STANDARD TIME

BY Standard Time is meant that the hour of each 15° of longitude becomes the local mean time for the zone or belt extending 7 ¹⁄₂° on each side of the central meridian; though in practise the zone has to be adapted to local circumstances, and so cannot conform to the exact line or meridian, but is arranged to suit boundaries of States or Provinces as may be most convenient. By way of illustration, it may be noted that in the Province of Ontario, Canada, by Act of the Legislature, the hour of 75° W. is Standard Time for the Province as far as 87° W., and that the S.W. point, 83° W., extends westerly beyond the eastern part of the State of Michigan, where the time of 90° W. is used; so at Windsor, Ontario, it is noon while in Michigan — more to the east — it is 11 A.M. The Standard Time as used in the chief cities of Canada and the United States may be noted: at Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto, at Boston, New York, and Washington, the time of 75° W., five hours earlier than Greenwich, is used; at Winnipeg in Manitoba, and at Detroit, Chicago, and New Orleans, the time of 90°, {143} six hours earlier than Greenwich, is used; at Regina and Denver it is the time of 105°, seven hours earlier than Greenwich; and in British Columbia and at San Francisco the time of 120° W., eight hours earlier than Greenwich, is used; and when 180° is reached another day begins in Eastern Siberia, at the Fiji Islands, and a little to the east of New Zealand.

The same rule applies to places east of Greenwich, where, of course, noon is earlier than at Greenwich according to the longitude. Spain adopted Standard — that is, Greenwich — Time early in the century. When noon at Greenwich it is 2 P.M. in Egypt and South Africa; it is 5:30 P.M. in India, 82 ¹⁄₂° E.; in Japan and Corea, 135° E., it is 9 P.M.; and in Eastern Australia, 150° E., it is 10 P.M.

The question is often asked, “Where does a day begin?” — that is, any special day, New Year’s Day or Easter Day — and the answer is that for all peoples, nations, and languages, using maps with longitude East and West from Greenwich, each day begins at the meridian of 180°, slightly east of New Zealand in the South, and intersecting Eastern Siberia in the North, and so the last day of the nineteenth century and the first day of the twentieth were on the Earth together, not running concurrently or side by side, north and south of the Equator, as has been {144} supposed, erroneously, but the latter following the former from 180° westerly to Greenwich, and on again to 180°, where it gave place to January 2.

	H. M.
Adelaide	9 14 P.M.
Auckland (N.Z.)	11 39 P.M.
Berlin	0 54 P.M.
Berne	0 30 P.M.
Bombay	4 51 P.M.
Boston, U.S.	7 16 A.M.
Brisbane, Qnsland	10 12 P.M.
Brussels	0 17 P.M.
Calcutta	5 53 P.M.
Cape of Good Hope	1 14 P.M.
Chicago	6 10 A.M.
Constantinople	1 56 P.M.
Dublin	11 35 A.M.
Edinburgh	11 47 A.M.
Florence	0 45 P.M.
Glasgow	11 43 A.M.
Hobart, Tasmania	9 49 P.M.
Jerusalem	2 21 P.M.
Lisbon	11 23 A.M.
Madras	5 21 P.M.
Madrid	11 45 A.M.
Malta	0 58 P.M.
Melbourne, Aus.	9 40 P.M.
Moscow	2 30 P.M.
Newfndland, S. Jns.	8 29 A.M.
New York	7 4 A.M.
Paris	0 9 P.M.
Pekin	7 46 P.M.
Penzance	11 37 A.M.
Perth, W. Aus.	7 43 P.M.
Philadelphia	6 59 A.M.
Port Moresby	10 4 P.M.
Prague	0 58 P.M.
Quebec	7 15 A.M.
Rome	0 50 P.M.
Rotterdam	0 18 P.M.
San Francisco, Port	3 52 A.M.
St. Petersburg	2 1 P.M.
Stockholm	1 12 P.M.
Suez	2 10 P.M.
Sydney	10 5 P.M.
Toronto	6 42 A.M.
Vancouver	3 38 A.M.
Vienna	1 5 P.M.

{145}