The civil day of the world commences near the anti-meridian of Rome, Greenwich, or Paris. Therefore it is not natural that one of these meridians should be chosen as the point of departure of dates.
Really, one phenomenon cannot be the commencement of a series of phenomena if there is another which precedes it periodically.
If the majority, as is logical, adopts the formula, "cosmic time=local time-longitude," and applies in the calculation longitude with the signs plus and minus, according as the longitude is east and west, the system will be source of frequent mistakes, and those, in their turn, will be the cause of disastrous accidents, especially on railroads.
Let us take the 31st of December, for instance. It is three o'clock at a point nine hours east of Greenwich; at the same moment they will count at Greenwich eighteen civil hours of the 30th of the same month, after the actual manner of reckoning the civil day, and that civil time of Greenwich will be the cosmic time.
Apply to the proposed example the formula which I suppose the majority of the Congress will adopt, and the result will be a negative quantity, minus six hours—a result not sufficiently comprehensible in itself, and one that could not be easily applied by the general public.
Can a majority prevail in questions, such as those we are speaking of, simply by the force of numbers? The whole world for several centuries thought that the earth was the centre of our planetary system; in fact, until an insignificant minority rose against this theory, for a long time considered by their ancestors indisputable.
I will conclude by expressing my opinion upon the subject with which the Congress is occupied. My opinion is not new, in spite of its having been modified in the course of our sitting. The works of our eminent colleague and indefatigable propagandist, Mr. Sandford Fleming, the resolution of the Conference at Rome, the valuable opinions of Messrs. Faye, Otto Struve, Beaumont de Boutiller, Hugo Gyldén, the scientific work of Monsieur Chancourtois, and the report which M. Gaspari has just presented to the Academy of Sciences of Paris are the text upon which I base the simplest and most practical method of solving the problem, namely, to adopt as the prime meridian for cosmic time and longitude a meridian near the point at which our dates change, and to reckon longitude from zero hours to twenty-four hours towards the west, contrary to the movement of the earth. The formula would be then: Cosmic time = local time + longitude.
I think that the best way of finding cosmic time in relation to local time and longitude is to add a quantity to the civil hour of each point of the globe.
But as the majority of this Congress, so worthy of respect, admits no modifications of the system which we may call Greenwich, let us lay aside the question of longitude and consider cosmic time separately.
I have the honor, therefore, to present the following resolutions, and I ask the Congress to consider them, and to accept them as a means of compromise: