on, and that
the difference did not amount to even a few seconds, because
otherwise the advantages of the adoption of the system would
be materially reduced.

This circumstance, that it is possible for each country to
adopt the system, and at the same time to maintain a certain
independence with regard to the adoption of the most
convenient normal times, is of considerable importance with
regard to the possibility of introducing a system of this
kind. In fact, it is possible to arrive at the application
of the system in such a way that the transition would hardly
be observed by the great majority of the population. As
regards railroads and telegraphs, the advantages would be
the same as if the local times were everywhere identical,
because it is easy to remember the multiple of 10 minutes
which ought to be added to the time of a given country for
translation into the time of another country. The difference
of time between Sweden and Denmark would, for instance, be
10 minutes--a circumstance which everybody would soon learn
to remember. A traveller leaving Sweden would then know that
his watch, if correct, shows exactly 10 minutes more than
the clocks of the Danish railroad stations, and if he
continued his voyage to Paris, he would know that the clocks
of Paris are exactly 50 minutes behind the clocks in Sweden.

I have tried to explain the advantages of this system for
the countries in Europe. I am not able to judge if similar
systems can be considered necessary in America and Asia. It
is possible that North America could be satisfied with one
single normal time, which, if America connects this time
with the European system, ought to be fixed exactly 6 hours
behind Greenwich. While starting from this normal meridian,
it is possible to establish a more or less elaborate system
of equidistant times analogous to the system which has been
proposed for Europe. The same can be said of the civil times
of Asia, which ought to be connected with a normal time 6
hours in advance of the time of Greenwich.

Africa ought to belong to the European system. The French
civil time could be adopted for Algeria and Tunis; the time
of Denmark, Germany, and Italy for Tripoli; for Egypt the
time of Russia; the Spanish time for Morocco; at the mou