Part 20 (1/2)
There being no objection, the report was adopted.
The PRESIDENT. In the regular order of business to-day, the first subject before the Conference is the resolution offered on Sat.u.r.day by the Delegate of the United States, Mr. RUTHERFURD, with the amendment offered by the Delegate of Sweden, Count LEWENHAUPT.
The resolution is as follows:
”_Resolved_, That this universal day is to be a mean solar day, is to begin for all the world at the moment of mean midnight of the initial meridian coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date of that meridian, and is to be counted from zero up to twenty-four hours.”
The amendment offered is as follows:
”The Conference recommends as initial point for the universal hour and the cosmic day the mean mid-day of Greenwich, coinciding with the moment of midnight or the beginning of the civil day at the meridian 12 hours or 180 from Greenwich.
”The universal hours are to be counted from 0 up to 24 hours.”
Mr. VALERA, the Delegate of Spain, said that he thought that the amendment of the Delegate of Sweden should be first discussed.
Mr. JANSSEN, the Delegate of France. At the last session I informed the Congress that I had received a telegram from Sir William Thomson upon the question of the meridian. Since then, that ill.u.s.trious foreign member of the Inst.i.tute of France has written me a very kind letter upon the subject, in which he expresses his complete appreciation of the disinterested att.i.tude taken by France in this Congress. I thank Sir William Thomson for his sentiments towards France, and I am persuaded that, with such excellent feelings, we should arrive at an understanding, upon scientific bases, in which the moral and material interests of all would be equitably adjusted, as we have always understood them.
But the question is not open now, and this Congress would, doubtless, not be disposed to reopen it. Sir William Thomson will understand, therefore, that in the present condition of affairs we have only to maintain the att.i.tude which we have taken and the votes which we have given.
The PRESIDENT. The Chair will simply say to the Conference that he very informally alluded to the letter that he had received from Sir William Thomson, and the Chair would also say in answer to the Spanish Minister that the rule in this Conference, a simple one, is to discuss the last amendment offered and dispose of it, instead, as suggested by the Delegate of Spain, of taking up the one most important in its character. It would be somewhat difficult for the Chair to decide on all occasions which amendment is the most important. I think, therefore, as Chairman, that I will pursue the rule in force in this country, and, unless the Conference order otherwise, shall present the amendment which is the last offered.
Mr. RUIZ DEL ARBOL, Delegate of Spain. Mr. Chairman, the Spanish Minister has not referred to the most important amendment, but to the most radical. For instance, here there are several propositions to select a meridian; one of them must be considered, and it seems to me that my amendment, which is the most radical, is the one to be first presented to the Conference.
The PRESIDENT. Unless the Conference shall direct otherwise, the Chair must pursue the principle on which it has acted hitherto, taking the amendments in the order in which they are offered, and presenting them inversely for the action of the Conference. The proposition before the Conference, therefore, is the amendment offered by the Delegate of Spain, Mr. ARBOL, which is as follows:
”Having accepted the meridian of Greenwich to account the longitudes, as a general need for practical purposes, but thinking that the introduction of any new system of time-reckoning is far more scientific and important, and liable to great difficulties and confusion in the future, we propose the following resolution:
”_Resolved_, The Congress, taking in consideration that there is already a meridian tacitly accepted by almost all the civilized nations as the origin of dates, the anti-meridian of Rome, abstains from designating any other meridian to reckon the universal time.”
Mr. RUIZ DEL ARBOL, Delegate of Spain. It is proposed to introduce an absolute universal or cosmopolitan system of time-reckoning, which, it is hoped, will, at a more or less distant day, be generally adopted, not only for scientific purposes, but for all the ordinary purposes of life for which it can possibly be used; and it is further proposed to designate a meridian at which this cosmopolitan time-reckoning is to begin. What I have to state is, that this method of absolute time-reckoning already exists, (although we do not use it,) as does this universal meridian which has been tacitly chosen by almost all civilized nations--that is to say, by all such as have adopted the Julian calendar, with or without the Gregorian correction. Thus it is that anything involving even a slight modification of our present system is nothing more than a chronological reform, which I do not feel certain that it will be well for us to introduce or recommend, and with regard to which I have my doubts whether it will be received with unanimous or hearty approval.
In fact, gentlemen, all nations that have adopted the Julian and Gregorian systems of time-reckoning have necessarily accepted their consequences, and these consequences are, as Rome told us in the time of Caesar and in that of Gregory XIII, that we must reckon our days according to certain fixed dates; some part of the world had to reckon their dates before all the rest, and as Rome consented that countries situated to the east of it should reckon their date before it and countries situated to the west after it, it is evident that both reckonings had to meet at some point on some meridian, which was and could be no other than the anti-meridian of Rome. Nature itself seems to have lent its sanction to this, since the anti-meridian of Rome crosses no continent, and, probably, no land whatever.
Let us suppose, for the sake of ill.u.s.tration, that it were agreed to abandon the Gregorian system of reckoning at a given moment, and to adopt another; that it were agreed to abandon it at all points on the globe when the hour should be twelve o'clock at noon at Greenwich, on the first day of January, 1885; and let us suppose that for historical or scientific purposes we were interested in knowing exactly how long the Gregorian system had been in use. Is it possible to ascertain this? It is; and very easily. Using that system of universal time-reckoning which it is proposed to establish, but logically referring it to the origin of that cosmopolitan reckoning which really exists, that is to say, to the anti-meridian of Rome, we shall find that 1885 years have been reckoned according to the Gregorian system, plus the difference of longitude between the anti-meridians of Greenwich and Rome. Nothing is more certain than this, and there is no other way of solving the problem. As I have already shown, when the Gregorian correction was made, the day which, according to the old mode of reckoning, would have been the 5th of October, was called the 15th of October, 1582; the countries situated to the east of Rome had, however, previously begun to reckon according to the new system (previously in absolute time I mean,) and the countries situated to the west adopted it successively afterwards. Now, then, as that portion of the globe which lies to the east of any given point or meridian is nothing more or less than one hemisphere, and as that which lies to the west is another hemisphere, it is evident that, at the anti-meridian of Rome, the two meridians, which constantly differ by one day in their dates, are confounded, and that the anti-meridian of Rome, being the first one in the world that adopted the Julian and the Gregorian systems of reckoning, is the prime meridian of the world, the meridian by which we now reckon, and ought to reckon universal time, until the establishment of a different system. If we had, at the present time, to settle any question depending on dates, in the region where there is some confusion in regard to them, we should have to do so on this principle. If we desired to compel the entire world to keep a regular and logical account of dates, we should have to do so by compelling all the nations to the west of the anti-meridian of Rome to go on reckoning their dates uninterruptedly after they have begun to be reckoned at the said anti-meridian, and by forbidding all the nations to the east of it to reckon any date until it has been reckoned at the anti-meridian of Rome. For this reason I say that the express designation, for the reckoning of universal time, of the meridian of Greenwich or of any other than the anti-meridian of Rome, involves a chronological reform, inasmuch as it will involve the abandonment of the system to which we now adhere, and which we now use by common consent.
This reform will cause a change of nearly 13 hours--that is to say, 12 hours plus the difference of longitude between Rome and Greenwich, if the meridian of Greenwich is designated as the new initial point of the universal date. I do not believe, however, that you will adopt this choice irrevocably, since its curious and strange consequences may be shown by one example, which I will adduce: This table is of about sufficient extent to allow the difference between the geographical longitude of its two ends to be observed and appreciated.
Let us suppose that these sessions were held at Greenwich, and that the table were placed east and west, so that the meridian intersected it lengthwise; let us further suppose that we had agreed to reckon the new universal time by this meridian--that is to say, by that of Greenwich--and that, in signing the protocol, we wished to set an example to the world by using the universal date, the present civil date and the future civil date, which, by the daily use of the universal date, the nations will or may finally accept, to the exclusion of all others, for the ordinary purposes of life. Well, now, gentlemen, we should bring our own choice into discredit. We could not sign, according to these three dates. As regards the last, we should find that half the table and half the Congress were under one date, and the other half under another; even our chairman, if seated in the middle, would find that he had been presiding over our sessions with his right side in one day and his left in the next.
I may be told that this would happen, whatever might be the meridian chosen, but we could afford to allow it to happen at sea, or in some isolated and uninhabited region where congresses never sit, and where no ray of civilization ever penetrates.
But to return to the reform, what are you going to do? I will say that if, instead of the meridian of Greenwich, you designate the anti-meridian for the reckoning of universal time and for the initial point of cosmopolitan dates for the present, but for the future as the initial point also of local dates, the reform will amount to about an hour only, but it will still be a reform. In a word, the anti-meridian of Rome is the one which now furnishes dates to the entire world, and you propose to make the meridian of Greenwich or the anti-meridian do so in future.
I therefore tell you, if you desire a common hour for postal and commercial purposes, designate no meridian at all; let the railway and telegraph companies, the postal authorities and the governments make an arrangement and select an artificial hour, so to speak, whatever it be the hour of Rome, London, Paris, or even that of Greenwich, but do not make a premature declaration which will be an authoritative one as emanating from this Congress, an apparently insignificant reform, but in reality one of very great importance, since, giving the preference to determinate localities in the face of what is scientific, historical, and logical, you render difficult, in the future, the adoption of that very reform, which will, perhaps, then be more necessary, and which can perhaps then be introduced more intelligently.
You see that I am not speaking in behalf of any special meridian, not even that of Rome, since I admit that the reform may be necessary. You see, and I a.s.sure you, that I have not the slightest wish that the meridian which is to be the initial point of universal time should bear the name of any observatory or place in Spain, although that nation discovered the New World in which this Congress is holding its sessions, and although it may be said of that nation that it discovered those very meridians concerning which we are now speaking, inasmuch as terrestial meridians were indefinite and unknown lines, and were even without form until one was given them by Sebastian Elcano. I therefore hope that if you do not honor my proposition by accepting it, you will at least do justice to my intentions.
Prof. ADAMS, Delegate of Great Britain. Mr. President, I shall be very short in any remarks which I may make upon the proposition before us.
As far as I understand it, it is that, although we have adopted the meridian of Greenwich as a prime meridian from which to count longitudes, we should begin to count our time according to the meridian at Rome. I cannot consent to that proposition. It appears to me to be wanting in every element of simplicity, which should be our chief aim in this Conference. To count longitude from one meridian and time from another, is something that will never be adopted. I do not understand that that was at all the proposition recommended by the Roman Conference. On the contrary, I think that it was quite a different one.