[LEAPSECS] TI incunabula

[Rob Seaman]

Steve Allen wrote:


> Popular spreading of the notion of International Time for  

> telecommunications, using that name, predates the 1884 International  

> Meridian Conference.  The New York Times reported on that in 1882.

>

> http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9F06E6DF123BE033A25754C1A9679C94639FD7CF&oref=slogin


The most obvious thing about that newspaper article is how extremely  
well written it is.  Forget about declining standards of timekeeping -  
the standards of journalism are atrocious today.

My new pet project is to restore the U.S. Central timezone to the  
wonderfully poetic name of Mississippi Valley time.

We should also start prepending the implicit "Rocky" in front of  
Mountain time.  As a loyal, albeit prodigal, son of Philadelphia, I  
champion the proper recognition of Mr. Balboa.

The name Atlantic time from the NYT article was ultimately assigned to  
a different zone, of course.  One also wonders about the Eastern  
timezone of North America, which is the Western timezone of South  
America.

Oh yeah!  I also heartily support Steve's implicit message here.   
Rather than trashing one timescale, let's just simply complete the  
proper system engineering started in the Nineteenth century and call  
any such new timescale "International Time".

Rob Seaman
NOAO