SCIENCE. 
2 77 
health by destroying contagion, and ■purifying the air.” 
This absurd statement appeared to give satisfaction to 
the editor, who in his observations on the paper states : 
“ Information of this kind has long been wanted, and 
those who have made the greatest bustle on the wonder- 
ful advantages attending the use of the gas light have, 
in this respect, been deficient.” Possibly public opinion 
was leaning towards the introduction of gas, for the 
same editor, who in 1809 observed, on Mr. Murdock’s 
paper, that “ the expense of the apparatus will always be 
against its introduction on a small or middling scale,” 
now observes, in 1810, “The statement of Mr. Cook 
clearly proves the great advantages connected with those 
lights, even on a small scale.” 
It is not intended that the foregoing represents the 
history of the introduction of gas for illuminating pur- 
poses, but it gives phases of the question which are of 
interest at this moment, and shows that, as in the intro- 
duction of the electric light for the same purpose, its de- 
velopment was very gradual. It will be seen that the 
economy of both gas and electricity for lighting purposes 
was at first disputed, both were afterwards considered 
only adapted for large buildings, then came the time 
when each was shown to be flitted for domestic purposes. 
The introduction of gas was considered “« bubble," and 
when all other objections had been exhausted, scientific 
testimony of that day finally stated that gas lighting would 
raise the price of beef. When gas lighting was first 
introduced, the idea of a great central manufactojy for a 
city was not even dreamed of ; possibly at that time the 
mere suggestion of such a design would have caused a 
panic ; but that it was successfully accomplished we all 
know. Gas was also first used for lighting large buildings, 
but it required the genius of one man to invent a process 
for its purification, so as to make it practical for general 
illuminating purposes. 
The reader, with a knowledge of recent events, can 
easily compare them with the facts here recorded re- 
specting the early days of gas, and notice how history 
has again repeated itself. 
First the possibility of using the electric light for 
general illuminating purposes was denied, then its 
adaptability for large buildings was admitted, and now 
finally its use for domestic purposes is unquestioned. 
The economy of electric lighting was also assailed, but 
the arguments are now getting stale. As each consumer 
had at first to make his own gas, so the first idea of 
electric lighting was coupled with the necessity on the part 
of each consumer to own his own electric generator 
and it was reserved for Edison to reform the whole sys- 
tem, and put it on a practical footing. He first publicly ex- 
hibited an electric lamp, that could compete with gas, and 
that was adapted for the general illumination of houses by 
electricity ; he first subdivided the electric current, and 
thus demonstrated that its economic use was a possibility, 
and he will be the first to achieve the final triumph of 
establishing a central station for the manufacture of elec- 
tricity and conducting it to the houses of the people. 
Capitalists combining with scientific experts and patent 
pirates may endeavor to strip Edison of the honors due 
to him, earned by patient and exhaustive study of the 
question. That the electric light would eventually super- 
sede gas for general illuminating purposes, no one 
doubted, but that Edison by bringing to bear upon it 
his great inventive powers, combined with almost 
unlimited resources, has advanced the time for accom- 
plishing the result by at least fifty years, will be ad- 
mitted by all unprejudiced persons. J. M. 
THE DISTRIBUTION OF TIME. 
By Professor Leonard Waldo. 
From time to time within the last twenty years there 
have appeared articles in the public prints which indi- 
cated an awakening and growing interest in the practica- 
bility of having wide sections of our country transact its 
business and govern its social duties by a common time. 
Within the last few years official reports from various 
observatories, departments of the Government, scientific 
societies and telegraph companies, have shown so consid- 
erable a progress in the introduction of uniform systems 
of time, and these systems have been so cordially received 
by the communities interested, that there can be no doubt 
that the country is ready to be divided into a few great 
sections, each of which shall be governed by its own 
standard, which shall bear some simple relation to the 
standards governing the neighboring sections. 
The principal systems now in operation comprise the 
United States Naval Observatory system, which extends 
its distribution of Washington time to Chicago and the 
West ; the Harvard and Yale systems, which distribute, 
respectively, Boston and New York time over New Eng- 
land ; the Alleghany Observatory system, which is con- 
cerned chiefly with the Pennsylvania Railroad ; and the 
more local services emanating from the observatories at 
Albany, Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. Unfortu- 
nately, except in New England, the distribution of the 
time of an observatory has not always resulted in the 
adoption of that time for general use, and it is often the 
case that the local jewelers who are guardians of town 
clocks, and local time as well, will convert the time re- 
ceived by telegraph into their own local time, and thus 
make it inconveniently different from the time in use in 
any other city of their region. 
A railroad may or may not secure the adoption of its 
own time in the cities along its route. It is generally a 
question as to which is the most important, the railroad 
or the town. But certain it is that there is not an impor- 
tant railroad in the country, outside of New England, 
along which the commercial traveler may go without 
having to compute the discrepancy between his watch 
and the time kept by the business men at one-half of the 
stopping-places. Thus it happens that, even where cities 
are closely connected by large railroads, the people have 
been dictated toby their jewelers regarding their standard 
of time, when a little reflection shows that there is only 
a very questionable advantage arising from having a local 
time simply because the jewelers of the city insist on a 
time which shall appeal to the local pride of their cus- 
tomers. 
On the other hand, the disadvantage of having the 
factory operatives begin work on railroad time and stop 
on local time, because they gain ten minutes a day by 
that sharp practice; the jostle and inconvenience in the 
commercial interchange between two neighboring cities, 
because the stock exchanges, business offices and the 
banks, close with a difference of ten minutes ; the thous- 
and engagements broken by the discrepancies of time — 
all indicate the need of the adoption of such a common 
time as already exists in the European countries. 
The writer has always felt that the railroads ought to 
be the most influential means in securing uniformity. 
They can be successfully appealed to for the financial 
support which any accurate system demands, because 
they have a direct and strong interest in the use of the 
same time at every office and by every employee of their 
roads. The superintendents, too, with whom the deci- 
sion of such matters generally rests, are keenly alive to 
anything which lessens the risk of accident, and they at 
once appreciate the advantage of having the clocks of 
intersecting roads, and of the towns through which their 
roads pass, all indicate the same time. The control of a 
telegraph wire for railroad business gives them the means 
of transmitting time-signals, and in New England it is 
the railroads which have virtually caused the all but uni- 
versal acceptance of the Boston and New York standards 
referred to. Outside of New England there has been 
scarcely any concert of action among the railroads, and 
there are about seventy different standards of time in use. 
The result of the experiment in New England fairly just- 
