the instrument shall be arranged 

 and regulated so that the index or hour hand shall point in succession 

 to each of the twenty-four divisions as it became noon at the corres- 

 ponding meridian. In fact, the hour hand shall revolve fi'om east to 

 west with precisely the same speed as the earth on its axis, and shall 

 therefore point directly and constantly towards the sun, while the 

 earth moves round from west to east. 



Each of the twenty-four parts into which the time-unit is proposed, 

 as above, to be divided, would be exactly equal in length to an hour ; 

 but they ought not to be considered hours in the ordinary sense, but • 

 simply twenty-fourth parts of the mean time occupied in the diurnal 

 revolution of the earth. Hours, as we usually refer to them, have a 

 distinct relation to noon or to midnight at some particular place on the 

 earth's surface, while the time indicated by the standard chronometer 

 would have no special relation to any particular locality or longitude. 

 It would be common and equally related to all places, and the twenty- 

 four sub-divisions of the unit-measure would be simply portions of 

 abstract time. 



The standard time-keeper is referred to the centre of the earth, in 

 order clearly to bring out the idea that- it is equally related to every 

 point on the sui-face of the globe. The standard might be stationed 

 anywhere — at Yokohama, at Cairo, at St. Petersburg, at Greenwich, 

 or at Washington. Indeed, the proposed system, if carried into force, 

 would result in establishing many keepers of standard time, perhaps 

 in every country, the electric telegi-aph affording the means of securing 

 perfect synchronism all over the earth. 



In order properly to distinguish the new unit measure and its sub- 

 divisions from ordinary days and ordinary hours, a new nomenclature 

 might be advisable. The employment of the letters of the alphabet 

 for the twenty-four divisions would in most civilized countries com- 

 pletely distinguish them from local hours, and the twenty-four 

 meridians, which on the surface of the globe would correspond with 

 -the sub-divisions, might also be so known. It would farther be 

 expedient to distinguish the proposed new system from sidereal, 

 astronomical, civil or local time. For this purpose either of the 

 designations, "common," "universal," "non-local," "uniform," "abso- 

 lute," "all world," "terrestrial," or "cosmopolitan," might be employed. 

 For the present it may be convenient to use the latter term. 



