> Steve Allen wrote:
>
> > On Tue 2003-07-08T10:54:32 +0100, Markus Kuhn hath writ:
> >
> > I understand that the term "Universal Time" was cooked up in the IAU in
> > the 1920s, but does anyone know more details about the origin of and
> > reasons for this curious choice of terminology?
>
> It's all laid out in plain French and English in the Transactions of
> the IAU from 1925 and 1928. It is tied up with the decision that,
> contrary to Newcomb who started the day at noon, all national
> ephemerides should change to reckon the day as starting at midnight.
>
The word, universal, for days starting at midnight, already appears
in the resolutions of the International Meridian Conference
held 1884-10-01..22 in Washington DC:
"That the Conference proposes the adoption of a universal
day for all purposes for which it may be found convenient
and which shall not interfere with the use of local or
standard time where desirable"
See [http://millennium-dome.com/info/conference-finalact.htm].
Michael Deckers
