The use of a time delay in modeling LTI systems is quite common. Howev
er, attempts to estimate these time delays in continuous systems typic
ally resorted to methods which increase the number of parameters in th
e system, in contradiction to the use of time delay in the model to be
gin with. We present here an attempt to estimate the time delays direc
tly. The algorithm we present is supported both by analysis and simula
tions with very encouraging results.