Comments on: What’s Your Time? http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/01/27/whats-your-time/ Yesterday's tomorrow, today. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:55:18 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: David Szondy http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/01/27/whats-your-time/comment-page-1/#comment-1044691 David Szondy Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:07:13 +0000 http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/01/27/whats-your-time/#comment-1044691 Actually, time zones a were literally a mater of life and death back in the 19th century as soon as railways started stretching more than a few hundred miles east and west. Until that time, clocks were set according to what was noon at that particular location. The trouble was that if you set noon at Chicago for one departing train and noon at Bismark for another then there would be a difference of a couple of minutes in their arrival times and a good chance of a smashup somewhere in Minnesota. The solution to this was to set up zones within which noon was identical for all locations and therefore all trains could run on the same schedule. Actually, time zones a were literally a mater of life and death back in the 19th century as soon as railways started stretching more than a few hundred miles east and west. Until that time, clocks were set according to what was noon at that particular location. The trouble was that if you set noon at Chicago for one departing train and noon at Bismark for another then there would be a difference of a couple of minutes in their arrival times and a good chance of a smashup somewhere in Minnesota. The solution to this was to set up zones within which noon was identical for all locations and therefore all trains could run on the same schedule.

]]> By: Bob http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/01/27/whats-your-time/comment-page-1/#comment-1044686 Bob Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:26:57 +0000 http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/01/27/whats-your-time/#comment-1044686 I thought the trains had to have standarized time for their schedules, less confusing that way. I thought the trains had to have standarized time for their schedules, less confusing that way.

]]>