Standard Time

an arrangement made by common consent whereby large districts keep the same time. Standard time has been agreed upon to meet the necessities of large east and west railroad systems. Briefly stated, the railroad world has been laid off into rough-edged belts running north and south. All timepieces in the same time belt are set to run together to a second. The time of each belt is an hour slower than that of the belt next east of it. Greenwich, England, time is the basis. All watches and clocks in the British Isles are expected to keep time to a tick with the great government clock in Greenwich Observatory. The continent of Europe, Russia not falling in with the agreement, uses uniform time one hour faster than that of England. Australia lies in three time belts. Western Australia uses time eight hours faster than Greenwich time; Japan and South Australia, nine hours; Eastern Australia, ten hours. North America lies in five time belts. Beginning at the east, they are the Colonial, the Eastern, the Central, the Mountain, and the Pacific. In these belts timepieces are slower than Greenwich time by precisely four, five, six, seven, and eight hours respectively. The minutes and the seconds are the same the world over. In practice Mountain time is pinched out on the southern border. The Southern Pacific Railroad changes from Central to Pacific time at El Paso.

Under the system of local time, on the contrary, it is 12 o'clock at any particular place when the sun hangs highest in the heavens and objects cast their shadows in a north and south line. Twelve o'clock travels westward with the sun. We can see readily how difficult it would be to operate trains on a long east and west road by local time. The astronomical or local time of New York City, and that of Pittsburg differ by about an hour. Trains have orders to leave New York and Pittsburg at, let us say, 7 A.M. to meet at 12:30 at a particular siding. Now are they to meet at 12:30 by New York time or by Pittsburg time, or at 12:30 according to local time? A freight is ordered to sidetrack for an eastbound passenger at 9:30 A.M.; for a west-bound passenger at 10 A.M. If the freight is to turn out for the west-bound train on time brought from New York and for the east-bound train on time brought from Pittsburg, the 10 o'clock siding must be taken before the 9:30 siding is reached. To avoid all possibility of confusion, Standard time has been adopted. Every time-piece connected with the service between New York and Pittsburg and in all Eastern territory, is set to the click of a telegraph instrument to indicate the same hour, minute, and second. No matter which way an employe is going or what branch of the service he may be in, he is required to exhibit his watch daily or weekly to some authorized jeweler whose chronometer is in telegraphic circuit and who certifies to the company that the employe is carrying correct time.

Under the Standard System, time changes by hourly leaps. Referring again to Pittsburg, which is on the boundary line, it is 12 o'clock Standard in the eastern part of the Union Station when it is eleven in the western part of the station. A train from the east may arrive at 7 P. M., Eastern time, and go on westward without loss of time at 6 P. M. Central time. Men working for the Eastern lines carry Eastern time, and men working for Western trains carry Central time. In a town so situated, local confusion is a serious question. In fixing an hour for the opening of school, it is necessary to state whether Eastern, local or Central time is meant. It is thought that the difficulty will be solved some day by a world-wide adoption of, very possibly, Greenwich time, so that all timepieces the world over may indicate the same hour.

Another difficulty in time is that of establishing dates. If one were to start westward from Greenwich at noon on Monday and keep up with the sun, he would be back at Greenwich having had noon of Monday all the while, but to the people of Greenwich, it would be Tuesday noon on his return. Even though the traveler took months to make the trip, he would find himself a day behind in his reckoning. On a trip around the world westward, the traveler must add one day of the week and month, calling Friday the 15th Saturday the 16th, for instance. Traveling around the world eastward, he would arrive at his starting place with his dates a day ahead of his friends at home. On going around the world eastward, he must drop out a day, and set aside two days for one date in order to be in accord with local dates on his return. The locality for adding a day or subtracting a day is by common consent the meridian of 180 deg. east or west from Greenwich. This line passes north and south through the Pacific Ocean, and is called the international date line. Pacific steamers make quite a point of celebrating passing the line. Islands near the line exercise the privilege of dating according to whether their affiliations lie east or west. When Alaska, which had its datings from Russia, passed into our possession, it was necessary to drop a day out of the week in order to make the days correspond with those of America rather than with those of Asia. Up to 1844 Manila kept Monday on the day that Hong Kong observed as Sunday. The story is told of three London sea captains who dined together in the Strand. The first, who had just returned from a similar voyage eastward, claimed to be eating his Monday dinner. The third who had stayed at home questioned the propriety of a jollification at all for to him the day was the Sabbath.