60 UNIVERSAL OR COSMIC TIME. 



It is held by those who have seriously considered the subject, that 

 a solution of the problem which would be good for America would 

 be advantageous for other countries. It is considered that in intro- 

 ducing a reform in time-reckoning in North America the system 

 should be such as would commend itself generally ; that it should be 

 one which by its appropriateness and simplicity would have every 

 prospect of being adopted ultimately throughout the world. 



A highly important feature of the movement is to employ every 

 means to render the system generally acceptable, so that whenever 

 the necessity may arise in any other community for its introduction 

 it may be spontaneously adopted — a course calculated to secure 

 ultimately complete uniformity in all countries. 



I shall give in brief an outline of a proposition for defining and 

 regulating civil time which is favoured in many qtiarters in Canada 

 and the United States of America : — 



1. It is Y^roposed to establish one standard time which may 

 be common to all people throughout the world, for communica- 

 tion by land and sea, for all ordinary purposes, for synchronous 

 observations, and for all scientific purposes. This standard 

 time to be known as Cosmopolitan Time* 



2. Cosmopolitan Time to be based on the diurnal revolutions 

 of the earth as determined by the (mean) sun's passage over one 

 particular meridian to be selected as a Time-zero. 



3. The Time-zero to coincide with the Prime Meridian to be 

 common to all nations for computing longitude. 



4. The Time-zero and Prime Meridian for the world to be 

 established with the concurrence of civilized nations generally. 



5. Twenty-four secondary or standard Hour-meridians to be 

 established, fifteen degrees or one hour distant from each other, 

 the first being fifteen degrees from the Prime Meridian. 



6. The standard Hour-meridians to regulate time at all places 

 on the earth's surface. 



7. The twenty-four standard Meridians to be denoted b/ 

 symbols, and, preferably, by the letters of the English alphabet, 

 which, omitting J and V, are twenty-four in number. The 

 letters to be taken in their order from east to west. The Zei o- 

 meridian being lettered Z. , 



8. The hour of the day at any place on the earth's surface to 

 be regulated by some one of the standai'd Meridians, generally 

 by the standard nearest such place in longitude. 



9. It is proposed to distinguish that interval of time between 

 two consecutive passages of the (mean) sun over the Piiuie 

 Meridian by the term Cosmopolitan Day. 



10. The Cosmopolitan Day is designed to promote exactness 

 in chronology, and is intended to be employed in connection 



* Tie term "Cosmic" since suggested, commends itself. 



