96 UNIVEESAL OR COSMIC TIME. 



These opinions have taken root in North America. For about a year, 

 especially by the impulse given by the administrations of railways, the 

 United States and Canada, not through force of law, but ty common 

 arrangement of those interested, have been divided into six divisions, 

 within the boundaries of which the time notation of ordinary life, al- 

 though in a strict sense answering only to the middle Longitude of the 

 Time-division, is taken as a constant, which in the successive time- 

 divisions each differs from the other a full hour. According to the 

 communications of the delegate of the United States, Mr. W. F. 

 Allen, this arrangement has been accepted by not less than 85 per 

 cent, of the cities of the United States containing 10,000 inhabitants, 

 and 80 per cent, of the administrations of railways affected. For this 

 period no practical diflSculties have been reported even in those places 

 where ttie true Time of the place differs half an hour from the Divis- 

 ion-time introduced. But that some necessary difl&culties must be 

 experienced by this arrangement in actual civic life is proved by the 

 observation that within these Time-divisions where at the boundaries 

 there is a clear round hour where one can differ from the other, cer- 

 tain every-day occupations, for example, the hours of labour of the day- 

 labourer with regard to the same use of day light must be established 

 in a different manner with regard to each other, according as the spot 

 under consideration lies to the east or western boundary of the Divis- 

 ion. How this mode of proceeding is regarded by the inhabitants of 

 the prairie-land the report in no way informs us. It would, how- 

 ever, be a matter of surprise if serious complications did not arise. 

 For instance, village communities, which are only a couple of kilome- 

 tres apart [1 2-5th miles] or are yet nearer neighbours, must make 

 use of Time notations which differ an entire hour. So it forces itself 

 on our attention that in a community of countries of which Europe 

 consists, in. which individual states, apart from their geographical 

 position, gravitate to one side more than the other in their commer- 

 cial, industrial, or political relationship, that by the adoption of simi- 

 lar proceedings they would be subjected to embarrassments perfectly 

 un supportable. Nevertheless, the attempt made in America is full 

 of interest and instruction, and by the favourable result which it is 

 said the first year has effected, it becomes a matter for serious reflec- 

 tion that this method of Time reckoning has been fully naturalized in 

 the United States, and perhaps will be accepted by other countries. 

 The same principle is also applied and has also been long in use in 

 Great Britain, of which the isolated position and scarcely an extent 

 of 30 minutes in longitude have greatly facilitated its introduction. 

 In any case the further extension of the principle is yet in the cate- 

 gory of experiments, and for this reason the Washington Conference 

 did not recognize that it was in a position to offer a resolution on the 

 subject, or even to enter into its discussion in detail. 



It might be remarked that the method adopted for the period of 

 dating the Universal Day accepted by the Conference, would not 



