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

The question of universal time will come on for consideration hereafter, and how that may be settled seems to me a matter of indifference compared with the decision on this resolution. I question, for myself, whether any other plan than that it proposes would be generally accepted. That is what I am afraid of. Whatever respect nations may have for this Conference, public opinion would be very strong upon the point now at issue. When you further recollect that all around the globe, in all these various seas, there are colonies with histories; that their geographical positions and boundaries were originally recorded by longitude according to the notation of which I have spoken, I think it is to be over sanguine to expect that those colonies will accept a new notation of longitude without greater proof of the positive necessity of the change. It would not be the fiat of this Conference, or the fiat of any government, that would bring about the change. I say this with all deference to the opinions of those who have advocated a change.

General Strachey, Delegate of Great Britain. At the risk of repeating somewhat my remarks made to the Congress when we last met, I would add a few words to what has now been said. It is our wish that the points of real difference should, as far as possible, be clearly brought out before the Conference comes to a vote.

As regards the counting of longitude in two directions, and the degree of advantage or disadvantage that may arise in starting from zero and treating east longitude as positive or plus, and west longitude as negative or minus, let me ask the attention of the Congress to the fact that longitude is already counted in these two directions, and that, as a matter of fact also, latitude is counted in the same way, in both directions from the equator, north latitude being plus and south latitude minus. Nobody, so far as I have heard, has ever proposed that we should abolish this method of reckoning latitude, and substitute for it North or South polar distance, to be counted right round the earth; and yet there is the same quasi scientific objection to the present method of counting in the one case as in the other. As already stated, it seems to me that, for purposes of practical convenience, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to separate the ideas on which the reckoning of longitude must be based, from those which must regulate the reckoning of time, and especially the reckoning of time in the sense of adopting a universal day over the whole world. Now, it appears to me that, as regards the acceptance of the universal day, it certainly will be anything but convenient, if it begins and ends otherwise than when the sun passes the 180th meridian. On the contrary, I think it will be extremely inconvenient. I think that if the world were to adopt the meridian of Greenwich as the origin of longitude, the natural thing for it to do would be to have the international day, the universal day, begin from the 180th meridian from Greenwich—that is, to coincide with the Greenwich civil day. That meridian passes, as I said before, outside of New Zealand, and outside of the Fijee Islands; it goes over only a very small portion of inhabited country. It appears to me, therefore, that inasmuch as there must be an absolute break or discontinuity in time in passing round the earth—a break of twenty-four hours—it is much more convenient that this break should take place in the uninhabited part of the earth than in the very centre of civilization.

If we adopt the universal day which coincides with the civil day at Greenwich, then you will be able to have complete continuity of local time over the whole earth, in harmonious relation with the universal day, except at the break which necessarily takes place on the 180th meridian. Otherwise this will not be possible. For instance, according to the system proposed by the resolution, the local time corresponding, say, to 0 hours of Monday at Greenwich, would, in passing round the earth to the eastward from the 180th meridian, gradually change from 12 hours of Sunday to 12 hours of Monday; and, on returning to that meridian, the break of time would occur, and one day would appear to be lost. But complete continuity both in the days and hours, and harmony with the universal day, that is, the Greenwich civil day, would be preserved for the whole earth, excepting on crossing the 180th meridian.

The result of the system which was proposed at Rome would be to cause the break of dates to take place at Greenwich at noon, so that the morning hours of the civil day would have a different universal date from the afternoon hours, and this would be the case all over Europe. But if the universal day be made to correspond to the civil day of Greenwich, and the longitude is counted east in one direction and west in another direction to the 180th meridian, these difficulties would be overcome, and a perfectly simple rule would suffice for converting local into universal time. As regards what was said upon the subject of longitude being plus or minus, according as you move to the east or west, it appears to me that there is a positive, clear, and rational reason for calling longitude eastward plus and longitude westward minus. The time is later to the east, and therefore the hour is indicated by a higher number. In converting universal into local time, if the place is east of Greenwich, you add the longitude to the universal time, and therefore increase the number of the hour; if the place be west of Greenwich, you subtract the longitude, and therefore diminish the number of the hour. It is natural, therefore, to call east longitude positive and the other negative.

It appears to me also that the passage of the sun over the meridian is, in reality, what may be called the index of the day, the day consisting of 24 hours, distributed equally on either side of the meridian. Noon of the universal day would thus coincide with the time of the sun passing the initial meridian. There is perfect consistency, therefore, in adopting the reckoning of longitude and time that is proposed in the resolution before us. It is a rational and symmetrical method.

Mr. Juan Pastorin, the Delegate of Spain. I listened with great pleasure to the observations which our honorable colleague, the Delegate of England, General Strachey, has just made.

I am not sufficiently acquainted with the English tongue to make a speech, though I know it well enough to follow the debate. Moreover, as I had beforehand studied the subject which is now before us, I have quite well understood all that has been said on this point. I proposed an amendment yesterday, in order to obtain what I consider the most simple formula for converting local time into cosmical time. This formula is not, perhaps, the most suitable for astronomers and sailors, but they form the minority, and it is, I am sure, the easiest for the mass of the people. This formula would be based on the considerations which are now under discussion. I am not sufficiently familiar with the language to give the reasons upon which I based my amendment, but, as I demonstrated in the pamphlet which I had the honor of addressing to my learned colleagues, the means, in my opinion, of obtaining the simplest and the most suitable formula is to make the beginning of civil time and of dates on the first meridian coincide with the cosmical time and date, and to count longitude continuously in the same direction from the initial meridian. This is what I proposed to obtain by my amendment.

Count Lewenhaupt, Delegate of Sweden. Mr. President, I now propose that the Conference take a recess for a few moments before a vote is taken upon the resolution.

No objection being made to the motion, the President announced that a recess would be taken until the Chair called the Conference to order.