118 TIME-RECKONING. 



As an illustration, I present condensed time-tables of the great 

 railway route now being established from London to the Pacific 

 through Canada. Table A is prepared in accordance with the present 

 system. Tables B and C are two different modes of applying the 

 system of cosmopolitan time, and illustrate the simplicity of that 

 system for such pm^poses. {Vide Appendix, No. 1.) 



It has been said that the 24 sub-divisions of the unit-measure 

 may be known by letters, in order to be distinguished from local 

 hours. But why use numerals for local hours 1 Numerals have no 

 special advantage over letters ; habit has undoubtedly rendered the 

 former familiar to the mind of this generation in connection with 

 the hour of the day ; but if the 24 divisions had to be again named, 

 and letters instead of numerals were adopted, the time of day could 

 bs as well expressed and as easily comprehended as at present. On 

 the other hand, letters when arranged in a circle, as on the dial of 

 a clock, have at least this advantage over numerals: they are all 

 symbols of equal importance, and any one letter could be taken to 

 represent the beginning of the series of the 24 which make up the 

 (lay ; while in the case of numerals, the lowest number can only 

 i-epi-esent the fii*st of the series. 



Let us take an illustration of the advantages of letters in connection 

 with the scheme. Suppose G to be the noon letter at a particular 

 place, how easy it would be for a resident to comprehend that it was 

 always noon when the hour hands of the clock pointed to G ; that 

 it was always midnight when they pointed to T, the letter on the 

 dial plate opposite to G ; or, in speaking of any particular time of 

 day, say four hoiu-s before mid-day, it would be as easy to comprehend 

 the time referred to \yj the use of the letter C as by the numeral 8. 

 Persons living in that locality would soon become familiar with the 

 relation which the several letters had to the time of day. 



Again, if we pass to a locality where another letter becomes 

 the meridian or noon letter, there could be no misunderstanding the 

 meaning of the expression. Time P. 22. It could have but one 

 meaning, viz., 1 hour and 22 minutes after mid-day, while 1.22 has 

 a double meaning, undetermined without the addition of "ante 

 meridian" or "post meridian." 



Thus it may be shown, if we could entirely ignore old practices 

 and begin de novo, the nomenclature proposed for cosmopolitan time 

 might very readily be employed for local purposes. 



