[time-nuts] French Time offset

[Geoff Powell]

In article <008d01c9a78b$6f7374a0$9d83e262 at newiw112a268qp>, Rich and
Marcia Putz <rputz at bnin.net> writes
>Thanks John, yes I'm real. 
>The 1978 date is correct, I'm looking for the article to quote. Prior to the 
>decree, France maintained a roughly twelve and a half minute offset. I always 
>was struck by this as the BIPM is located in France, and has been for many 
>years.  Disagreement on the location of the prime meridian perhaps?

Yes, I think you'll find that offset is the difference between Greenwich
Mean Time and Paris Mean Time.

Before the international conferences that defined time all over the
world in terms of GMT and integer (mostly) offsets therefrom, France
would have been using Paris as their Prime Meridian - natural enough,
every nation assumes it's capital is the centre of the world, the hub of
the universe.

Although what a country that has a large extent in longitude (e.g. the
USA or USSR) would do in this case, I am unsure.

-- 
Geoff Powell