Part 24 (2/2)

The sixth meridian does not touch any city of importance, but it coincides very nearly with the meridian adopted for the normal civil time in Sweden; the difference amounts only to 15 seconds.

The seventh meridian touches the little town of Brieg, in the vicinity of Breslau, and Konigsberg is situated two minutes from the eighth. The ninth meridian pa.s.ses less than one minute to the west of Abo, and is situated at a distance of only a few seconds from Mistra, a town in Greece. The tenth meridian almost touches Helsingfors in Finland. As regards the eleventh meridian, I have not been able to find any locality of importance exactly so situated that it merits a place in this list, but I can, however, mention the cities of Minsk and Ja.s.sy. The twelfth meridian is situated 1m. 14s. to the west of the Academy of Sciences, in St. Petersburg, and the distance from Kiew is about the same. It is not necessary to continue the enumeration of the other meridians to the east by intervals of 10 minutes, but I will mention that Moscow is situated _2h. 30m. 17s._ to the east of Greenwich, and in consequence the system would be convenient with regard to this city.

If we pa.s.s to the west of Greenwich, we will find that the first meridian west touches the little town of Almeria, in the south of Spain, which country extends to equal distances on both sides of this meridian, east and west, and the situation of Portugal is the same with regard to the third meridian west.

Then, in all the towns and localities given above, of which the greater part are of some importance, the local time coincides so closely with times differing from the Greenwich time, by whole multiples of 10 minutes, that there is no reason to fear any real inconvenience if these times were taken to regulate local reckonings. If the different countries in Europe should decide to adopt the system which I have explained, the following system of normal times would, perhaps, be found convenient:

EAST OF GREENWICH.

1st Meridian, France.

2d ” Holland and Belgium.

3d ” Switzerland.

4th ” Norway, (and Western Germany.) 5th ” Denmark, Germany, and Italy.

6th ” Sweden and Austria.

7th ” Eastern Germany.

8th ” Hungary.

9th ” Poland and Greece.

10th ” Finland, Roumania, and Bulgaria, 11th ” European Turkey.

12th ” Western Russia.

WEST OF GREENWICH.

1st Meridian, Spain.

3d ” Portugal.

It is, however, not at all necessary that each country should adopt a single civil time for the whole of its territory. If several normal times should be adopted, it is still possible to use the system, provided only the several times differ from Greenwich time by 10 minutes, 20 minutes, &c.; but it would be necessary that the clocks should indicate the times adopted with great precision, and that the difference did not amount to even a few seconds, because otherwise the advantages of the adoption of the system would be materially reduced.

This circ.u.mstance, that it is possible for each country to adopt the system, and at the same time to maintain a certain independence with regard to the adoption of the most convenient normal times, is of considerable importance with regard to the possibility of introducing a system of this kind. In fact, it is possible to arrive at the application of the system in such a way that the transition would hardly be observed by the great majority of the population. As regards railroads and telegraphs, the advantages would be the same as if the local times were everywhere identical, because it is easy to remember the multiple of 10 minutes which ought to be added to the time of a given country for translation into the time of another country. The difference of time between Sweden and Denmark would, for instance, be 10 minutes--a circ.u.mstance which everybody would soon learn to remember. A traveller leaving Sweden would then know that his watch, if correct, shows exactly 10 minutes more than the clocks of the Danish railroad stations, and if he continued his voyage to Paris, he would know that the clocks of Paris are exactly 50 minutes behind the clocks in Sweden.

I have tried to explain the advantages of this system for the countries in Europe. I am not able to judge if similar systems can be considered necessary in America and Asia. It is possible that North America could be satisfied with one single normal time, which, if America connects this time with the European system, ought to be fixed exactly 6 hours behind Greenwich. While starting from this normal meridian, it is possible to establish a more or less elaborate system of equidistant times a.n.a.logous to the system which has been proposed for Europe. The same can be said of the civil times of Asia, which ought to be connected with a normal time 6 hours in advance of the time of Greenwich.

Africa ought to belong to the European system. The French civil time could be adopted for Algeria and Tunis; the time of Denmark, Germany, and Italy for Tripoli; for Egypt the time of Russia; the Spanish time for Morocco; at the mouth of the Congo where, no doubt, sooner or later, an important centre of civilization will rise, the meridian of Sweden and Austria could be used; the meridian of Hungary could be adopted for the Cape of Good Hope.

It will not be possible to connect South America and Australia with any of the four cardinal times mentioned, but some other combination, into which it is not necessary to enter on this occasion, can easily be found.

The PRESIDENT. If the Chair hears no objection, the pamphlet referred by the Delegate of Sweden will be printed as proposed.

Mr. LEFAIVRE, Delegate of France. Mr. President, I move that the Conference adjourn until Wednesday, at one o'clock p. m.

The motion was put and agreed to, and the Conference thereupon adjourned at 4:30 p. m. until Wednesday, the 22d inst., at one o'clock p. m.

VII.

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