54 UNIVEKSAL OR COSMIC TIME. 



from Greenwicli (or the signs -|- or — ).* The first inericlian pro- 

 posed by Sanclford Fleming, 180° from that of Greenwich, according 

 to the present opinion of Otto Struve, offers the following points of 

 pre-eminence : 



1. " It passes through no continent excepting the eastern end of 

 North Asia, which is inhabited only by a not numerous and uncivil- 

 ized tribe, the Tschuktschen. 



2. " It closely coincides with that same meridian upon which the 

 seamen, according to custom, must change the date of a day.t The 

 change of a day's date would accordingly coincide with that of the 

 Cosmopolitan Meridian. 



3. " It changes nothing in the practice of the majority of seamen 

 and geographers, with the exception of the addition of 12 hours or 

 180° to all longitudes. 



4. " It occasions no change in the calculation of the ephemeridei? 

 in most general use by seamen, namely, those of the British ISTautical 

 Almanac, except the simple transfer of mid-day to mid-night or vice 

 cersa. 



5. " The great differences which would exist between Cosmopolitan 

 and Ix)cal Time by the acceptance of this first meridian by the inhabi- 

 tants of almost all civilized lands would remove all misunderstandings 

 and uncertainties, under difierent circumstances as to whether Cosmo- 

 politan or Local was intended to be acted upon." 



Upon these grounds Herr Otto Struve, of the Academy of Science 

 of St. Petersburg, is willing to recommend for common acceptance 

 the meridian 180° west of Greenwich as the first meridian. 



By this opinion the second of Fleming's submitted questions 

 obtains its solution. 



With regard to the questions submitted by Mr. Fleming in the 

 general form, as a starting point for further discussion on the intro- 

 duction for all countries of a common Time-reckoning the Pulkova 

 astronomer remarks, that at present from the various customs and 

 interests of different countries, it must be received with hesitation. 



* But it would be easy to remedy this innonvenlence, if according to the exnmple of Prof, 

 A. Aiiwers, in whose praiseworthy contribution to the Geographical Year Bonk VIII. (1880, pji. 

 303-310), "Geographical Longitudes and Latitudes of 144 Observatories," all the longitudes froni 

 Greenwich are numbered easterly through the full circumference of the circle. Also Prof. C. 

 Bruhns has in his repurt on Point 33 of the Programme of the Second Meteorological Congress at 

 Rome, 1879, in which he proposes universally to accept the Meridian of Greenwich for Meteoro- 

 logical Maps, laid it down as indispensable, tliat by the acceptance of any first meridian what- 

 soever, the longitudes run in one direction only, and indeed be reckoned from the East. The 

 computation in different directions easily leads to misunderstanding and furnishes cause for 

 complications, 



tOn a ship which, from the East (Ameriea), sails to the West (Asia or Australia), and 

 reckons its time according to the mean time of Greenwicli, they count from the meridian 180° 

 from Greenwich. If, for example, on 27th July, Greenwich is at mid-night, and then begins the 

 date of the •.'8th July, it is no more than mid-day on the 27th July, and they must, in order to 

 accord with the Greenwich date, then move forward its date one day from 27th to 28th .Another 

 ship, which sails from the West (Asia or Australia) to the East (America), and equally reckons 

 the time from Greenwich, if Greenwich on the 27th July is at no more than mid-day, upon the 

 meridian 180^ from Greenwich it is already mid-night of the 2Sth July, and they must, in order 

 again To come in accord with the Greenwich date, put back its date a day, thus to count the 

 .same date twice over. 



