SUl'PLKMKNrAUY PAPERS. 45 



(TKAX.SI.ATION") 



REPORT ON UNIVERSAL TIME AND ON THE CHOICE FOR THAT 

 PURPOSE OF A PRIME MERIDIAN; MADE TO THE IMPERIAL 

 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ST. PETERSBURG, BY M. OTTO 

 STRUVE, MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY AND DIRECTOR OF THE 

 OBSERVATORY AT PULKOVA. 



[Read 30th September, J 880.] 



The two papers (Sandford Fleming, " Time-Reckoning and the se- 

 lection of a Prime Meridian," and Cleveland Abbe, " Standaixl Time, 

 Report to the American Metrological Society,") sent to the Academy 

 by order of the English Government, owe their origin to the great 

 necessity felt in the United States and in the English possessions in 

 Noi'tli America for introducing into some branches of (.he public 

 sei'vice, namely, the railway and telegraph departments, an uniform 

 and rational system of time-reckoning. In the report of Mr. Abbe 

 the problem is considered principally from a local point of view. He 

 sets forth the motives that have engaged the American Metrological 

 Society to adopt a series of resolutions with the view of lessening the 

 defects in the system at present in \ise in the United States, a sys- 

 tem which has been introduced, little by little, so to speak, without 

 recognizing the wants of the traveller or the management of rail- 

 ways. There is, in this paper, but one resolution of a more extended 

 range, that of recommending to the Government and the public, the 

 exclusive use in the United States, of Time corresponding with the 

 Meridian situated six hours to the west of Greenwich. The Metro- 

 logical Society admits in principle the desirability in the future that 

 an uniform Time should be introduced over all the globe, and it pro- 

 nounces itself in favour of the Time reckoned from the Meridian, 

 situated 180° from that of Greenwich. 



The memoir by Mr. Fleming, supported in his conclusions by the 

 Canadian Institute of Toronto, is of a more general character. It 

 proposes directly the adoption of the Meridian, situated at 180° from 

 Greenwich, as Prime Meridian for the whole globe, and the introduc- 

 tion of a Standard Time, reckoned from this Meridian, for the use of 

 science and for certain purposes for use also in every-day life. This 

 Time might be called Cosmopolitan Time to distinguish it from local 

 Time, and his memoir presents diffei-ent propositions in view of facili- 

 tating its general introduction. Nevertheless the arguments in fa- 

 vour of its universal introduction are merely stated in the said me- 

 moir as suggestions which may attract the attention of the world on 

 this important question and lead to ulterior discussions. For the mo- 

 ment the author of this paper desires only to get from competent au- 



