Whose Time Is It Anyway?

By Suzanne Norquist

As we near the annual time change in the United States, I find myself considering international time zones and the Prime Meridian. How did this worldwide system come about?

Before modern transportation and communication, everyone did their own thing. Clock towers in large cities synced up local times. Think of Big Ben in London, Zytglogge in Bern, Switzerland, and Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The rest of the world didn’t matter.

When trains started whisking people across large countries, time differences became a problem. The same was true of instantaneous communication over telegraph lines and, later, wireless devices. People in different parts of the world could converse instantly.

The variations in recorded time posed problems for scientists as well. Astronomer Cleveland Abbe struggled to reconcile observations of the northern lights because scholars used their local times when recording data.

Engineers pushed for standardization related to longitude. But what longitude should be the base? Sailors’ maps used different prime meridians (aka zero degrees longitude) depending on their country of origin. This presented a problem with increased globalization.

In 1878, Canadian railroad engineer Sanford Flemming suggested dividing the globe into twenty-four zones, one for each hour. The next year, he published a paper estimating ship tonnage using various meridians. More than half of the ships used the Greenwich meridian as the base. He recommended adopting this as the standard. Although others liked the idea, it wasn’t accepted for years.

By 1883, railroads in the United States established the time zones we still use today. The convention was necessary for keeping timetables.

The real game changer came in 1884 when U.S. President Chester Arthur hosted the International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. Forty-one delegates from twenty-five nations attended. They represented countries in Europe, South America, Japan, and others. The fact that they made this long journey before modern transportation highlights the importance of the issue.

This event established the Greenwich meridian, which passed through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, as the reference for longitude and time. All countries agreed to adopt a universal day with midnight as the start of the twenty-four-hour clock.

At the same time, the International Date Line, which separates the two calendar days, was established on the opposite side of the globe at 180 degrees longitude. That line has been shifted in populated areas to prevent confusion caused by different dates in one location.

Even though the delegates agreed, the resolutions were only suggestions, and countries were slow to adopt them. Some, who tried to make the changes quickly, created so much confusion that they returned to their original system.

Over time, technology, particularly wireless communication, pushed most countries to conform.

There are still a few holdouts. China has only one official time zone even though the international system suggests that it should have five. They had five time zones until 1949, when the communist party chairman put them all on Beijing time.

As fall approaches, and I turn all my clocks back an hour, I’ll remember that this action is only a small piece of the much larger picture. In the same way, the next time I study a globe, I’ll note that the lines for longitude and latitude are man-made conventions.

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Love In Bloom 4-in-one collection

“A Song for Rose” by Suzanne Norquist

Can a disillusioned tenor convince an aspiring soprano that there is more to music than fame?

“Holly & Ivy” by Mary Davis

At Christmastime, a young woman accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a mail-order bride and loses her heart to a gallant stranger.

“Periwinkle in the Park” by Kathleen E. Kovach

A female hiking guide, who is helping to commission a national park, runs into conflict with a mountain man determined to keep the government off his land.

“A Beauty in a Tansy”

Two adjacent store owners are drawn to each other, but their older relatives provide obstacles to their ever becoming close.

Republished from Bouquet of Brides

Buy links: https://books2read.com/u/bOOx8K

https://www.amazon.com/Love-Bloom-Mary-Davis/dp/B0FPLFYCXR/

 

 Multi-published author Suzanne Norquist has worked as a chemist, professor, and financial analyst, and has even earned a doctorate in economics. Everything fascinates her. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining-engineer husband and takes road trips to visit her children and grandchildren. When not writing, she hangs out with her two active Siberian Huskies, takes piano lessons, and studies the Bible with the church ladies.