SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1883. 



THE SIGNAL-SERVICE AND STANDARD 

 TIME. 



It has been announced that the chief signal- 

 officer has ordered his corps of observers to 

 continue to be governed l)y the local time of 

 their respective stations. It is dillicnlt to un- 

 derstand this action on the part of Gen. Ilazen. 

 It would seem, that, next to the transportation 

 companies, the weather bureau would be most 

 benefited by the adoption of a system of time 

 which would render all observations strictly 

 and easily comparable with each other. The 

 position taken b3- the service is all the more 

 remarkable, when it is remembered that only 

 two or three years ago its chief was himself a 

 warm advocate of the new scheme, and de- 

 clared his anxiety to further its introduction in 

 every way in his power. It will be everywhere 

 admitted that the adoption of standard time 

 by all observers would greatly aid in securing 

 its acceptance by the people generally ; and it 

 is to be hoped that it will be shortly done, un- 

 less some grave reason, which is certainly not 

 apparent, exists for its rejection. 



otherwise errors of reference will be entailed 

 on posterity, which will prove justly exasper- 

 ating to the student obliged to consult the vast 

 literature of that coming day. The reform 

 cannot come too soon nor be too thorough. 



A SUGGESTION TO AUTHORS. 



Adthors who republish in a separate form 

 papers originally printed in society- transac- 

 tions or journals should be careful to preserve 

 the original pagination of the serial from which 

 they are extracted, or to indicate the same in 

 some clear way for purposes of ready and cor- 

 rect reference. It would really be worth call- 

 ing a convention of our scientific societies for 

 the purpose, if a reform could be effected in 

 this matter. Time is too precious to be wasted 

 in search, often fruitless, for an original source, 

 when it could have been indicated, without 

 additional cost, npon the separated copies. 

 It would also be far better if the original page 

 itself could be left intact without overrunning : 



EXPERIMENTS IN BINARY ARITH- 

 METIC. 



TnosE who can perform in that most neces- 

 sar3' of all mathematical operations, simple 

 addition, any great numl)er of successive ex- 

 amples, or any single extensive example, with- 

 out consciousness of a severe mental strain 

 followed by corresponding mental fatigue, are 

 exceptions to a genei'al rule. These troubles 

 are due to the quantity and complexity of the 

 matter with which the mind has to be occupied 

 at the same time that the figures are recog- 

 nized. The sums of pairs of numbers from zero 

 up to nine form fifty-five distinct jjropositions 

 that must bo borne in memory, and the 'carry- 

 ing' is a further complication. The strain and 

 consequent weariness are not only felt, but 

 seen, in the mistakes in addition that they 

 cause. They are, in great part, the tax ex- 

 acted of us by oui- decimal system of arithme- 

 tic. AVere only quantities of the same value, 

 in any one column, to be added, our memory 

 would be burdened with nothing more than the 

 succession of nunil)ers in simple counting, or 

 that of multiples of two, three, or four, if the 

 counting is by groups. 



It is easy to prove that the most economical 

 way of reducing addition to counting similar 

 quantities is by the binary arithmetic of Leib- 

 nitz, which appeal's in an altered dress, with 

 most of the zero-signs suppressed, in the ex- 

 ample below. Opposite each number in the 

 usual figures is here set the same according to 

 a scheme in which the signs of powers of two 

 repeat themselves in periods of four : a very 

 small circle, like a degree-mark, being used to 

 express any fourth power in the series ; a long 

 loop, like a narrow 0. any square not a fourth 

 powvr ; a curve upward and to the right, like a 

 phonographic I. any double fourtli power ; and a 

 curve to the right and downward, like a phono- 

 graphic ?■, any half of a fourtli power ; with a 

 vertical bar to denote the absence of three 

 successive powers not fourth powers. Thus 

 the equivalent for one million, shown in the 



No. 45.-18*3. 



