"ONE TO TWENTY-FOUR"

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7270, 7 March 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

"ONE TO TWENTY-FOUR"

A correspondent writes to the Manchester Guardian: —Some degree of alarm has been created in the public mind by the propoeed alteration in the present notation of clock time. After all, it is only returning to the old-fashioned mode of marking the hours on clock dials ; it is the notation employed by astronomers, but with this difference—the astronomical day begins at noon, whereas the civil day will still continue to begin at midnight. It is very generally supposed that the clocks in nee at the present time will require some expeneive alteration in order to adapt them to the twenty-four hour time of the future. No alarm, howerer, need exist on this point. Every person who possesses a clook can mako the required alteration for himself with tbe aid of a dozen small pieces of p»per, and if the work is neatly executed the appearance of the dial will not be injured. The following is a method I employed more than twenty years ago in order to adapt an ordinary clock dial to show the astronomical day of twenty-four hours. Punch or cut out twelve small circles of paper, print or write neatly two figures on each of the circles, the figures to be a 9 large as the surface of the circle will permit. Begin with the figures which form 13, and continue on to 24. Now proceed to fix the small paper circles on to the clock dial in the following order :—Place the figures 13 on the middle of the figure one on the dial, place 14 on the two o'clock figure, and so on round the dial. The figures 24 must be in the middle of the 12 of the dial. Some may prefer to fix the paper circles just inside the circle of the hourß on the dial. Should this be adopted, the end of the hoar hand must be made to move freely above the paper discs. When the new notation of time is required it is only necessary to recollect that the hours marked on the paper circles refer only to the time between noon and midnight, and the original figures of the dial denote the time from midnight to noon. The proposed change is a bugbear to many, but in reality is a very simple matter. If these suggestions are adopted, the public will soon be larailiar with the twenty-four-hour time. The diameter of the paper disks should be proportional to the size of the clock dial. A paper disc fiveeighths of an inch in diameter is suitable for a twelve inch dial. Isinglass dissolved in ascetic acid may be employed iu fixing the discs on dials. No doubt those who possess expensive clocks will prefer to have the second row of figures painted instead of shown on paper. .Printers will supply figures suitable for the above if there is any demand. They should be on good white glazed paper for enamelled dials and white metalised paper for silvered ones.