International Conference Held at Washington for the Purpose of Fixing a Prime Meridian and a Universal Day. October, 1884.: Protocols of the ProceedingsInternational Meridian Conference (1884 : Washington, D.C.)
History
International Conference Held at Washington for the Purpose of Fixing a Prime Meridian and a Universal Day. October, 1884.: Protocols of the Proceedings
International Meridian Conference (1884 : Washington, D.C.)
Prime Meridian -- Congresses; Time -- Systems and standards -- Congresses
Chili, Liberia,
Colombia, Mexico,
Costa Rica, Paraguay,
Great Britain, Russia,
Guatemala, Salvador,
Hawaii, United States,
Japan, Venezuela.
The following States voted in the negative:
Italy, Sweden,
Netherlands, Switzerland.
Spain,
The following States abstained from voting:
Austria-Hungary, Germany,
Brazil, San Domingo,
France, Turkey.
Ayes, 14; noes, 5; abstaining, 6.
The PRESIDENT then announced that the resolution was adopted.
Mr. RUTHERFURD, Delegate of the United States. Mr. President, I now
propose to read the third resolution from the printed circular which
has been furnished to the delegates. It is as follows:
"_Resolved_, That the Conference proposes the adoption of a
universal day for all purposes for which it may be found
convenient, and which shall not interfere with the use of
local time where desirable. This universal day is to be a
mean solar day; is to begin for all the world at the moment
of midnight of the initial meridian coinciding with the
beginning of the civil day and date of that meridian, and is
to be counted from zero up to twenty-four hours."
This resolution is somewhat complex, and in order to facilitate
debate, I propose that we first occupy ourselves only with the first
clause, namely:
"_Resolved_, That the Conference proposes the adoption of a
universal day for all purposes for which it may be found
convenient, and which shall not interfere with the use of
local time where desirable."
After having disposed of that clause we can proceed to dispose of the
other parts of the resolution.
The PRESIDENT. You propose, then, to divide the resolution as printed
in the circular into two resolutions, and you now offer the first part
for consideration.
Mr. RUTHERFURD, Delegate of the United States. If that is the more
convenient form of putting it, it meets my views. It will be more easy
to discuss the subject, more easy to arrive at a decision, in that
form.
M. le Comte ALBERT DE FORESTA, Delegate of Italy. I propose as an
amendment the fifth resolution of the Roman Conference, which reads as
follows:
"The Conference recognizes, for certain scientific needs and
for the internal service of great administrations of ways of
communications, such as those of railroads, lines of
steamships, telegraphic and postal lines, the utility of
adopting a universal time, in connection with local or
national times, which will necessarily continue to be
employed in civil life."
The PRESIDENT. The question is now upon the amendment offered by the
Delegate of Italy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account