146 LONGITUDE AND TIME-RECKONING. 



sented on the surface of the globe by twenty-four fixed meridional 

 lines, at one hour's distance from each other, would establish the 

 standards for local time everyivhere. Perfect uniformity would thus 

 be secured in all the flocks in the world. The minutes, and indeed 

 all the sub-divisions of time, would be concurrent ; the local numbers 

 of the hours only would differ.* 



The position of the twenty-four secondary meridians is governed 

 by the selection of a primary meridian ; and hence the first step to 

 the consummation of the scheme is the establishment of an initial 

 meridian as a common starting point. 



Is it too much to affirm that the meridian suggested will fully meet 

 every requirement 1 To the writer it seems, that with the concurrence 

 of those nations acknowledged as the fountain heads of civilization, 

 it might at once take the place of all other initial meridians which 

 have hitherto been employed. It could be established without any 

 clashing with existing customs, or any violent departure from the 

 rules and practices and traditions of the great majority of mariners. 

 By its adoption the expression so familiar to us, "the longitude of 

 Greenwich," would simply pass out of usage, and some other name take 

 its place. There would be no favoured nation, no gratification of any 

 geographical vanity. A new prime meridian so. established would be 

 essentially cosmopolitan, and would tend towards the general benefit 

 of humanity. As the line of demarcation between one date and 

 another it would be of universal interest, and a property common to 

 the hundreds of millions who live on the land, and the hundreds of 

 thousands who sail on the sea. 



Since the foregoing was written, I have seen the weekly edition 

 of the Times of the 17th ultimo. (Jan. 79). The following extract 



* One of the unavoidabie, results might be held to be objectionable, but, it may prove 

 less disadvantageous than anticipated. Only on one meridian would the ordinary local day 

 correspond with the unit of time. 15° west of that meridian it would be one hour later, 

 30° west it would be two hours later ; and for each 15° degrees of westing one hour later still. 

 Thus the epoch of change from one cosmopolitan date to another would occur at midnight in 

 one locality, at noon in another, at six a.m. at a third, and at every hour of the 24, as the 

 longitude would determine. This peculiarity would doiibtless be felt to be an inconvenience 

 dui'ing a brief interval of transition from the present to the new system. The accompanying 

 plate illustrates the variation of changes, and shows that, while cosmopolitan time would be 

 absolutely identical in every locality, local time iViould vary one hour at each fixed local 

 standard around the circumference of the globe. 



