Having stated my proposal for universal time as fully as space will permit and given my guess as to the coming cosmic watch, let us in this closing paragraph indulge in a little mental exercise. Suppose we copy the old time lecturer on astronomy and "allow our minds to penetrate into space." Blessed be his memory, he was a doer of good. How impressive as he repeatedly dropped his wooden pointer, and lo! It always moved straight to the floor; thus triumphantly vindicating universal gravitation!!!
We can think of a time system which would discard months, weeks and days. What is the meaning of the financial almanac in which the days are numbered from 1 to 365 or 366? Simply a step in the right direction, _away from the months and weeks_, so that the distance between any two dates may be seen at a glance. We would really be better without months and weeks. Now let us consider the year of the seasons as a unit--long since proposed by the astronomers--and divide it into 3,000 chrons. Clocks regulated by star transits, as at present, would divide this decimally, the fourth place being near enough to make the new pendulums of convenient length. This would throw out months, weeks and days, local time and the date line. Each of these chrons would represent the same time in the year, permanently. For example, 464.6731 would mark to a _dixmilliemechron_ (a little more than one second) the point reached in the year; while the date does not, as I have shown in the first chapter. But you still object that this is a great number of figures to use in fixing a point in the year. Let us see what it takes to fix a point in the year now, _August 24th, 11-16-32 P. M., New York standard time_. A pretty long story, but it does not fix the point of the year even then; for it would require the assistance of an astronomer to fix such a point in _any given_ year, say 1909. But 464.6731 would be eternally right in _absolute time_ of the seasons, and has only one meaning, with no qualifications for any year whatever. I believe the astronomers should use a method something like this. Ah, but there is a difficulty in applying this to the affairs of daily life which looks insurmountable. This is caused by the fact that the _day_ and _year_ are incommeasurable. One of them cannot be exactly expressed in terms of the other. They are like the diagonal and side of a square. The day is now the unit and therefore the year has an interminable fraction; conversely, if we make the year the unit, then the day becomes an endless fraction. This brings us face to face with the local day which we ignored in our scientific year unit. We _must_ regulate our labors, in this world, to day and night and, with the year unit, the chrons would bear no fixed relation to day and night, even for two days in succession. So the year unit and absolute time must be left to the astronomers; but the _day unit_ and the uniform world day of _universal time_ as explained in connection with Fig. 46 I offer as a practical system.