50 Years Ago

PROF. A. C. AITKEN, in a pamphlet entitled The Case Against Decimalisation, presents very skilfully the case against decimalization in general, starting with a lucid and cogent historical review ... He is less persuasive, however, in arguing for the duodecimal system, adoption of which in coinage, with a pound of twelve shillings, he suggests. He claims that this is a much more efficient system than the decimal system and that its adoption offers substantial advantages on practical as well as on arithmetical grounds.

From Nature 12 May 1962

100 Years Ago

One of the chief objections to the Daylight Saving Bill is the dislocation the scheme would effect in the zone system of time reckoning established by international conferences held successively in Rome and Washington thirty years ago. Mr. W. Ellis, F.R.S., refers particularly to this point in a short article in the March number of The Horological Journal. At present the prime meridian of Greenwich regulates the time of the civilized world. If the clocks of Great Britain are put forward one hour in summer, as proposed by the Bill, they will not show Greenwich time, but mid-European time; that is to say, our prime meridian, accepted by nations as regulating the time of the world, will be discarded by us for five months in every year ... An Act to enforce the alteration of clocks by putting them forward for one hour in the summer would introduce confusion in a scientific system and disturb accepted international standards. We cannot believe that such a proposal will ever be seriously entertained by Parliament.

From Nature 9 May 1912