UNIVERSAL OR COSMIC TIME. 19 



ITALY, TURKEY, 



JAPAN, UNITED STATES, 



LIBERIA, VENEZUELA. 



In the negative : 



SAN DOMINGO. 



Abstained from voting : 



FRANCE A>TD BRAZIL, 



Ayes 22. Noes 1. 



Tliere was less difficulty and even greater unanimity displayed 

 when the consideration of Universal Time was submitted. The Con- 

 ference adopted the principle of a Universal Day without a single 

 negative vote. The resolutions carried are substantially in accord 

 with the essential principles, if not with the precise features of the 

 proposals set forth in the proceedings of the Canadian Institiite, 

 published in 1879, 



The resolution defining the Universal Day reads as follows : " He- 

 solved, That this Universal Day is to be a mean solaf- day ; is to begin 

 for all the world at the moment of mean midnight of the initial 

 meridian, coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date of 

 that meridian, and is to be counted from zero up to twenty-four 

 hours." 



This definition, taken in conjunction with, the other resolutions of 

 the Conference, is fraught with important consequences. 



When it is mean midnight at Greenwich, that moment it is mean 

 noon at the meridian 180° from Greenwich, as indicated by the solar 

 passage. Hence the Anti-Prime Meridian practically becomes the 

 Time-zero for the world. 



The initial instant of the twenty-four hours of each successive 

 Universal or Cosmic Day is the yaoment of mean solar passage on 

 the Anti-Prime Meridian. The first hour of the Cosmic Day is at 

 the solar passage on the meridian 15° westward ; this then becomes 

 the 1st Hour Meridian. The second hour of the Cosmic Day is at the 

 solar passage on the meridian 15° still further westward ; this be- 

 comes the 2nd Hour Meridian. And so on in tui-n, each meridian 

 which is an exact multiple of 15° from the Time-zero becomes an 

 Hour Meridian corresponding in number with the numbers of the 

 successive houi's of the Cosmic Day, 



