Time Before Time Zones
It must be 5 o'clock somewhere
Map surrounded by illustrations of 49 clocks representing the relative times of cities around the world. Time information entitled, "Time Indicator Showing the Different Parts of the World when it is Noon at New York."
In the late 19th century, America was a vast and sprawling nation with a patchwork of local times based on the noon day sun. Each town and city set their own time, leading to confusion and chaos as people traveled and conducted business across the country.
Enter the national railroad system. As trains criss-crossed the country, the need for a standardized time became increasingly important to avoid accidents and delays. But it was the railroad companies themselves who took the lead in creating time zones.
A critical period of change in how time was kept occurred in August 12, 1853. Two trains were headed toward each other on a single track. The conductor of one train thought there was enough time to switch tracks before the approaching train was scheduled to pass through. But the conductor's watch was too slow. The train sped around a corner and collided head on with the other train killing fourteen passengers. As a result of the accident, railroads ordered more reliable watches for their conductors and issued stricter rules for running on time and New England railroads agreed to set their clocks and watches to a single standard time. ~ Smithsonian
In 1883, the railroad companies met in Chicago to establish four time zones for the continental United States: Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. These time zones were based on the 75th, 90th, and 105th meridians of longitude, and each were one hour apart from each other.
This new system was quickly adopted by the public and by 1885 most of the nation's cities and towns had adopted the new time zones. The Federal government officially adopted the system in 1918 with the Standard Time Act.
Cartoon: Life Magazine Jan 3, 1884 - Internet Archive
Map: Schonberg's Standard Atlas Of The World.
Data: 1865
Author/Creator: Schonberg & Co.
Creating time zones solved a lot of problems and they have been universally accepted, except by my wife Lori who has her own very local one. And that occasionally causes train wrecks in our social calendar.
This is a fascinating piece of history and one I didn’t know. Thanks.