International Conference Held at Washington Part 19

No. 3. Letter from Mr. A. S. de Chancourtois, accompanying books from Paris.

No. 4. Letter from Mr. A. W. Spofford, enclosing letter of Mr. J. W. Stolting, of Dobbs' Ferry.

No. 5. Letter from Mr. B. Aycrigg, Pa.s.saic, N. J.

No. 6. Letter from J. T. Field, St. Louis, Mo.

No. 7. Letter and two enclosures from Mr. Theodor Paesche.

No. 8. Description of the Universal Time-Piece of Dr. A. M.

Cory.

No. 9. Letter and enclosure from Mr. E. R. Knorr.

No. 10. Letter from Mr. J. E. Hilgard, of the U. S. Coast Survey and Geodetic Survey.

No. 11. Arguments by Committee of New York and New Jersey branch, and other papers relating to weights and measures.

No. 12. Letter from Lt. C. A. S. Totten, U.S.A., in relation to a Standard Meridian.

No. 13. Letter from Mr. J. P. Merritt, in relation to the Metric System.

No. 14. Postal card from W. H. Yates, in relation to the Mercator Projection.

No. 15. A New System of Mensuration, by Lawrence S. Benson.

No. 16. Letter of T. C. Octman, of Hope Mills, N. C., calling attention to the fact that the meridian of Greenwich pa.s.ses through Havre.

No. 17. Letter from Dr. H. K. Whitner, explaining his notation of 24 hours.

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,

C. R. P. RODGERS, _President International Meridian Conference_.

Prof. J. C. ADAMS.

_Report of the Committee._

The Committee on communications respectfully reports as follows:

We have carefully examined all of the communications referred to us, as enumerated in the letter of President Rodgers, with the following results:

No. 1 recommends that the meridian of Bethlehem be adopted as the initial meridian. This question has been already disposed of by the Conference; therefore further consideration of the proposition is unnecessary.

No. 2 refers to an invention, the author of which states that "a patent has been applied for," consequently your Committee does not feel called upon to express any opinion upon it.

No. 3 is a letter from M. de Chancourtois, accompanying a work by him which contains an elaborate program of a system of geography based on decimal measures, both of time and of angles, and on the adoption of an international meridian.

The work also contains copious historical notices on the metric system and on the initial meridian.

A copy of this work was presented to each of the Delegates prior to the discussions of the Conference with regard to the choice of an initial meridian, and therefore no special report of the author's views on this subject appears to your committee to be necessary. These views are nearly identical with those which were so ably laid before the Conference by Professor Janssen, but which failed to meet with their approval.

The author further proposes to supersede the present mode of measuring both angles and time by a system in which the entire circ.u.mference and the length of the day should each be first divided into four equal parts, and then each of these parts should be subdivided decimally.

However deserving of consideration these proposals may be, in the abstract, your Committee are clearly of the opinion that they do not fall within the limits indicated by the instructions which we have received from our respective governments, and that, therefore, any discussion of them would only be of a purely academical character, and could lead to no practical result. Such a discussion would be sure to elicit great differences of opinion, and would, therefore, occupy a considerable time.

Hence, your Committee think that it would be very undesirable for the Conference to enter upon it.

No. 4 is a letter from Mr. Spofford, Librarian of Congress, including a communication of Mr. J. W. Stolting, Dobbs'

Ferry, N. Y. The author recommends the adoption of the meridian 162 W. from Greenwich as the prime meridian; he proposes further, not to say east or west, but first or second half, and also recommends the adoption of a universal time, not to interfere with local or other standard time, and to reckon from "1 to 24." He expresses no opinion as to whether the day should begin at noon or midnight. There seems to be nothing in the communication to influence the decisions of the Conference.

No. 5. See report as to letter No. 1.

No. 6 suggests that the prime meridian should be 180 from Greenwich, and that longitude should be reckoned from 0 to 360. This proposition has been already considered and rejected by the Conference.

No. 7. This communication proposes "to adopt as the prime meridian the frontier line between Russia and the United States, as defined in the treaty of March 30, 1867." As the initial meridian has already been agreed to by the Conference, this proposition needs no further notice.

No. 8. This communication refers to an invention which has no bearing on the question before the Conference. The committee therefore abstain from expressing an opinion as to its merits.

No. 9. Two letters from Mr. E. R. Knorr, of Washington, D.C., advocating the advisability of reckoning longitude "westward from 0 to 359," and marking them on charts by time instead of by degrees. The Conference has already taken action on the question involved.

No. 10. A letter from Prof. Hilgard, enclosing a pamphlet by Lt. C. A. S. Totten on the metrology of the great pyramid, a subject which does not fall within the scope of the subjects presented for the consideration of this Conference. In the enclosing letter Prof. Hilgard says: "I am purely and squarely for Greenwich midnight as the beginning of the universal day, and an east and west count of longitude; that is, 180 each way."

No. 11 advocates the preservation of the Anglo-Saxon system of weights and measures. This subject being foreign to the questions under consideration by this Conference, the Committee deems further comment unnecessary.

No. 12. A letter from Lieut. C. A. S. Totten, U.S.A., advocating a prime meridian through the great pyramid. The proposition involved has already been decided by the Conference.

No. 13 recommends redistribution of time according to the decimal system. As already remarked under No. 3, this proposition is clearly not within the limits indicated by the instructions which we have received from our respective governments.

No. 14 states that the author has a plan by which "chronometers will record the longitude equably." This proposition is foreign to the subjects under consideration by the Conference.

No. 15 proposes a new system of mensuration; and, therefore, this does not fall within the subjects for consideration by the Conference.

No. 16. This communication suggests that as the prime meridian pa.s.ses through Havre, it should be allowable to call it by that name. This Committee recommends that the prime meridian be not named after the localities through which it pa.s.ses, but be called simply "The Prime Meridian."

No. 17 is the subject of a patent. The Committee does not feel called upon to express an opinion respecting it.

This report is respectfully submitted to the Conference.

J. C. ADAMS, _Chairman Committee on Communications._

WASHINGTON, _Oct. 18th, 1884_.

The PRESIDENT. The report of the Committee is before the Conference.

Mr. RUTHERFURD, the Delegate of the United States. I move that the report be accepted, and its conclusions adopted.