International Conference Held at Washington Part 14

The PRESIDENT:

The Chair begs leave to announce that, in the regular order of business, the first matter before the Conference to-day would have been the proposition of the Delegate of Great Britain, Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING, that a committee be appointed to consider a report upon the resolution offered by him yesterday. The Chair understood, however, from Mr. FLEMING this morning that he had no desire to press that proposition, and, therefore, it may be considered as withdrawn.

The question then would be upon the amendment offered by the Delegate of Spain, Mr. JUAN PASTORIN, and if that amendment be withdrawn upon the amendment offered by the Delegate of Sweden, Count LEWENHAUPT. The Chair understands that both of those gentlemen desire to withdraw their propositions temporarily, and, in that event, the first action to be taken will be upon the resolution offered by the Delegate of the United States, Mr. RUTHERFURD.

Mr. RUSTEM EFFENDI, Delegate of Turkey. In voting yesterday in favor of the resolutions proposed by the Hon. Delegate of the United States, I wish to have it well understood that my vote does not bind my Government. I am, indeed, obliged to vote against any proposition which would tend to bind it in any way, for I desire to leave it free to act in the matter.

I engage to submit to my Government the result of our deliberations and to recommend their adoption, but that is all. In other words, I have only voted "_ad referendum_," and I ask that my statement be entered in the protocol.

The PRESIDENT. The Chair would inform the Delegate who has just spoken that the same statement was made by several delegates at a former meeting of the Conference.

M. JANSSEN, Delegate of France. I believe that the very correct doctrine just enunciated by the Delegate of Turkey, Mr. RUSTEM EFFENDI, is the one adopted by all the members of the Congress, and that we have all voted "_ad referendum_."

The PRESIDENT. The Chair so understood the general sense of the Conference as expressed at one of our former meetings, when many of the delegates made the same declaration.

Mr. ANTONIO BATRES, Delegate of Salvador. Mr. President, I could not be present yesterday, on account of illness, and I now request permission to register my name in favor of the resolution adopting the meridian of Greenwich as the prime meridian.

The PRESIDENT. The Delegate of Salvador, Mr. BATRES, informs the Chair that he was not able to be present yesterday, on account of illness, and he desires that his name may be recorded as voting for the meridian of Greenwich. If there be no objection to the request of the Delegate to Salvador, his vote will be so entered.

No objection being made, the President instructed the Secretary to make the proper entry in the protocol.

The PRESIDENT. The Delegate of Spain, Mr. PASTORIN, has withdrawn his amendment, and the Delegate of Sweden, Count LEWENHAUPT, has also withdrawn the amendment which he offered to the resolution of the Delegate of the United States, Mr. RUTHERFURD. The resolution originally offered will now be read.

The Secretary then read the resolution, as follows:

"_Resolved_, That from this meridian [_i.e._, the meridian of Greenwich] longitude shall be counted in two directions up to 180 degrees, east longitude being plus, and west longitude minus."

Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING, Delegate of Great Britain, representing the Dominion of Canada. I wish to offer some observations on the resolution before the Conference, but I am unable to separate the particular question from the general question. To my mind, longitude and time are so related that they are practically inseparable, and when I consider longitude, my thoughts naturally revert to time, by which it is measured. I trust, therefore, I may be permitted to extend my remarks somewhat beyond the immediate scope of the resolution. I agree with those who think that longitude should be reckoned in one direction only, and I am disposed to favor a mode of notation differing in other respects from that commonly followed.

If a system of universal time be brought into use, advantages would result from having the system of time and the system of terrestrial longitude in complete harmony. The pa.s.sage of time is continuous, and, therefore, I think longitude should be reckoned continuously. To convey my meaning fully, however, it is necessary that I should enter into explanations at some length.

Ten days back I ventured informally to place my views, with a series of recommendations on this subject, before the delegates. I hope I may now be permitted to submit them to the Conference.

The PRESIDENT. The Chair would inquire of the Conference whether the recommendations and remarks which were sent in print to the Delegates a few days ago by Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING, the Delegate of Great Britain, may be entered upon the protocol as presented to-day. Each member was, it is understood, furnished with a copy of these papers.

Mr. TUPPER, Delegate of Chili. The Delegates of Chili have not received them.

The PRESIDENT. The Chair will take care that they are sent.

No objection was made to the request of the Delegate of Great Britain, Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING, who continued as follows:

The adoption of a Prime Meridian, common to all nations, admits of the establishment of a system of reckoning time equally satisfactory to our reason and our necessities.

At present we are without such a system. The mode of notation followed by common usage from time immemorial, whatever its applicability to limited areas, when extended to a vast continent, with a net-work of lines of railway and telegraph, has led to confusion and created many difficulties. Further, it is insufficient for the purposes of scientific investigation, so marked a feature of modern inquiry.

Taking the globe as a whole, it is not now possible precisely to define when a year or a month or a week begins. There is no such interval of time as the commonly defined day everywhere and invariable. By our accepted definition, a day is local; it is limited to a single meridian. At some point on the earth's surface one day is always at its commencement and another always ending. Thus, while the earth makes one diurnal revolution, we have continually many days in different stages of progress on our planet.

Necessarily the hours and minutes partake of this normal irregularity.

Clocks, the most perfect in mechanism, disagree if they differ in longitude. Indeed, if clocks are set to true time, as it is now designated, they must, at least in theory, vary not only in the same State or county, but to some extent in the same city.

As we contemplate the general advance in knowledge, we cannot but feel surprised that these ambiguities and anomalies should be found, especially as they have been so long known and felt. In the early conditions of the human race, when existence was free from the complications which civilization has led to; in the days when tribes followed pastoral pursuits and each community was isolated from the other; when commerce was confined to few cities, and intercommunication between distant countries rare and difficult; in those days there was no requirement for a common system of uniform time. No inconvenience was felt in each locality having its own separate and distinct reckoning. But the conditions under which we live are no longer the same. The application of science to the means of locomotion and to the instantaneous transmission of thought and speech have gradually contracted s.p.a.ce and annihilated distance. The whole world is drawn into immediate neighborhood and near relationship, and we have now become sensible to inconveniences and to many disturbing influences in our reckoning of time utterly unknown and even unthought of a few generations back. It is also quite manifest that, as civilization advances, such evils must greatly increase rather than be lessened, and that the true remedy lies in changing our traditional usages in respect to the notation of days and hours, whatever shock it may give to old customs and the prejudices engendered by them.

In countries of limited extent, the difficulty is easily grappled with. By general understanding, an arrangement affecting the particular community may be observed, and the false principles which have led to the differences and disagreements can be set aside. In Great Britain the time of the Observatory at Greenwich is adopted for general use. But this involves a departure from the principles by which time is locally determined, and hence, if these principles be not wrong, every clock in the United Kingdom, except those on a line due north and south from Greenwich, must of necessity be in error.

On the continent of North America efforts have recently been made to adjust the difficulty. The steps taken have been in a high degree successful in providing a remedy for the disturbing influences referred to, and, at the same time, they are in harmony with principles, the soundness of which is indisputable.

When we examine into time in the abstract, the conviction is forced upon us that it bears no resemblance to any sort of matter which comes before our senses; it is immaterial, without form, without substance, without spiritual essence. It is neither solid, liquid, nor gaseous.

Yet it is capable of measurement with the closest precision.

Nevertheless, it may be doubted if anything measurable could be computed on principles more erroneous than those which now prevail with regard to it.

What course do we follow in reckoning time? Our system implies that there are innumerable conceptions designated "time." We speak of solar, astronomical, nautical, and civil time, of apparent and mean time. Moreover, we a.s.sign to every individual point around the surface of the earth separate and distinct times in equal variety. The usages inherited by us imply that there is an infinite number of times. Is not all this inconsistent with reason, and at variance with the cardinal truth, that there is one time only?

Time may be compared to a great stream forever flowing onward. To us, nature, in its widest amplitude, is a unity. We have but one earth, but one universe, whatever its myriad component parts. That there is also but one flow of time is consistent with the plain dictates of our understanding. That there can be more than one pa.s.sage of time is inconceivable.

From every consideration, it is evident that the day has arrived when our method of time-reckoning should be reformed. The conditions of modern civilization demand that a comprehensive system should be established, embodying the principle that time is one abstract conception, and that all definite portions of it should be based on, or be related to, one unit measure.

On these grounds I feel justified in respectfully asking the consideration of the Conference to the series of recommendations which I venture to submit.

The matter is undoubtedly one in which every civilized nation is interested. Indeed, it may be said that, more or less, every human being is concerned in it. The problem is of universal importance, and its solution can alone be found in the general adoption of a system grounded on principles recognized as incontrovertible.

Such principles are embodied in the recommendations which I am permitted to place before the Conference. They involve, as an essential requirement, the determination of a unit of measurement, and it is obvious that such a unit must have its origin in the motion of the heavenly bodies. No motion is more uniform than the motion of the earth on its axis. This diurnal revolution admits of the most delicate measurement, and, in all respects, is the most available for a unit measure. It furnishes a division of time definite and precise, and one which, without difficulty, can be made plain and manifest.

A revolution of the earth, denoted by the mean solar pa.s.sage at the Prime or Anti-prime Meridian, will be recognizable by the whole world as a period of time common to all. By general agreement this period may be regarded as the common unit by which time may be everywhere measured for every purpose in science, in commerce, and in every-day life.

The scheme set forth in the recommendations has in view three princ.i.p.al objects, viz:

1. To define and establish an universal day for securing chronological accuracy in dates common to the whole world.

2. To obtain a system of universal time on a basis acceptable to all nations, by which, everywhere, at the same time, the same instant may be observed.

3. To establish a sound and rational system of reckoning time which may eventually be adopted for civil purposes everywhere, and thus secure uniformity and accuracy throughout the globe.

But, in the inauguration of a scheme affecting so many individuals, it is desirable not to interfere with prevailing customs more than necessary. Such influences as arise from habit are powerful and cannot be ignored. The fact must be recognized that it will be difficult to change immediately the usages to which the ma.s.s of men have been accustomed. In daily life we are in the habit of eating, sleeping, and following the routine of our existence at certain periods of the day.

We are familiar with the numbers of the hours by which these periods are known, and, doubtless, there will be many who will see little reason in any attempt to alter their nomenclature, especially those who take little note of cause and effect, and who, with difficulty, understand the necessity of a remedy to some marked irregularity which, however generally objectionable, does not bear heavily upon them individually.

For the present, therefore, we must adapt a new system, as best we are able, to the habits of men and women as we find them. Provision for such adaptation is made in the recommendations by which, while local reckoning would be based on the principles laid down, the hours and their numbers need not appreciably vary from those with which we are familiar. Thus, time-reckoning in all ordinary affairs in every locality may be made to harmonize with the general system.

Standard time throughout the United States and Canada has been established in accord with this principle. Its adoption has proved the advantages which may be attained generally by the same means. On all sides these advantages have been widely appreciated, and no change intimately bearing upon common life was ever so unanimously accepted.

Certainly, it is an important step towards the establishment of one system of universal time, or, as it is designated in the recommendations, Cosmic time.

The alacrity and unanimity with which the change has been accepted in North America encourages the belief that the introduction of cosmic time in every-day life is not unattainable. The intelligence of the people will not fail to discover, before long, that the adoption of correct principles of time-reckoning will in no way change or seriously affect the habits they have been accustomed to. It will certainly sweep away nothing valuable to them. The sun will rise and set to regulate their social affairs. All cla.s.ses will soon learn to understand the hour of noon, whatever the number on the dial, whether six, as in Scriptural times, or twelve, or eighteen, or any other number. People will get up and retire to bed, begin and end work, take breakfast and dinner at the same periods of the day as at present, and our social habits and customs will remain without a change, depending, as now, on the daily returning phenomena of light and darkness.

The one alteration will be in the notation of the hours, so as to secure uniformity in every longitude. It is to be expected that this change will at first create some bewilderment, and that it will be somewhat difficult to be understood by the ma.s.ses. The causes for such a change to many will appear insufficient or fanciful. In a few years, however, this feeling must pa.s.s away, and the advantages to be gained will become so manifest that I do not doubt so desirable a reform will eventually commend itself to general favor, and be adopted in all the affairs of life.

Be that as it may, it seems to me highly important that a comprehensive time system should be initiated to facilitate scientific observations, and definitely to establish chronological dates; that it should be designed for general use in connection with railways and telegraphs, and for such other purposes for which it may be found convenient.

The Cosmic day set forth in the recommendations would be the date for the world recognizable by all nations. It would theoretically and practically be the mean of all local days, and the common standard to which all local reckoning would be referable.