Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1891 — The Twenty-Four O’Clock Movement [ARTICLE]

The Twenty-Four O’Clock Movement

(From the Railway Age.) The twenty-four hour notation reform is not dead, although it hag seemed to be sleeping. The committee of the American Society ol Civil Engineers which has been long and effectively advocating the adoption of the plan of numbering the hours of the day consecutively has issued another report, in which it shows that a large majority of the railway companies of the United States and Canada, have already expressed themselves in favor of the change. The number of officers who are now on record in the affirmative is given as follows: Presidents, vice presidents and general manager’s 135; general superintendents, 77; superintendents, 114; general trafic managers, 12; engineers, 65; total, 403. ■—

The report states that the advantages of the twentv-folir-hour notation are also beginning to be recognized in various branches of civil life, as for example in hospitals, in meteorlogical tables and other directions where simplicity of system and accuracy in noting tho hours are esseutial. The Canadian Railway continues to use the system in its time tables, to the great convenience of travelers over this long transcontinental line and to the advantage of those engaged in handling, trains, and it is difficult to see anything to prevent the speedy adoption of the reform on the other great lines of the country. At the instance of the society of civil engineers a bill has been presented to Congress authorizing the use of twenty-four hour notation and making it equally valid wjth the present method of numbering the hours in two series of twelve hours each, and it is to be hoped that this reasonable legislation will be enacted.