56 UNIVERSAL OR COSMIC TIJIE. 



ADDRESS AT THE INTERNATIONAL GEOaRAPHICAL CONGRESS, 

 VENICE, SEPTEMBER 21st, 1881, ON THE REGULATION OF 

 TIME AND THE ADOPTION OF A PRIME MERIDIAN. 



By Sandford Fleming, Delegate, of the Canadian InMitute, Toronto, and 

 the American Metrological Society, New York. 



The subject to which, with your permission, I shall briefly refer, 

 is the establishment of a Prime Meridian and Time-zero, to be com- 

 mon to all nations. 



The history of geographical science informs us that a great number 

 of initial meridians have at various times been employed by asti-ou- 

 omers and navigators. It is well known that Claudius Ptolemy of 

 Alexandria was among the first to fix a meridian of reference. 

 Ptolemy lived in the second century, when the inhabitable world 

 was thought to be limited to countries around, or not far beyond, the 

 shoi-es of the Mediterranean. From time to time a knowledge of the 

 earth's surface extended, and distinguished geogr:iphei-s arose, who 

 adopted new initial meridians. It is not necessary that I should 

 trouble you with a recital of the list of meridians from which, since 

 the earliest period, longitudes have been reckoned. It is sufficient 

 at this stage to refer to the fact that geographers of different nations 

 have generally selected for starting points places of importance well- 

 known to them, and that, as a rule, they iiave chosen the capitals or 

 the principal observatories of the nations to which they respectively 

 belonged. Hence the multiplication of meridians of reference 

 tlu'oughout the world. Within a comparatively recent period com- 

 munications between the peoples of different nations have been greatly 

 facilitated, and intercourse has proportionately increased. It has 

 consequently been felt that the variety of first meridians is emba)-- 

 rassing and unnecessary. For a number of years the question of 

 reducing this number has beeri under consideration ; it has been 

 brought before the Geographical Congress at Antwerp, and again at 

 Paris. The question has neen examined by different societies, and 

 various proposals have been submitted, but unanimity with respect 

 to the selection of a prime meridian to be common to all nations has 

 in no way been attained. Repeated efibrts have been made to gain 

 general concurrence to the adoption of one of the existing national 

 meridians, but these proposals have tended to retard a settlement of 

 the question hj awakening national sensibilities, and thus creating a 

 barrier difiicult to remove. Other proposals to select an entirely new 

 initial line, unrelated to any one of the first mei'idians at present 

 recognized, have but little advanced the settlement of the question, 

 as such a course encounters difficulties of another kind, difficulties so 

 serious in their character as to render the proposals almost impi'ac- 

 ticable. 



There are reasons for a unification of first meridians which every 

 year become stronger, and, as the question affects the whole area of 



