accordingly taken on the question whether it should be adopted.
States voting in the affirmative:
Austria-Hungary, Mexico,
Brazil, Netherlands,
Chili, Paraguay,
Colombia, Russia,
Costa Rica, San Domingo,
France, Spain,
Great Britain, Switzerland,
Hawaii, Turkey,
Italy, United States,
Japan, Venezuela.
Liberia,
States voting in the negative: None.
Abstained from voting:
Germany, Sweden.
Guatemala,
Ayes, 21; noes, 0; abstained, 3.
The PRESIDENT. The resolution of the Delegate of France is, therefore,
adopted.
General STRACHEY, Delegate of Great Britain. Sir, before concluding
the session to-day, I hope that the Delegates will be in a position to
listen to the two resolutions which I now desire to propose, and which
I think will tend to clear up a good deal of the discussion which we
have had. The first of these resolutions is as follows:
"The Conference adopts the opinion that, for the purposes of
civil life, it will be convenient to reckon time, according
to the local civil time at successive meridians destributed
round the earth, at time-intervals of either ten minutes, or
some integral multiple of ten minutes, from the prime
meridian; but that the application of this principle be
left to the various nations or communities concerned by it."
This resolution, as it stands, embraces all the practical suggestions
which have been made on the subject up to the present time. The only
limitation it proposes to put upon the adoption of what may be called
local standard time is that the breaks shall be at definite intervals
of ten minutes or more.
The second resolution which I propose is a very simple one. It is
this:
"The arrangements for adopting the universal day in
international telegraphy should be left for the
consideration of the international telegraph congress."
There has been established by an international arrangement a congress
which meets every two years to settle questions of international
telegraphy, and I think that the precise manner in which universal
time may be adapted to telegraphy would very properly be left to that
congress.
Mr. DE STRUVE, Delegate of Russia. On behalf of the Delegates of
Russia, I beg to make the following remarks:
We have already expressed the opinion that the universal time could be
properly used for international postal, railway, and telegraphic
communications. But it is to be understood that local or any other
standard time, which is intimately connected with daily life, will
necessarily be used side by side with the universal time.
It has been proposed, in order to establish an easier connection
between local and universal time, to accept twenty-four meridians at
equal distances of 1 hour or 15°, or to divide the whole circumference
of the earth by meridians at distances of 10 minutes of time or 21/2°.
This question not yet having been made the subject of special and
thorough investigation by the respective Governments, and not having
been discussed at the International Conference at Rome, we believe
that it would as yet be difficult to express, in regard to Europe, any
positive opinion on the practical convenience of the above mentioned
or other possible methods of dividing the globe into equal time-zones.
We would suggest to recommend that the system of counting the hours of
the universal day from 0 to 24, which probably will be adopted for the
universal day, might also be introduced for counting the local time
side by side with the old method of counting the hours of 0 to 12 A.
M. and 0 to 12 p. m.
Count LEWENHAUPT, Delegate of Sweden. I have had the honor to transmit
to the members of the Conference a résumé of a report on this subject
made by Professor Gyldén, an eminent Swedish astronomer, whose name,
no doubt, is familiar to many of the Delegates. The system proposed by
Mr. Gyldén is similar to the one now proposed by the Delegate for
Great Britain. The only difference is that Mr. Gyldén, in explaining
the system, recommends the adoption of equidistant meridians,
separated by intervals of 21/2°, or 10 minutes of time, while the
proposition of the Delegate for Great Britain is so worded that this
distance may be greater than 10 minutes. This difference is, however,
only a question of detail. The basis of Mr. Gyldén's system is that
time meridians should be separated from the standard initial meridian
by either 10 or some integral multiple of 10 minutes. Therefore, I
shall, with pleasure, vote for the resolution of the Delegate from
Great Britain.
I beg only permission of the Conference to insert Mr. Gyldén's report
as part of my remarks:
_RÉSUMÉ OF A REPORT read before the Swedish Geographical
Society by Hugo Gyldén, Professor of Astronomy and member of
the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, concerning the use of
Equidistant Meridians for the fixation of the Hour._
If we suppose the meridian passing through the Observatory
of Greenwich extended round the globe, this grand circle
will cut the equator, at 180° from Greenwich, at some place
a little east of New Zealand. This meridian falls almost
entirely in the Ocean, and cuts, in any case, not more than
a few small islands in the Pacific. If we suppose, further,
another great circle at 90° from the meridian of Greenwich,
the western half touches very nearly New Orleans, and the
eastern half passes a few minutes from Calcutta. If, now,
the hour is fixed according to these four meridians, we have
four cardinal times--one European, one American, one
Asiatic, and one Oceanic.
It will, however, be necessary to fix much more than one
civil time for Europe. Therefore I suppose for Europe a
whole system of meridians, which, however, ought not to be
closer together than 21/2°. The difference of time between
these meridians is then only 10 minutes, which, in general,
can be considered as an insignificant difference between the
civil and the true solar time. The starting point of this
system is the meridian of Greenwich. To the west the system
ought to extend 30 minutes; to the east 21/2 hours, or to a
meridian passing near Moscow.
I suppose as time zero the meridian of Greenwich. The next
meridian to the east is meridian 1. This meridian will not
pass far from the Observatory of Paris, because the
difference between this meridian 1 and the meridian of Paris
is only 40 seconds, an insignificant difference in civil
life. The meridian 1 can be called the meridian of Paris, or
French meridian.
The second meridian (to the east of Greenwich) does not
touch Utrecht, but will pass so close that the time of this
city could, without the least inconvenience, be regulated as
if the difference of time between Greenwich and Utrecht were
exactly 20 minutes. The second meridian would also pass
almost as close to Amsterdam, (22s.,) and would not be far
from Marseilles, (1m. 29s.) In the vicinity of the third
meridian we have, first, Bern, (16s.;) next, a little
further, Turin, (42s.) The fourth meridian is close to
Hamburg, Altona, and Gottingen, (respectively 6s. and 14s.)
Not far from the same meridian is Christiania, although at a
distance of a little over 2 minutes. The fifth meridian
passes also close to three large cities--Rome, (5s.,)
Leipzig, (26s.,) and Copenhagen, (20s.)
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 Königsberg is situated two
minutes from the eighth. The ninth meridian passes 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 Jassy. 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 pass 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 circumstance, 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 circumstance 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 analogous 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.
SESSION OF OCTOBER 22, 1884.
The Conference met pursuant to adjournment in the Diplomatic Hall of
the Department of State, at one o'clock p. m.
Present:
Austria-Hungary: Baron IGNATZ VON SCHÆFFER.
Brazil: Dr. LUIZ CRULS.
Chili: Mr. F. Y. GORMAS and Mr. A. B. TUPPER.
Colombia: Commodore S. E. FRANKLIN.
Costa Rica: Mr. JUAN FRANCISCO ECHEVERRIA.
France: Mr. A. LEFAIVRE, Mr. JANSSEN.
Germany: Baron H. VON ALVENSLEBEN, Mr. HINCKELDEYN.
Great Britain: Sir F. J. O. EVANS, Prof. J. C. ADAMS,
Lieut.-General STRACHEY, Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING.
Guatemala: Mr. MILES BOOK.
Hawaii: Hon. W. D. ALEXANDER, Hon. LUTHER AHOLO.
Italy: Count ALBERT DE FORESTA.
Japan: Professor KIKUCHI.
Liberia: Mr. WM. COPPINGER.
Mexico: Mr. LEANDRO FERNANDEZ, Mr. ANGEL ANGUIANO.
Netherlands: Mr. G. DE WECKHERLIN.
Paraguay: Capt. JOHN STEWART.
Russia: Mr. C. DE STRUVE, Major-General STEBNITZKI, Mr.
J. DE KOLOGRIVOFF.
San Domingo: Mr. DE J. GALVAN.
Spain: Mr. JUAN VALERA, Mr. EMILIO RUIZ DEL ARBOL,
and Mr. JUAN PASTORIN.
Sweden: Count CARL LEWENHAUPT.
Switzerland: Col. EMILE FREY.
Turkey: RUSTEM EFFENDI.
United States: Rear-Admiral C. R. P. RODGERS, Mr. LEWIS
M. RUTHERFURD, Mr. W. F. ALLEN, Commander W. T.
SAMPSON, Professor CLEVELAND ABBE.
Venezuela: Dr. A. M. SOTELDO.
Absent:
Denmark: Mr. C. S. A. DE BILLE.
Salvador: Mr. ANTONIO BATRES.
The PRESIDENT. The first business before the Conference to-day is the
resolutions offered by the Delegate of Great Britain, General
STRACHEY; but before we proceed the Delegate of San Domingo, Mr.
GALVAN, asks permission, as a matter of privilege, to read a
communication to the Conference.
Mr. GALVAN, the Delegate of San Domingo. Before the sessions of the
Conference come to a close, I feel compelled to make a declaration
which will be a tribute to the illustrious scientists who have
directed the decisions of the majority of the Conference, and at the
same time a reservation of future freedom of action to the country
which I have the honor to represent.
The negative vote of San Domingo on the principal question was
entirely in consequence of the proposal by the Delegates of France of
a neutral International Meridian, which was rejected by the
Conference.
San Domingo, which had no part in the various important interests
connected with the meridian of Greenwich, was bound to regard equity
alone on the occurrence of the disagreement produced by the proposal
of the Delegates of France, a nation renowned for being one of the
first in intellectual progress.
At the last session I was glad that another proposal of the Delegates
of France was accepted almost unanimously by the Conference. That fact
should be considered as a good omen of a more complete and unanimous
agreement at some future time in behalf of the general interest of
science.
That day will be saluted with a cordial _hosanna_ by the Republic of
San Domingo, which is always ready freely to give its assent to the
progress of civilization.
The PRESIDENT. The resolutions offered by the Delegate of Great
Britain, General STRACHEY, are now before the Conference, and will be
read.
The resolutions were then read, as follows:
"1. The Conference adopts the opinion that, for the purposes
of civil life, it will be convenient to reckon time
according to the local civil time at successive meridians
distributed round the earth, at time-intervals of either ten
minutes, or some integral multiple of ten minutes, from the
prime meridian; but that the application of this principle
be left to the various nations or communities concerned by
it."
"2. The arrangements for the use of the universal day in
international telegraphy should be left for the
consideration of the International Telegraph Congress."
General STRACHEY, Delegate of Great Britain. In consequence of the
opinions I have heard expressed regarding the resolutions which I
brought forward at our last meeting, I feel constrained to say that I
am not disposed to ask the Congress to proceed to a vote upon them. I
find that, although I had reason to think that those resolutions, in
substance, that is in their main features, would be acceptable, still
there is extreme difficulty in finding precise expressions that shall
meet the views of everybody, and there are divisions of opinion as to
the exact manner in which these resolutions should be modified.
My object in bringing forward the resolutions was mainly to obtain a
decided expression of opinion on the part of the Congress, that the
method of counting local time, so as to harmonize as far as possible
with universal time, should be left for settlement locally; and that,
at the utmost, all the Congress could do would be to suggest some
general principle such as that embodied in my resolution. There was,
of course, never any intention of employing the universal day so as to
interfere with the use of local standard time; and as I shall, no
doubt, elicit a further clear expression of opinion on the part of the
delegates, that there is no intention of bringing about this
interference, I will now, with the permission of the Conference,
withdraw the resolutions.
Mr. RUTHERFURD, Delegate of the United States. Mr. President, I think
that all of us appreciate the desire which moved the Delegate of Great
Britain to present these resolutions. There is a wish on his part that
we should not seem, in any way, by our action here, to interfere with
the convenience of the world in the use of its present civil time, or
any other time which it may be found convenient to adopt, while he
recognizes that some of the proposals made as to local time are such
as could not be objected to. Still, I cannot refrain from expressing
my satisfaction that he has come to the conclusion that these
resolutions are not necessary.
I think the whole question is covered by the resolutions already
adopted by this Congress; that our universal day is for those purposes
only for which it may be found convenient, and that it is not to
interfere in any way with the use of civil or other standard time
where that may be found convenient. This seems to me to be so fully
embodied in our resolutions that it is unnecessary to enunciate again
in a negative form the same idea, and I therefore express my
satisfaction that the resolutions are withdrawn.
Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING, Delegate of Great Britain. Mr. President, I have
a few words bearing on the subject before the Conference which I wish
to express before any action is taken.
The PRESIDENT. There will be no subject before the Congress if the
resolutions of General STRACHEY are withdrawn, and the Chair
understands that the object of General STRACHEY in withdrawing these
resolutions was to avoid a discussion upon a subject that could hardly
lead to any satisfactory conclusion.
If, however, Mr. FLEMING desires to address the Conference, he will be
at liberty to do so.
Mr. FLEMING, Delegate of Great Britain. I do not wish to intrude any
new matter upon the Conference. What I had to say had a bearing upon
the subject, but, if the resolutions are withdrawn and the Conference
desires to end the matter, I shall not insist upon speaking.
No objection being made, the resolutions offered by General STRACHEY
at the last session of the Conference were then withdrawn.
Count LEWENHAUPT, Delegate for Sweden, then proposed that the
resolutions passed by the Conference should be formally recorded in a
Final Act, stating the votes on each resolution that was adopted.
The Conference took a recess, in order to allow the Delegates to
examine the draft of the Final Act.
After the recess the Final Act was unanimously adopted, as follows:
FINAL ACT.
The President of the United States of America, in pursuance
of a special provision of Congress, having extended to the
Governments of all nations in diplomatic relations with his
own, an invitation to send Delegates to meet Delegates from
the United States in the city of Washington on the first of
October, 1884, for the purpose of discussing, and, if
possible, fixing upon a meridian proper to be employed as a
common zero of longitude and standard of time-reckoning
throughout the whole world, this International Meridian
Conference assembled at the time and place designated; and,
after careful and patient discussion, has passed the
following resolutions:
I.
"That it is the opinion of this Congress that it is
desirable to adopt a single prime meridian for all nations,
in place of the multiplicity of initial meridians which now
exist."
This resolution was unanimously adopted.
II.
"That the Conference proposes to the Governments here
represented the adoption of the meridian passing through the
centre of the transit instrument at the Observatory of
Greenwich as the initial meridian for longitude."
The above resolution was adopted by the following vote:
In the affirmative:
Austria-Hungary, Mexico,
Chili, Netherlands,
Colombia, Paraguay,
Costa Rica, Russia,
Germany, Salvador,
Great Britain, Spain,
Guatemala, Sweden,
Hawaii, Switzerland,
Italy, Turkey,
Japan, United States,
Liberia, Venezuela.
In the negative:
San Domingo.
Abstaining from voting:
Brazil, France.
Ayes, 22; noes, 1; abstaining, 2.
III.
"That from this meridian longitude shall be counted in two
directions up to 180 degrees, east longitude being plus and
west longitude minus."
This resolution was adopted by the following vote:
In the affirmative:
Chili, Liberia,
Colombia, Mexico,
Costa Rica, Paraguay,
Great Britain, Russia,
Guatemala, Salvador,
Hawaii, United States,
Japan, Venezuela.
In the negative:
Italy, Sweden,
Netherlands, Switzerland.
Spain,
Abstaining from voting:
Austria-Hungary, Germany,
Brazil, San Domingo,
France, Turkey.
Ayes, 14; noes, 5; abstaining, 6.
IV.
"That the Conference proposes the adoption of a universal
day for all purposes for which it may be found convenient,
and which shall not interfere with the use of local or other
standard time where desirable."
This resolution was adopted by the following vote:
In the affirmative:
Austria-Hungary, Mexico,
Brazil, Netherlands,
Chili, Paraguay,
Colombia, Russia,
Costa Rica, Salvador,
France, Spain,
Great Britain, Sweden,
Guatemala, Switzerland,
Hawaii, Turkey,
Italy, United States,
Japan, Venezuela.
Liberia,
Abstaining from voting:
Germany, San Domingo.
Ayes, 23; abstaining, 2.
V.
"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."
This resolution was adopted by the following vote:
In the affirmative:
Brazil, Liberia,
Chili, Mexico,
Colombia, Paraguay,
Costa Rica, Russia,
Great Britain, Turkey,
Guatemala, United States,
Hawaii, Venezuela.
Japan,
In the negative:
Austria-Hungary, Spain.
Abstaining from voting:
France, San Domingo,
Germany, Sweden,
Italy, Switzerland.
Netherlands,
Ayes, 15; noes, 2; abstaining, 7.
VI.