Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/83

 "When electric wires became the ordinary means of communication over all distances, the differences of local time became an intolerable nuisance. This nuisance was got rid of in a very simple way. By general consent, it was agreed to take the time of some fixed meridian as the standard time throughout the world. For several reasons, that of Greenwich was adopted. Thus, when the sun passes over the meridian of Greenwich, it is twelve o'clock all over the world, and similarly of other hours. The habit of associating certain hours with certain positions of the sun soon wore off. It became rather a subject of astonishment that so absurd an association of ideas could stand so long in the way of the only rational system. A change adopted about the same time was, the division of the dial into twenty-four spaces, instead of twelve, and the numbering of the hours consecutively from one to twenty-four. In the course of time this was, in its turu, superseded by the decimal division of the day and dial. By this system, which remained. unchanged through several thousand years, the day was divided into ten equal parts, each called a meris, and equivalent to about two hours and a half of the old system. The decimal divisions of the meris bore no distinctive names, but were referred to merely as tenths, hundredths, etc.

"About three thousand years ago, twelve was adopted by common consent as the basis of the numerical system. As a matter of course, a corresponding change had to be made in the division of all units of quantity: instead of a decimal we have a duodecimal system. That dial, for example, is divided into twelve spaces; each of these,