TIME-BECKONING, 119 



To render the dial plates of time-pieces perfectly intelligible in 

 each, place when used for local time, the expedient shown in Fig. 3 

 might be adopted. 



Fig. 3. 



LouAL AND Cosmopolitan Time. 



Here the noon and midnight letters are easily distinguished, and 

 that portion of the day which includes the hours of darkness cannot 

 be mistaken. These or similar expedients could be employed with 

 the same effect in the clocks and watches used in every place on 

 the surface of the earth. 



It would, however, be vain to assume that the present system could 

 be at once abolished and disregarded. It becomes expedient, therefore 

 to consider how the advantages of the scheme of cosmopolitan time could 

 be secured in everyday life. It is perfectly obvious that the present 

 system cannot be overlooked ; and that, although it may not be always 

 maintained, it must for some time be continued. We must therefore 

 look for some means by which the new notation may be employed in 

 conjunction with the old, until the latter would fall into disuse. 



It may be said that local time is almost always more or less 

 arbitrarily established. Our clocks but rarely indicate true local 

 time, and the most perfect time-pieces are for the greater portion 

 of the year either faster or slower than the sun. In fact, correct 

 ordinary time-keepers must necessarily at certain seasons be about 

 15 minutes faster or slower than true solar time, and- no inconveni- 

 ence whatever is found to result. The adoption of Irish time in 

 England, or English time in Ireland, co'ild not be felt in civil afiairs. 

 The difference between English and Irish time, as arbitrarily estab- 

 lished, is twenty- five minutes ; but in the west of Ireland local 

 mean time is forty minutes, and solar time sometimes fifty-five 

 minutes behind English time (Greenwich). Greenwich time is used 



