SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS. 5/ 



CLvilizatioTi, its consideration sliould be approached in a broad, libei'al 

 spirit. While it may be urged that the selection of any particular 

 lueridian is less important than the adoption of a common first meri- 

 dian, care should be taken to consider the interests of all people con- 

 cerned, or likely to be concerned, scrupulously avoiding offence to 

 local prejudice or national vanity. On every account it is extremely 

 desirable that an earnest effort should be made to seek for a solution 

 to the problem. 



The unifications of initial meridians has been advocated in the 

 interests of geography, astronomy and navigation. I shall accept all 

 the arguments which have been advanced on behalf of these extremely 

 important interests, and crave your indulgence while I submit addi- 

 tional reasons for the establishment of a common prime meridian for 

 all the world. 



I propose to direct your attention to arguments whicli spring from 

 tlie relations of time and longitude and the rapidly growing necessity 

 in this age for reform in time-reckoning. 



If we take into view the whole earth, we have at the same instant 

 in absolute time, noon, mid-night, sun-rise, sun-set, and all interme- 

 diate gradations of the day. The telegraph-system, which is gradu- 

 ally spreading like a spider's web over the surface of the globe, is 

 practically bringing this view of the sphere before all civilized com- 

 munities. It leaves no interval of time between widely sepai-ated 

 places proportionate to their distances apart. It brings points 

 remote from one another, enjo^'ing all the different hours of day- 

 light and darkness, into very close contact. Under our present 

 system of notation, confusion is developed, and all count of time is 

 thrown into disorder. 



The local civil day begins twelve hours before and ends twelve 

 hours after the sun passes the meridian of a place. As the globe is 

 constantly revolving on its axis, a fresh meridian is every moment 

 coming under the sun. As a consequence, a day is always beginning 

 somewhere and always ending somewhere. Each spot around the 

 circumference of the sphere has its own day, and therefore there are 

 during every diurnal revolution of the earth, an infinite number of 

 local days, all beginning with a space of twenty-four hours, and each 

 continuing twenty -four houi-s. These days overlap each other, and, 

 theoretically, they are as perfectly distinct as they are infinite in 

 number. There are no simultaneous days except on the same 

 meridian, and as the different days are always in the various stages 

 of advancement, difficulties must necessarily i-esult in assigning the 

 period when an event takes place. The telegraph may give the exact 

 local time of the occurrence, but it will be in disagreement with the 

 local times on every other meridian around the earth. An event 

 occurring any one day may on the instant be announced somewhere 

 the previous day, or somewhere else the following day. About the 



