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 for 
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 it 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 perlorming such services as are directly 
for the benefit of 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 of 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 promt- 
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 far 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 
1ms 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. 
Time Slower 
than 
Greenwich. 
Designation. 
Newfoundland J 
New Brunswick V 
N ova Scotia, etc ) 
6o° west. 
4 h. o m. o s. 
Easern time. 
Canada 
Atlantic States. ! 
Ohio to Alabama , 
Lower Lakes 1 
75° “ 
5 h. o m. os. 
Atlantic time. 
Mississippi Valley 'I 
Missouri [ 
Upper Lakes f 
Texas J 
90° “ 
6 h. o m. os. 
Valley time. 
Rocky Mountain regions 
105 0 “ 
7 h. o m. os. 
Mountain time. 
Pacific Slope j 
British Columbia > 
Vancouver’s Island ) 
I2C° “ 
8 h. o m. os. 
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 distribution 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. ii. New York ; Pub- 
lished by the Society. 
