118 PROCELDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Mr. W. J. Loudon, B.A., read a paper on "The Uecimal 

 System applied to Time," of which the following is an 

 abstract : 



The system of Time which I propose is the following : The 

 ordinary day of twenty-four hours would be divided into ten periods 

 called, if necessary, hours ; each hour in the new system thus corres- 

 ponding to two hours and twenty-four minutes of ordinary time. 

 This new hour would be divided into one hundred divisions (which 

 we may term minutes) : each of the latter minutes being equivalent, 

 therefore, to 1-44 minutes of present tim^, and being a sufficiently 

 good working unit. For small measurements, this minute could be 

 subdivided into one hundred seconds, each of the new seconds cor- 

 responding to '864 of the old. 



The advantages which I claim for the adoption of such a system 

 are : — 



1. All advantages arising from the use of a system based on our 

 natural scale of ten. Instead of using separate sj'mbols to denote 

 hours, minutes, seconds, time would be denoted by a number and a 

 decimal : thus, instead of saying and writing 2 hrs., 25 min., 30 

 sec, we would simply say and write 1-45. The labour saved in 

 addition, subtraction, etc., would be incalculable. As a correspond- 

 ing example of labour saved, I need only refer to the English system 

 of pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings, when contrasted with our 

 decimal system of dollars and cents. 



2. The abolition of the a.m. and p.m. nuisance. This has, of 

 course, been overcome by the twenty-four hour scheme, but the latter 

 is too unwieldy ever to come into common use. 



3. The change in units, the hour becomingr longer and the minute 

 longer, than the present hour and minute. 



4. The fact that the numbers on the face of the clock indicate the 

 time at once. The greatest objection to our present system (if we 

 omit the a.m. and p.m. distinction) is, that the time at any instant 

 cannot be inferred by any simple process of the mind from the dial 

 of the clock ; when the minute hand is at one; we say it is live 

 minutes past ; when the minute hand is at eight, we say it is twenty 

 minutes to ; when at eleven it is five minutes to, and so on. If we 

 analyze the reasons for which children find so much difficulty in 

 learning to tell time, we shall find the cause of all their trouble in 



