The map of the standard time sections in the United States is carefully drawn from all the data given in “The Pathfinder Railway Guide” and is in general agreement with a similar map given in the American Section of the Encyclopaedia Britannica in an article on horology.
My next book will be a comprehensive, plain primer, which will give full account of time and the standards in this and other countries (a sadly neglected and bungled matter). Here it will be sufficient to mention that on November 18, 1883, the standard time system was adopted in the United States. The table of ascending signs is calculated on the bases of mean time, so the birth hour of a person born since the afore mentioned date must first be converted into local mean time. This is done by allowing a correction of four minutes for every degree east or west of any given standard meridian. If west this correction is minus, if east, plus. For example, San Francisco lies in longitude 122 1/2°, which is 10 minutes in time west of 1200 (the Pacific standard meridian). So when the clocks of San Francisco since 1883 show noon, it is then 11:50 a.m. by local mean time.
During the war we moved the sun back one hour to save on the daylight, so here we have an additional correction to apply. From the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, 1918 and 1919, clocks in United States were one hour in advance of regular standard time.
It will be observed that the dividing lines between the four time sections do not run straight and midway between the standard meridians, as is often assumed. For example, the line which divides the Pacific and the Mountain sections runs through Hope, Troy, Huntington, Ogden, Mojave and Yuma. The dividing line between the Mountain and Central sections even crosses the Mountain standard meridian at El Paso.
Announcement
The last leaf of this booklet presents a fac-simile of a postal card from my teacher, the late Joseph G. Dalton, the author of “The Spherical Basis of Astrology” and other standard works of unapproached calibre. The publishing of that postal card constitutes my first reply to an unfounded sneer received from an eastern publisher in January, 1914. A complete answer will appear in due time in the form of a new and superior “Spherical Basis.”