466 Extracts from the Proceedings of the British 



records deposited in cases in the cabins of the ships. He had no 

 doubt that in the ships of Sir John FranHin his observations were 

 to be found ; and this was the reason why men of science were so 

 anxious to recover the ships ; for, first of all, the journals would 

 contain valuable information, and next, it was a sacred duty to 

 those who had lost their lives in gaining such important results to 

 do them the justice and honour of bringing them to light. 



Mr. J. J. Murphy read a paper containing A Proposal for the 

 Estahlishment of a Uniform Reckoning of Time over the World 

 in connection with the Electric Telegraph. The period in all 

 probability was not remote when the telegraph would effect an 

 almost instantaneous communication between parts of the world 

 which were separated by an extensive arc of longitude, and 

 differed in their solar time by several hours. The system which 

 was introduced all over Great Britain, of keeping Greenwich time 

 could not be applied over extensive arcs of longitude. A difference 

 of half an hour between solar time and clock time at any place was 

 no inconvenience, but a difference of six hours would be much too 

 great. It would be necessary for distant places to continue to 

 keep' their local solar time : but in order to time the receipt and 

 dispatch of telegraph messages, it would be necessary either to 

 reduce the time of one place to that of any time for all. Mr. 

 Murphy proposed a simple self-acting method for meeting the 

 requirements of the case. Let every electric telegraph station 

 that communicates with distant stations be furnished with a clock, 

 similar in other respects to a common clock, provided with a 

 double circle of figures on the dial, the inner circle being fixed as 

 in the common clock, but the outer one being capable of being 

 moved round. Let some one meridian, say that of Greenwich, be 

 chosen as that to which all others shall be referred. Let every 

 such clock throughout the world indicate Greenwich time on the 

 inner or stationary circle of figures ; but when a clock is set up 

 at any station, let the outer circle be moved round and set, so 

 that while the hour hand shows Greenwich time oa the inner 

 circle, it may show local solar time on the outer circle. The 

 perfect convenience of this plan is obvious. It reconciles the 

 necessity of keeping local time with the advantage of uniform 

 time, and gets rid of any trouble in reducing theone to the other. 

 The system might be rendered more workable still by abolishing 

 the distinction of east aud west longitude, reckoning either all 

 east or all west from to 360, and by abolishing the distinctions 

 of a. m. and p. m., reckoning time from midnight up to 24 o'clock. 



