SCIENCE. 



279 



best materials and of sufficient size, with the electrical 

 apparatus necessary, is about a thousand dollars, and, 

 although it is the most accurate signal for popular 

 use, yet the time-gun has many advantages, on the 

 score of economy and convenience, over the more exact 

 time-ball. The time-gun could be extemporized from 

 one of a battery, at any place where there is a detach- 

 ment of the artillery service permanently located. Of 

 course, there is an error owing to the time required ior 

 the sound to traverse the distance from the gun to the 

 hearer, but this is insignificant for ordinary purposes, 

 and it is not necessary to take any other trouble than to 

 merely listen for the report of the gun which is known 

 to be discharged by an electrical current from some ob- 

 servatory at an arbitrary instant. The time-guns have 

 shown themselves to be very popular in Great Britain 

 and on the Continent ; and if our army, either through 

 its Signal Service or the artillery, could act in concert 

 with observatories in different parts of the country, the 

 discipline necessary for the efficient performance of such 

 a service would be obtained, and the service would be 

 extremely popular among the people. 



Doubtless the Naval Observatory could assist in dis- 

 tributing the time to the whole country, but there are 

 several reasons why it would be inexpedient for many 

 years to come. That observatory has a legitimate 

 sphere in fostering astronomical science throughout the 

 country, and in pertorming such services as are directly 

 for the benefit ot the navy and other Government offices. 



There are several observatories, particularly in our 

 Western cities, which rely for a large share of their hold 

 of the popular sympathy upon the public time-signals 

 which they furnish. So long as they are strongly inter- 

 ested in the growth ot their local service, they will do 

 missionary work for science by interesting the people in 

 the observatory which gives them their time. 



Now, let these communities be approached through 

 the offices of the telegraph companies acting as the 

 agents of the Naval Observatory, and the majority will 

 at once feel, with some truth, that the matter is no 

 longer one of science and the patronage of a local or 

 State institution, but that the telegraph companies are 

 urging for their own profit the introduction of a service 

 for which the people have not sufficient need to pay the 

 price charged. In support of this view it might be men- 

 tioned that under date of April 2, 1877, our most promi- 

 ment Telegraph Company issued an official circular 

 through the agency of its principal local offices through- 

 out the United States, which urged the importance of 

 accurate time, and made financial proposals to furnish 

 the Naval Observatory time to seventy-eight cities of the 

 United States once a day, at a charge varying from 

 seventy-five to five hundred dollars per year for each 

 place. So far as the writer knows, there has not been a 

 single acceptance of these proposals, and even one or 

 two acceptances might be considered exceptions to a 

 rule. Another difficulty is the cost of the service to 

 cities which are tar distant from the distributing office. 

 The telegraph companies justly claim that this service 

 ought to be paid for at a higher rate than ordinary busi- 

 ness messages because it is preferential, and all other 

 business must cease at a given time. This arbitrary 

 stoppage may sometimes prove highly inconvenient, and 

 presupposes a thoroughness of discipline among em- 

 ployees which it is difficult to maintain over the long 

 hns of our Western country. The service to be popular 

 must be quick to redress grievances, and accommodating 

 in the details of its work, particularly at its initiation. It 

 is evident that these agencies are best insured by having 

 the friendship toward the observatory of an important 

 class in the community somewhat dependent on the 

 efficiency of its time-service. 



The furnishing of correct time is educational in its na- 

 ture for it inculcates in the masses a certain precision in 

 doing the daily work of life which conduces, perhaps, to 



a sounder morality . and this idea will not seem far- 

 fetched if we consider how strikingly indicative of the 

 character of a people in the scale of civilization is the 

 promptness with which they transact their business. It 

 is felt, therefore — and particularly in New England — 

 that the university does a creditable action when it di- 

 rectly encourages the distribution of lime from its obser- 

 vatory. This view will be adopted by the Wstern in- 

 stitutions of learning as they gradually rise to the dignity 

 of having distinct observatories connected with them. 



At the last meeting of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, in Boston, a committee was 

 appointed to urge the adoption of uniform systems in va- 

 rious parts of the country. This committee includes the 

 representaiives of the observatories which have dode 

 most in this cause. 



The American Metrological Society, through a com- 

 mittee, have presented a carefully prepared report on the 

 present condition of this question in the United States.* 

 It is the opinion of that committee that the standards of 

 time for the various parts of the country should differ by 

 even hours, beginning with the meridian which is just 

 four hours west of Greenwich, and designating the sys- 

 tems as in the last column of the following table : 



PROPOSED SCHEDULE OF STANDARDS OF TIME. 



Geographical Section. 



Standard 

 Meridian. 



Newfoundland 



New Brunswick 



N ova Scotia, etc 



Canada ~) 



Atlantic States I 



Ohio to Alabama J 



Lower Lakes I 



Mississippi Valley 1 



Missouri __ [ 



Upper Lakes f 



Texas J 



Rocky Mountain regions 



Pacific Slope 



British Columbia 



Vancouver's Island . 



Time Slower 



than 

 Greenwich. 



)esignation. 



60° west. I 4 h. o m. o s. Easern time. 



5h. om. os. Atlantic time. 



9° 

 105 " 



6 h. o m. os. Valley time. 



] 



7I1. om. os. i Mountain time. 



12c I 8 h. om. os. i Pacific time. 



The constitution of both of these committees is such 

 that they would favor the distribution of standards of 

 time according to any such scheme as the preceding, 

 rather than the disiribution of a single time from the 

 Naval Observatory. The above scheme, in the opinion 

 of those who have given much thought to the subject, is 

 the best one so far presented. It was due originally to 

 Professor Benjamin Peirce, and its great merit consists in 

 there being no greater difference than half an hour in any 

 part of the country between the true local time and the 

 arbitrary standard — an amount but slightly greater than 

 exists between Greenwich and the west of England. In 

 passing from Ohio into the Mississippi Valley, for in- 

 stance, the traveler merely changes his watch by one hour ; 

 and the merchant, remembering that Pacific time is three 

 hours slow of Atlantic time, knows that it is half-past 

 two in San Francisco when it is half-past five in New- 

 York. 



Any scheme which proposes the adoption of a uniform 

 time from one extremity of the country to the other must 

 be looked upon as chimerical for a century to come. Ten 

 o'clock in the morning at once conveys to our minds an 

 idea of the average occupation of our people at that time ; 

 it is associated with a certain brightness of daylight ; it 

 means that the working classes have been occupied with 

 their daily task about three hours ; we expect to find the 

 majority of banks and shops open ; and any disturb- 

 ance of these traditional times would be received with 

 marked disfavor. To learn, for instance, from the morn- 



* Proceedings of the Metrological Society, vol. 

 lished by the Society. 



New York ; Pub- 



