International Conference Held at Washington for the Purpose of Fixing a Prime Meridian and a Universal Day. October, 1884. / Protocols of the Proceedings

by D.C.) International Meridian Conference (1884 : Washington

Mr. de Struve, Delegate of Russia. In the name of the Delegates for Russia I have now, at this point of the discussion, to say a few words.

If we had to consider the scientific side alone of the questions, which have already been discussed and resolved by the prominent scientists of the different countries at the General Conference of the International Geodetical Association at Rome, in 1883, we might as well simply adhere to the resolutions of the Roman Conference, and limit our work to the shaping of these resolutions into the form of a draft of an international convention, to be submitted for approbation to our respective Governments. But, as we have, besides, to consider the application of the intended reform to practical life, we beg to submit the following suggestions to the kind attention of the Conference.

It is important to find for the more densely populated countries the simplest mode possible of transition from local to universal time, and vice versa; and we believe, therefore, that it would be convenient for the practical purposes of the question to adopt for the beginning of the universal day the midnight of Greenwich, and not the noon, as was deemed advisable by the Conference of Rome.

This modification would offer for the whole of Europe and for the greatest part of America the advantage of avoiding the double date in local and universal time during the principal business hours of the day, and would afford great facilities in the transition from local time to universal.

In adopting the universal time for the astronomical almanacs and for astronomical ephemerides, and in counting the beginning of the day from the midnight of Greenwich, there would be, it is true, a modification of the astronomical chronology, as heretofore used; but we think it easier for the astronomers to change the starting point, and to make allowance for these 12 hours of difference in their calculations, than it would be for the public and for the business men, if the date for the universal time began at noon, and not at midnight.

The Conference at Rome proposes to count the longitudes from O° to 360° in the direction from west to east. It seems to us that this system can lead to misunderstanding in the local and universal chronology for the countries beyond the 180° east of Greenwich.

We believe that a more practical result of the reform could be easily obtained by modifying the clause IV of the resolutions of the Roman Conference, and by maintaining the system already in use for a long time, which is to count the longitudes from 0° to 180° to east and west, adopting the sign + for eastern longitudes, and the sign - for western longitudes Thus the transition from universal to local time could be exactly expressed by the formula:

Universal time = Local time - Longitude.

The adoption of this modification would necessitate that the change of the day of the week, historically established on or about the anti-meridian of Greenwich, should henceforth take place exactly on that meridian.

We are in favor of the adoption of the universal time (clause V of the resolutions of the Roman Conference) side by side with the local time, for international telegraphic correspondence, and for through international lines by railroads and steamers.