SCIENCE. 



157 



SCIENCE: 



A Weekly Record of Scientific 

 Prog r ess. 



JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 



Published at 

 229 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 

 P. O. Box 3838. 



SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1881. 



UNIFORM TIME. 

 The question of the introduction of uniform stan- 

 dard time into daily use, for both popular and scien- 

 tific purposes, having been examined by the American 

 Metrological Society, the president, Prof. F. A. P. 

 Barnard directs attention to the following considera- 

 tions, and invites exchange of views upon this sub- 

 ject. 



He says " local time," in the astronomical sense of 

 this term, varies with every change of meridian ; it can 

 therefore not be conveniently retained by travellers, 

 and transportation and telegraph companies, which 

 adopt whatever .meridian may be the most convenient 

 Over seventy such standard meridians are now in use 

 by railroad and other companies throughout the United 

 States and Canada; the larger towns and cities fre- 

 quently adopt their own special local times, and the 

 smaller ones adopt the railroad times most convenient 

 to them ; there are thus now in ordinary use at least 

 100 local times or meridians, many of them differing 

 but a few minutes from each other. 



Professor Barnard believes that a more thorough uni- 

 formity of accurate time would be to the daily advan- 

 tage of all members of the community and all busi- 

 ness transactions, and would immensely facilitate the 

 study of certain natural phenomena, such as torna- 

 does, auroras, earthquakes, meteors, &c, for the ob- 

 servation of which we must depend largely upon those 

 who chance to be favorably located. 



It is accordingly proposed that the community 

 unite upon a division of this continent into a few 

 sections, throughout each of which the times adopted 

 by railroad, canal, steamboat and telegraph compan- 

 ies, the city or town clocks and the clock makers, 

 shall all be kept as nearly as possible in agreement 

 with one standard meridian. 



The system that especially commends itself for 

 adoption, is that which also has the best prospect of 

 being ultimately adopted by all nations throughout 

 the world. It requires that, for the United States, 

 we should adopt a central meridian in the Mississippi 

 Valley, exactly 90 or six hours west of Greenwich, 

 and proceed to the east or west by steps of exactly 

 one hour each, so that the sectional times would be 

 about as in the following schedule. 



We have already given attention to this subject, and 

 in "Science," Vol. I. p. 13, will be found some excel- 

 lent suggestions in regard to " Uniform time," by 

 Professor Ormond Stone. 



In this article we merely present the views of Pro- 

 fessor Barnard, the President of the American Metro- 

 logical Society, and reserve a fuller consideration of 

 the same for a future occasion. We may state, how- 

 ever, that we are heartily in accord with the object 

 Professor Barnard has in view, and are pleased to find 

 the matter in such able hands. 



PROPOSED SCHEDULE OF STANDARD TIMES. 



Geographical Section. 



Newfoundland .. 

 New Brunswick . 



Nova Scotia 



Canada 



Maine ) 



to \ 



Florida. ) 

 Ohio 



to 



Alabama. 

 Lower Lakes. 



Mississippi Valley . 



Missouri Valley 



Upper Lakes 



Texas 



Rocky Mt. Region. 



Pacific States 



British Columbia. 



Standard 

 Meridian 

 west of 

 Greenwich. 



6o° 



Standard 

 Time 

 slower thah 

 Greenwich. 



H. M.S. I 

 4. o. o. -j 



6. o. 



7. o. o. < 



Standard Time Slower or Faster than 

 True " Local Times." 



minutes slower than St. Johns, N. F 



" faster than St. John, N. B... 



" faster than Halifix, N. S. -. 



11 slower than Quebec 



" faster than Toronto 



" slower than Boston 



" slower than New York 



" faster than Washington 



" faster than Charleston 



" faster than Montgomery 



" faster than Buffalo 



" faster than Detroit — 



" faster than Cincinnati 



" faster than New Orleans 



" faster than St. Louis. 



" faster than St. Paul 



" faster than Kansas City 



ik faster than Galveston 



" slower than Chicago 



11 faster than Denver 



" faster than Salt Lake City .. 



" slower than San Diego 



" faster than San Francisco 



" faster than Olympia 



" faster than Victoria 



Designation of 



Proposed 

 Standard Time. 



j- Eastern Time. 



- Atlantic Time. 



Valley Time. 



J- Mountain Time. 

 Pacific Time. 



