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.)
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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
Greenwich time is exclusively used in Great Britain, and differs from
mean local time about eight minutes on the east and about twenty-two
and a half minutes on the west. In Sweden the time of the fifteenth
degree of east longitude is the standard for all purposes. It differs
from mean local time about thirty-six and a half minutes on the east
and about sixteen minutes on the west. In the United States the
standards recently adopted are used exclusively in cities like
Portland, Me., (33,800 inhabitants,) and Atlanta, Ga., (37,400
inhabitants,) of which the local times are, respectively, nineteen
minutes and twenty two minutes faster than the standard, and at Omaha,
Neb., (30,500 inhabitants,) and Houston, Tex., (16,500 inhabitants,)
each twenty-four minutes slower. At Ellsworth, Me., a city of six
thousand inhabitants, a change of twenty-six minutes has been made.
Nearly eighty-five per cent. of the total number of cities in the
United States of over ten thousand inhabitants have adopted the new
standard time for all purposes, and it is used upon ninety-seven and a
half per cent. of all the miles of railway lines.
Let us now consider whether insuperable practical difficulties owing
to geographical peculiarities will prevent the adoption of this system
throughout the world.
A table has been prepared, and accompanies this paper, upon which are
designated the several governing meridians and names suggested for the
corresponding sectional times. For the use of this table I am
indebted to Mr. E. B. Elliott, of this city.
On the North American continent, in the United States and Canada, the
75th, 90th, 105th, and 120th west Greenwich meridians now govern time.
In Mexico the 105th west meridian is approximately central, except for
Yucatan, which is traversed by the 90th. For Guatemala, Salvador, and
Costa Rica, the 90th west meridian is approximately central. San
Domingo closely approaches and Cuba touches the 75th.
In South America--the United States of Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, the
western portion of Bolivia, and Chili would use the time of the 75th
west meridian, while Venezuela, Guiana, western Brazil, including the
Amazon River region, eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and the
Argentine Republic, would be governed by the time of the 60th
meridian. In eastern Brazil the 45th west meridian would govern.
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