Part 22 (1/2)

W. VALENTINER.

I may also mention that the practice that prevails among astronomers at the present time of reckoning the day from noon is by no means without exceptions. There are very important astronomical tables which reckon the day from midnight; for instance, in Delambre's Tables of the Sun; in Burg's, Burckhardt's and Damoiseau's Tables of the Moon; in Bouvard's Tables of Jupiter, Saturn, and Ura.n.u.s, and in Damoiseau's Tables of Jupiter's Satellites, mean midnight is employed as the epoch of the tables. I may also mention that Laplace, in his Mecanique Celeste, adopts the mean midnight of Paris as the origin from which his day is reckoned. Hence there are great authorities, even among astronomers, in favor of commencing the day at midnight.

General STRACHEY, Delegate of Great Britain. Sir, I observe that a very eminent American authority is present in this room, I mean Professor Hilgard. As he was invited to attend the meeting of this Conference, I suggest that the views of the Conference may be taken, whether he may not be invited to express his opinion on the point now under consideration.

The PRESIDENT. With the concurrence of the Conference, the Chair will be most happy to ask Professor Hilgard to do us the favor to give us his opinion upon the question now before the Conference.

No objection was made to the proposition of the President.

Professor HILGARD arose and said. I thank you and the Conference very much for this invitation, and General STRACHEY for having proposed it to the Conference, but my opinion has been squarely expressed both in French and English in the report of a certain committee, that I am in favor of midnight at Greenwich as the beginning of the universal day, and of longitude being calculated both ways from Greenwich. I really cannot add anything to what has been said in the arguments already presented by Professor ADAMS, and I do not think that I ought to detain this Conference a moment by repeating the opinion he has expressed to all the experts in this matter.

I beg you will excuse me for not further ventilating my views. Absence from the city, I regret, has prevented me from availing myself of the invitation earlier.

Sir FREDERICK EVANS, Delegate of Great Britain. I have the honor to address the Conference once more upon the practical aspect of the subject before us as affecting the large body of navigators. I wish to say upon this point that there appears to me, in the address of my colleague, Professor ADAMS, somewhat of a mixing together of two subjects.

The question immediately before us, as I understand it, is whether the commencement of the universal day shall be midnight or noon of the initial meridian. That is what we practically have to decide. Now, I gather from Professor ADAMS' remarks that upon this question the ephemerides which we now employ have some important bearing. I do not think that that should influence us, for this reason, that the next resolution which will come before the Conference ”expresses the hope that as soon as may be practicable the astronomical and nautical days will be arranged everywhere to begin at midnight.”

This resolution, so far as I understand it, will be the warning to astronomers to begin to make the changes growing out of this resolution which may be necessary for seamen. Therefore, I consider that we may at once proceed to vote upon the question whether the day is to commence at midnight or noon, without any reference to the practice or interests of navigation. In reality, it does not appear to me to affect that subject at all.

I have given some consideration to the practical bearings of this question--whether it should be midnight or noon. What we ought to decide is what will be the least inconvenience to the world at large.

I have ascertained from two of my colleagues, who have given this matter the greatest consideration, that the adoption of midnight will really cause less confusion than noon, for this reason, that all the great colonies of the world would be less affected; that is to say, that the times they are using now would be less affected by midnight than by noon. That being so, it appears to me to be an essential point in coming to a settlement of this question.

Mr. RUIZ DEL ARBOL, Delegate of Spain. I have only to say that I have listened to the remarks about navigators changing the reckoning of time. I do not know whether there are many navigators here, but it is a fact that seamen reckon the day from noon.

The PRESIDENT. I beg the pardon of the Delegate of Spain; but, in the United States navy, we reckon the day from midnight.

Mr. RUIZ DEL ARBOL, Delegate of Spain. I am speaking generally. Now, there is some reason for this rule among seamen, for the only way to find out the position of a s.h.i.+p is to observe the meridian alt.i.tude of the sun; and everybody requires to know, at sea, what has taken place in the course of every day, from the beginning to the last moment of the day; and I think that whatever the rule may be in the United States navy, navigators generally will count their time as they count it now.

I think that navigators will not change the rule now in force, no matter what we may adopt in this Conference.

Commander SAMPSON, Delegate of the United States. I think, Mr.

President and gentlemen, that the change to the adoption of the universal day, beginning at midnight, would be a very decided advantage to navigators. The quant.i.ties as now given in the nautical ephemerides are for noon of the meridian for which they are computed, as Was.h.i.+ngton, Greenwich, &c. It is very evident that every navigator, in making use of the quant.i.ties given in the nautical almanac, must find the corresponding time at Greenwich, wherever he may be on the surface of the earth. Consequently, if we suppose that navigators are pretty equally distributed, one-half on one side of the earth and one-half on the other side, the Greenwich day for one portion would be the local night for the other.

The usual observations made by navigators at sea consist in a meridian observation of the sun for lat.i.tude, and a morning and possibly afternoon observation of the sun near the prime vertical for longitude. Consequently all navigators, when in the vicinity of the initial meridian, might have their day's work occurring in two astronomical days. On the other hand, those navigators who were in the neighborhood of the 180th meridian would have all their work of one day occurring in the same astronomical day. The first would have the advantage of interpolating for short intervals only, while the second would be obliged to interpolate for much larger intervals.

Consequently, on the whole, it would make no difference to navigators whether the quant.i.ties given in the nautical almanacs were for noon or midnight of the initial meridian. Another consideration, however, would make it very advantageous to have the quant.i.ties given for midnight. That consideration is this: if midnight were chosen, then the universal day would be identical with the nautical almanac day, and navigators would have only s.h.i.+p time and universal time to deal with, while, if the quant.i.ties were given for noon, they would have astronomical time, in addition to the other two. This consideration I think a very important one.

The PRESIDENT. The question will be on the amendment offered by the Delegate of Sweden, Count LEWENHAUPT, which has been read.

The vote was then taken, as follows:

States voting in the affirmative:

Austria, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Turkey.

In the negative:

Brazil, j.a.pan, Chili, Liberia, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Great Britain, Russia, Guatemala, United States, Hawaii, Venezuela.

Abstaining from voting: