Humans have understood how to calculate the length of a day pretty accurately for a long time. But there wasn’t a standard way to approach time on a global scale until the late 19th century, and happened because of railroads.
Research:
- “INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE HELD AT WASHINGTON FOR THE PURPOSE OF FIXING A PRIME MERIDIAN AND A UNIVERSAL DAY.” (Protocols of the Proceedings.” October 1884. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17759/17759-h/17759-h.htm
- Fleming, Sandford. “Terrestrial time: a memoir.” 1876. Digitized: https://archive.org/details/cihm_06112/page/n17/mode/2up
- Fleming, Sandford. “Papers on time-reckoning and the selection of a prime meridian to be common to all nations.” 1879. Digitized: https://archive.org/details/cihm_03135/page/n17/mode/2up
- Creet, Mario. “FLEMING , Sir SANDFORD.” Dictionary of Canadian Biography. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=7370
- Creet, Mario. “Sandford Fleming and Universal Time.” Scientia Canadensis. Volume 14, numéro 1-2 (38-39). https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/scientia/1990-v14-n1-2-scientia3118/800302ar.pdf
- Shepardson, David. “U.S. Senate approves bill to make daylight saving time permanent.” Reuters. March 16, 2022. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-bill-that-would-make-daylight-savings-time-permanent-2023-2022-03-15/
- “What Shall Be the Prime Meridian for the World?” International institute for preserving and perfecting weights and measures. Committee on standard time. Cleveland, O., 1884. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019895203&view=1up&seq=8
- Biggerstaff, Valerie. “Opinion: When Georgia had two time zones.” Appen Media. April 14, 2021. https://www.appenmedia.com/opinion/opinion-when-georgia-had-two-time-zones/article_0bb3e6c4-9c84-11eb-a1f5-6b1a42a8e61a.html
- Lange, Katie. “Daylight Saving Time Once Known As 'War Time.'” U.S. Department of Defense. March 8, 2019. https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/story/Article/1779177/daylight-saving-time-once-known-as-war-time/
- “DID BEN FRANKLIN INVENT DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME?” The Franklin Institute. https://www.fi.edu/benjamin-franklin/daylight-savings-time
- “United States Congressional Serial Set.” U.S. Government Printing Office. Volume 2296. 1885. Accessed online: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=_1JHAQAAIAAJ&rdid=book-_1JHAQAAIAAJ&rdot=1
- Rosenberg, Matt. "The History and Use of Time Zones." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/what-are-time-zones-1435358.
- “The New Railroad Time.” New York Times. Oct. 12, 1883. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1883/10/12/106260579.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
- Glass, Andrew. “President Wilson signs Standard Time Act, March 19, 1918.” Politico. March 19, 2018. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/19/wilson-signs-standard-time-act-march-19-1918-467550
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Sir Sandford Fleming". Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Jan. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sandford-Fleming
- “History of Time Zones.” Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Feb. 21, 2021. https://www.bts.gov/geospatial/time-zones
- Gordon, Nicholas. “The Senate wants to make daylight saving time permanent—but that could leave Americans with less sleep and worse health.” Fortune. March 16, 2022. https://fortune.com/2022/03/16/daylight-saving-time-sleep-senate-protecting-sunshine-act/
- “Public Law 89-387 – An ACT To promote the observance of a uniform system of time throughout the United States.” April 13, 1966. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-80/pdf/STATUTE-80-Pg107.pdf
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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
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hello and welcome after the pakistan holly fry and I'm tracy wealth and so Tracy humans have understood the passage of time and been able to calculate the length of a day.
Pretty accurately for quite a while yeah long.
Then we have records. Probably yes, but there was not a standard way to approach time on a global scale until pretty late in the game. For her
periods of years longer than that even cities or towns. Jenny,
we had their own local time that time was determined by when the solana headed zenith above them, and that was established as noon and the rest of the hours of the day were determined based on that pretty simple
each municipality or community, had an official timekeeper. That person was the authority on what time it was any other clocks are watches in that community were set to match the timekeepers time that kept everybody in a group. On the same page, however, though, this work just fine
and for a very long time as humans began to industrialize and travel became more swift thanks largely to railroads. It became much more important to figure out what time it was both in the place where your journey started and the place where it ended, as well as any stops in between, and that could rapidly get really confusing. So, just as a very sloppy example, imagine
journey today, where you have a flight with lay over and if you left your starting airport and you got to them
every airport and their time was twenty three minutes off of what you expected, because often they were not like round number rehearsed. They were different figuring
but your connection could get really dicey in a hurry and that kind of thing was happening to people travelling by rail before a standard time was established and it was more than just an inconvenience because this also lead to dangerous conditions in collisions when trains were running based on different local times, but on the same track. So even the people they were scheduling, trains couldn't quite get it together with one another to make a system to make it safe for a while. So today we are going to talk about that problem and specifically about the man who is usually credited with solving the problem.
By standardizing time zones and that person was sandford, fleming sandford fleming was born January seventh, one thousand eight hundred and twenty seven in kirk Audi fife scotland, parents were Elizabeth, aren't fleming and andrew greg fleming, and there was a carpenter. The flemings had a sizable family. In addition to Sanford there were seven other children Sanford's earlier
his was in school and ken away and killed Kennedy and then at fourteen he started studying with an engineer and surveyor named John sang. This was a natural fit even as a child.
And further had shown a natural skill at drawing and backs the like. The kind of perfectly intersect into lake surveying in architecture. Work saying, gave fleming a lot of practical, really valuable hands on instruction. Scotland's railroads were rapidly expanding at this time and when saying was called the survey sites as part of that project, his student went with him and he assisted. He was given tasks on site, but fleming saw a future for himself outside of scotland, even though he did enjoy surveying after supper,
gears under sayings. Mentorship Sandford moved from scotland to canada in eighteen, forty five. He did not make this journey alone, his cousin Henry fleming and his brother David also moved to canada with him all three young men were hoping to find employment and new opportunities in north america, and they were also hoping that they would be able to acquire land and become settled enough that the rest of their family could join them. The fleming thirty sailed aboard a ship called the brilliant, and this was not an easy journey on may. First, one thousand eight hundred and forty five, which was only a week into the voyage sanford recorded this in his journal, quote as the evening advanced the storm grew worse. I never expected to see daylight again when a great wave swept above our heads.
Sound as if the sea was closing over us, we slept none. All night Sandford is said to have been so convinced that they were all about to die, that he put a message in a bottle and threw it overboard. This had a farewell letter. Today
family in it and that bottle did get to scotland, but it looks like by the time
family received it. They knew that sandford, David and Henry had all gotten to canada safely. Yet I was alive.
Long trip, though that was a five week long trip. So after this we
we're gonna die night. They still had four weeks at sea to probably white megalith through
the entire journey. No after landing,
and cabuc city, the three young men had another three weeks of travel ahead of them. They boarded a steam ship to what was at the time called upper canada that would eventually be on terrio, and that was to the city of peterborough. Their fleming found work with a survey or named richard,
urged psalm fleming needed to be certified as a surveyor in canada to work on his own, and that was going to take some money and some time in some experience and to help cover his basic expenses. He took side work in map making jobs so that he could bring an extra money. He drew maps of various municipalities, including peterborough hamilton coburg in toronto, and it was also in toronto that he moved into a new job work
for a survey or named John started Dennis. Finally, on April twenty eighth eighteen, forty nine fleming got his canadian surveyors certification. Almost
immediately after being certified fleming joined with other surveyors. They formed the canadian institute in toronto. This is intended as a professional organs
patient for surveyors engineers and architects. The society was found
in june of eighteen, forty nine, but it didn't get the membership and structure that was needed to be recognized as a professional society fleming,
was not willing to let the group fall apart, so he reorganized it as a scientific
society and remained involved with it in the fifteen years that he lived in toronto. He also spearheaded the group's production of its periodical, which was
It's titled, a canadian journal to professional achievements, marked fleming's life in eighteen, fifty one first, the map of toronto, that he had worked on with John Stott and Dennis, which was the last of those map, projects that he had done as side work was published, and then he designed the first canadian postage stamp,
he sometimes credited with making the beaver like the landmark animal of canada and their unofficial mascots. At that point, in eighteen, fifty two years, Sandford fleming started working for the ontario them kill
you're on union railroad as an assistant to frederick william cumberland.
And one of his collaborators and setting up the canadian institute, their working relationship
so was really not good. Fleming became increasingly irritated with cumberland. You often took a lot of side jobs that split his attention off from their railroad work. Things became so heated between them that cumberland fired fleming at one thousand. Eight hundred and fifty five.
A fleming felt that is supervisor had been the one who was in the wrong and he went to the railroads leadership to complain. The result of this seemed like a win for fleming. He was given cumberland job,
But cumberland was on the railways board of directors and over the next few years, the two of them just kept clashing more and more
fleming was ultimately the one who lost in their disputes. Yeah. There was a project
well contentious argument about pay that he really really thought. Cumberland was responsible for him. He did not win that one and it really stone and as that conflict between fleming and cumberland had continued to grow
fleming had been allowed to stay with the railroad as an employee that had become the northern railway. At that point, but
He was also allowed with permission to take sides jobs. This was different for him and that he had got
permission to do this, where is cumberland, was just taking jobs whenever you wanted. So he saw it as a different situation and fleming had also started his own private firm with a colleague named collingwood schreiber, the two of them designed the palace of industry for toronto in eighteen. Fifty eight, if you look at photos of this particular structure, it probably looks very familiar because it was based on Joseph Paxton's. Crystal palace, created for london's great
submission of eighteen, fifty one which we have talked about on the show. Before fleming continued as railway worked for decades, he thought it was important to me.
Spanned the railroads and in particular, to establish a trans continental railway fleming drew up plans for various there
the ambitious railway projects and lobbied the government, both in canada and in britain, for funding for these projects. Initially, he struggled to get approvals, but he was making a name for himself in the process.
When it became really an obvious impressing mean for our railway to connect canada's continental colonies to the maritime colonies. Sandford Fleming was the obvious choice to everybody to become the chief serve air for the project. He was given that job in eighteen, sixty three and in eighteen sixty
seven. He was promoted to engineer in chief for the entire colonial railway and despite the various conflicts he was growing quite successful and as that success grew fleming wisely invested in real estate.
That not only expanded his wealth, but it also made some strategic sense for his work. He wasn't like buying speculating on real estate. He was buying basically land for himself in various
He had moved to ottawa in eighteen, sixty nine. That was a move that was pretty necessary because he needed to be close to federal government offices for the work he was doing and it one thousand eight hundred and seventy four.
He also about a home in halifax nova scotia, so that when you travel beer for work on the ongoing maritime project, he would have a home base and he also, as had been planned, moved his family over to canada and settled them in Halifax. We'll pause here for a quick sponsor break and when we come back, I ll talk about the ways that Sanford fleming came into conflict with his colleagues, which, based on the complex so far, seems little unsurprising. They would continue
hey dad cool. If I change this, they may not get each other's music, but they
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As soon as you are eligible spy
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these two alcohol to everyday essentials. Whatever you need from candy bars to to taste, barbecues ass, the paper towels apples to apple red lipstick, toilet paper to wrapping paper and everything is between goober each as you covered in every way. So whatever you need get it delivered straight field, not literally anything item availability varies by market alcohol and select cities. Only twenty one another to purchase, see effort, details, hey says: are you
you're calling me from homesense again saving money. That's my jam. What we think outdoor dining said
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this party. It's been too long. Wait go back. Show me those pretty ceramic plates their melamine. Even you can't break them. Look these q cushions matching that my shirt outfit, your outdoors, have it
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fleming who was known to be obstinate, but also often right continue to butt heads with various peers in the industry. This seems to have pretty much always been a case,
a fleming being certain that he knew better than the other party. What was genuinely best for any given project, for example, when commissioner
The national railway wanted to use timber for the construction of bridges as part of the inner colonial railway project fleming was adamant that they should be using steel and stone. Instead.
And he went right up the chain of command in ottawa government to make that case fleming got his
way and as a consequence, those structures work.
Are sturdier and had longer life than was projected had the bridge has been built with timber. This, of course, seems pretty obvious now, but in the late eighteen sixties the cost difference was so sick
again that it was considered a better idea by a lot of people to use timber, sandford, Flemings approach, which also involves some new engineering techniques that he was pioneering, resulted in bridges that were strong enough and with enough longevity that they actually com
less to maintain over the long term, even though he was having a proven track record, the railways kept seeing fleming as a problem after he became the chief and
here on the pacific. Railway fleming was very outspoken about his ideals and a friend of his reverend George grant even published a book detailing the reverence travels with fleming, as he made his service
That book was a best seller. It's noted as giving a lot of insight into the railroads and it's benefits to the general public, but the railroad did not appreciate moves like that. The railroad found fleming's constant willingness to just share his views with the public to be
problem you. He worked for the railroad, but he wasn't a proved to be a spokesman for the railroad and that created issues, as has,
outspokenness made him the face of the railroads to the public
let go in may of eighteen, eighty with a retirement severance of thirty thousand dollars. This is one of those things.
Think if you ve never worked in corporate structure, you might be like why shouldn t but left
there are always people I mean it would be like me. If I just started shooting my mouth off about the way like our company runs,
part of its business and they would be like Howie, that's not your business
up and be valid, because it's not my business. Every company I worked for has had rules about like
It's the kind of thing you're, not whether you're allowed to speak on behalf of the company and if you are allowed, there is still a bunch of rules about right. He may have been the expert, but he was a straits. He just said not designated as a spokesman, so for him to just go blab stuff. All time was really problem,
attic, but just four years after this devastating, essentially firing big
it is a retirement, Emmy got severance, but he had really been fired, but four years later fleming, who have actually continue to have a stake in the canadian pacific railway became director of the canadian pacific railway. He had purchased shares in the hudson s bay company. That company had transferred massive landholdings to the canadian government in the eighteen seventys, the canadian pacific railway company was incorporated in eighteen, eighty one by act of parliament, and so he was connected to all of this by virtue of having had those shares, fleming had served in a role as resident canadian director with hudson bay and he applied for the canadian pacific railway director position in eighteen, eighty three and got it so if your thinking, I thought this upso those bout time zones
We've been talking about railroads this whole time. It's because the railroad work is directly tied to the establishment of standardized time as a career, railroad man who traveled a lot fleming had a deep appreciation for how tricky and confusing it could be to reconcile the local time in whatever place that was, you were traveling and when it came
to running an entire unified transportation system have to go in, and
a variety of places that all kept their own local time. This whole task was huge headache. You can see
there's, someone building a railroad would be like weight. But what time is it where this station is? Well? It's seventeen minutes
later than at the previous station holly, oh okay, even before he had
why go from the railroad in eighteen. Eighty fleming was taking on new roles outside of the industry in eighteen. Seventy nine queens university in Kingston ontario asked him to become chancellor. That kind of made him. The spokesperson for science and professional education
to the school. He was really active in that position for the rest of his life and helped to establish the school of mining and agriculture there and he lobbied for financial support for the university science programs.
Also in eighteen. Seventy nine Daniel Wilson reinstated fleming at the canadian institute wilson. Like fleming thought, there should be standardized time,
because fleming was already seen as a scientific authority by both the public and by a lot of his peers. All of these developments coming at the same
Time really made the late eighteen. Seventy is the right moment for flemings and make a case for a standardized time around the world. There were two different and separately prepare reports that were published in eighteen. Seventy, nine about the problem of their not being a standardized time. One of those was written by fleming, the other was written by chief of the united states, whether service clean
the abbe fleming read his report in front of the canadian institute, and then it went to the governor general and then up to the colonial office throughout its movement and its distribution. The reception to this paper was extremely good. Everyone agreed that something needed to be done to get people on one,
If I'd system abbe was also getting positive reactions to his paper, which he first presented to the american meteorological society, his impetus for writing. This report was a series of observations on the northern lights and but
isabel lack of an agreed upon meantime. Reports from different places were almost impossible to reconcile to compile actual data.
While fleming wanted to help the trade industry abbe wanted to create a stronger guideline for time based science reporting-
but once abbey and fleming realised that each of them had written on this subject and had also used very similar ideas about how to accomplish a global system of time. They didn't do what you might expect if he listens to previous episodes featuring scholars who have similar ideals,
honestly, if you forth to the earlier part of this episode about how kind of argumentative that fleming could be there
about have a fight about it, they joined forces.
The two men had a lot of connections throughout north america and europe. They had these connections in both in government and the scientific communities they knew if they widened those connections and if they lobbied for the adoption of time standards. As a
him. They could have a really wide net of influence. Yeah. It was like you have a whole group of people that you can curry favor with. I also have a different group of people. What, if we put these all together? How big will our influence be now just to be clear? These papers that came out that same year,
not just spring up out of the blue, both of these men and others have been working on this idea and writing about it for some time before, one thousand eight hundred and seventy nine, usually people will point to eighteen. Seventy six, when fleming had published a paper called terrestrial time which opened with quote the question to which I propose to direct attention is not pure
english in its interest, or indeed limited to any particular country or continent. It is a question which concerns all nations in common and it is probably of less importance to the inhabitants of the british isles than to colonists and those who live in continental countries
it went on to say, quote within a comparatively recent period. The human race has acquired control over a power which already has, in a remarkable degree, changed the condition of human affairs, the application of
theme to locomotion by land and water has given an enormous stimulus to progress throughout the world and with the electric telegraph, as an auxiliary, has somewhat rudely shaken customs and habits which have been handed down to us from bygones
fisheries. We still cling, however, to the system of crematory inherited from a remote antiquity. Notwithstanding difficulties and inconveniences, which
constantly met in every part of the world but which are so familiar to us
are not regarded or our silently endured
the very long winded way to say you don't have to your train trains, the time we can pick, we don't have to keep doing it this way. Just because the way we was the way done it for so long, yeah fleming's work on this subject was more extensive than Abby's, which is why he is largely credited with the idea of creating and championing standard time. He was also, as we have said, very outspoken, so his name became the one more recognized as the leader of the effort to get a time system adopted both of them basic.
He had this idea to set up twenty four times zones around the world to match the number of hours in a day and to divide the circumference of the equator by twenty four to establish those zones:
fleming had given an example of the issues of local time keeping for travelers in his eighteen. Seventy six paper, one that seems taken from his own life,
experience in his intimate knowledge of train travel quote to illustrate the points of difficulty. Let us first take the case of a traveller in north amerika. He lands. Let us say at how.
Ex nova scotia and starts on a railway journey through the eastern portions of canada, his route,
over the entire colonial and grand trunk lines. He stops at saint John cabuc montreal ottawa in toronto at the beginning of the journey. He sets his watch by halifax time as he reaches each place
in succession. He finds a considerable variation in the clocks by which the trains are run and he discovers that at no two places at the same time used between halifax in tehran.
Though, he finds the railways employing no less than five different standards of time if the tree
blur remained at any one of these cities referred to. He would be obliged to alter his watch in order to avoid much inconvenience and perhaps not a few disappointments and annoyances to himself and others. If, however, he should not alter his watch, he would discover
on reaching toronto, but it was an hour in five minutes faster than the clocks and watches in that city. You can see why this would be a big payment. The neck.
We're going to talk about how all of this discussion about time finally turned into action in just a moment, but first we will hear from the sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class, going hey dad cool. If I change this
they may not get each other's music, but they,
in both get a covert nineteen booster shot, because the cdc recommends booster shots for people twelve years and older after completion of a primary series, schedule
as soon as you are eligible spy
bye, bye on tack and pfizer
ubereats. You can get anything delivered groceries
We used to alcohol to everyday essentials, whatever you need from candy bars to toothpaste, bbq sauce to paper, towels, apples to apple red, lipstick, toilet paper to wrapping paper and everything in between ubereats, as you covered in every way. So whatever you need get it delivered straight healed, not literally anything item availability varies by market alcohol in select cities. Only twenty one and older to purchase cf for details cases are you
video calling me from homes once again, saving money, that's my jam! What we think outdoor dining said
or wicker. Lounge sat since your signature dish is a margarita go with lounge, okay, I m so ready.
For this party. It's been too long. Wait go back. Show me those pretty ceramic plates their melamine. Even you can't break them. Look these key cushions matching that my shirt outfit, your outdoors, have it
today at home sense stand out pieces outside
in prices.
Flemings greatest
I sat in his work to standardize. Time was the american society of civil engineers, because so
So many of their members worked for various north american railroads
they all have a vested interest in fixing this problem. The society instituted us
ending committee on time in eighteen, eighty one and fleming was named as its chairman. He use this
vision to gather data from railroad workers and scientists, paying the research expenses for all of this out of his own pocket anything out pretty quickly
just about everyone in the railroad industry was in favour of his system. So though he was planning to take his findings to the: u S, congress for action, the north american railways acted independently before that could even happen and coercion.
Relatively adopted his plan for one hour time zones on november eighteen to eighteen. Eighty three so keep him.
And that before this there were a hundred and forty four different, localised times being used in the united states alone. So no wonder and entire industry that was trying to look,
All these places together was in favor of the plan, simplified things for them considerably. Yes, and after the trains adopted it most of north america kind of followed suit
but even so there wasn't anything official in place at government level and other continents in countries were still kind of do in their own thing. But the americans
any of civil engineers and the media. Illogical society were
free vocal, about the need for a wider adoption of this system and members of those groups reached out to their contacts in congress to push for action.
President yesterday, Arthur also requested that some plan for a wider adoption be explored and, at the same time, the papers by both fleming and
we were still being circulated to various other countries and support continued to grow. The results of this was that, in october,
of eighteen. Eighty four, the international meridian conference, was held in Washington d c. This conference was called entirely with the goal
of choosing one single glow
oh prime meridian, the position of zero
degrees longitude, and that would be the basis for all the other calculations. Twenty six nations participated in this.
Austria, hungary, brazil, chile, colombia, costa rica, denmark, france, germany, great britain, Guatemala, hawaii, italy, japan, liberia,
the co netherlands, paraguay, russia sand domingo, salvador, spain, Sweden, Switzerland, turkey, the united states and Venezuela sometimes will see this report. It is twenty two countries, because a lot of folks weren't there. Yet on the first day, I'm just going
In my head cannon, be it's because the time zones they have met and actions, admiral c r, p rogers. Who is one of the? U s. Delegates was named president of the conference and in his opening speech, roger stated that quote in my own, for
I, that of a seaman. The embarrassment arising from the many prime meridians now in use, is very conspicuous and in the
valuable interchange of longitudes by passing ships at sea, often difficult and hurried, sometimes
only possible by figures written on a blackboard, much confusion arises
times. Grave danger in the use of charts to this too.
What is also annoying and to us who live upon the sea. A common prime meridian will be a great advantage,
I need not trespass further upon your attention, except to lay before you the subject. We are invited to discuss the choice of a meridian to be employed,
The common, zero longitude and standard of time reckoning throughout the world.
Though the meridian that pass through the royal observatory in greenwich england had been in use by a lot of mariners and railroads for some time. As the me,
in from which all distance and time was calculated, it was
universally accepted prime meridian before this conference maps that were created in different countries would often
put the zero longitude line through the capital of whatever country the map was made in this kind of reminds me of our directive. Mercator episode talking about different places, putting their nor
no not necessarily being up. It's got some similarities to that and that this made calculating navigational routes and difficult, but it wasn't about time and select
a prime meridian that would be agreed on internationally. The hope was that a universal time
what eventually became known as coordinated universal time or u t c would be established the minutes to this entire.
In france are readable online, there's a link to them at their project, Gutenberg location in our show notes, and a lot of it is pretty dry parliamentary procedure.
But pierre in one of the french delegates, and also the director of the physical observatory of paris, made the case that a
Higher gathering in rome had seemed to only consider the geographical aspect of the meridian question and not the hydrographic needs of the world.
He made an impassioned and lengthy speech in which he stated quote me
We all the astronomical tables used at the present time by the astronomers and the needs of the world are french and calculated for the paris meridian. This is also a little bit related to our twenty fourteen episode on the discovery of longitude, which you can check out for a kind of a companion peace to this. Yet
It also reminds me of the Esperanto episode when there were conferences about what, if we adopted Esperanto is an international language and france was like, but France is already the international language or france have already international language death. Anyway, jason went on to make it clear that he felt that france had always been brushed aside and considerations, and then he clearly saw the adoption of greenwich as the international prime meridian as an unfair advantage to england that which has led to future conflict arguing quote. I now hastened to say that I am persuaded that the proposition voted for at rome was neither made nor suggested by
england, but I doubt whether it would render a true service to the english nation if it be agreed to an immense majority of the navies of the world, navigate with english charts. That is true, and it is a practical complement to the great maritime activity of that nation. When this freely admitted supremacy shall be transformed into an official and compulsory supremacy, it will suffer the vicissitudes of all human power and that institution, the common meridian which
Its nature is of a purely scientific nature and to which we would assure along and uncertain future will become the object of burning competition and jealousy among nations
Interesting thought it will make england too
portance, and we will all worried about this forever, and this is also like, but I just came up and
Gator episode, also about like this map. That's a standard put syrup in the middle. It's the same kind of thought process about like the euro centricity and in this case, like the britain specifics and yes, just city of all of it. Now the french delegation did
pose a resolution that would avoid this problem. That resolution red quote that the initial
Meridian should have a character of absolute neutrality. It should be chosen exclusively so as to secure to science and to international commerce all possible advantages and especially, should cut no great continent.
Either europe nor america. That resolution got only three votes of support from france, brazil and san domingo. It did not pass, but the conference did past seven other
the least chance, which read as follows: one that it is the opinion of this congress, but it is
I recall to adopt a single prime meridian for all nations in place of the multiplicity
of initial meridians, which now exist to the conference, proposes to the government's here represented
the adoption of the meridian passing through the center of the transit instrument at the observatory of greenwich. As the initial meridian for longitude,
three that, from this meridian longitude, shall be counted in two directions: up to one hundred, eighty degrees, east, longitude being plus and west longitude minus four, that the conference proposes the adoption of a universal day for all purposes for which it may be found, convenient and which shall not interfere with the use of local or other standard time, where desirable, five, that this universal day,
to be a mean solar day. It is to begin for all the world at the moment of mean midnight of the initial meridian, coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date of that meridian and is to be counted from zero up to twenty four hours. Six, that the conference expresses the hope that, as soon as may be practicable, the astronomical and nautical days will be arranged everywhere. To begin at mean midnight, seven that the conference expresses the hope that the technical studies design
to regulate and expand that the application of the decimal system to the division of angular space and of time shall be resumed so as to permit the extension of this application to all cases in which it presents real advantages.
So, as you read that you may have surmise that, though, the conference establish the primary and it did not dictate its adoption in any real way. Each country could enact this
stem, however, and whenever it wished in the sixteen years between the conference and the dawn of the twentieth century, most countries had officially adopted or officially transition to the resolutions agreed to by the international
viridian conference, and that was still a very at your own pace approach with some countries keeping their own time for a while or observing the standardization, but not in any official way. Although the us had adopted it pretty completely by one thousand, eight hundred and ninety five lawrence
it, wasn't actually codified or mandatory until nineteen eighteen countries also
bound to adhere to the twenty four hour or fifteen degrees of longitude plan, where it didn't make sense and if you look at
timezone map today you'll see plenty of places where the timezone lines shift to follow the boundaries of different countries are states or so that
lion runs along a river just to make things a little simpler in day to day life. When, because you're probably wondering if you
already know some places years, half hour time zones where it makes sense and because the
holes are where the lines of longitude all converge, they use the same coordinated universal time as greenwich
Those timezone lines have shifted over the years as well. I think the most recent changes in twenty ten so pretty recently, for example,
which I was initially split by a time zone line when standardization was adopted. So very roughly speaking. If you know the state of georgia, the western third of the state was in the central time zone, while the rest was in the eastern time.
Actually wasn't until one thousand nine hundred and forty one that the state of georgia was entirely moved into the eastern time zone. Now, for us folks, on march 19th, one thousand nine hundred and eighteen president woodrow Wilson signed
standard time act, making it law in the. U s: the eastern central, mountain, pacific and alaskan times, islands were all established at that time. Those times zones are still the ones that we use, although at that point time, zones fell under the jurisdiction of the interstate commerce commission that work wish, if that over to the department of trade.
Rotation when it was founded in nineteen sixty six. There has been a lot of discussion recently about daylight saving time there
for countries that do some shifting, but were focusing on the? U s since this has been a big issue. Lately it was this
abolished. In the u s through that nineteen eighteen standard time act. The idea was that if we shifted time around so that people were awake,
active during most of the hours where they would be sunlight, less energy would be used. This was initially a world war, one money, saving measure that was new
terms of legislation, but it wasn't a new idea. Benjamin Franklin had pitched a similar idea in france as a way to save candle. Sometimes people credit him with inventing daylight savings
and that's not quite correct. His version was more about shifting your personal schedule, not changing the time by an our seas. Basically, like just just say you wake up at ten. Instead, a minor like exist
the change it. An entomologists from new zealand named george hudson had actually suggested a clock change to conserve daylight hours back in eighteen. Ninety five, though,
after the war daylight, saving time went away until world were too when it was once again implemented. It was repealed again, a night
in forty five it wasn't until the passing of the uniform time act in nineteen sixty six. That congress made a national standard time, including the observance of daylight saving time. Although
oh hawaii in arizona both opted out of daylight saving time, with the exception of
aha nation in the north east of what's now arizona they uniform time act, also set daylight saving time as a permanent annual shifts starting
asked sunday in April and ending the last sunday in october. Of course, those dates have changed over the years in march
twenty two, the us Senate pass the sunshine protection act. This wasn't an official vote. It was a verbal they all were like yes
There are some question marks if they understood its, it's the ass. A thing called unanimous consent and apparently afterward some senators,
Maybe you'd were like. I don't know what just happened right. This sunshine protection act would is intended to make daylight saving time permanent. It
still needs to pass in the house of representatives and it would then need to be signed in the law by the president. This has certainly sent a lot of people into a frenzy, because the bill has supporters and detractors on both sides of the political I'll, and if you are on social media, all you ve seen people very upset about it.
In both directions, probably because we're recording this, the house will vote in. All of these things will be handled
are we publish stuff works as first sandford fleming, he was
The charter members of the royal society of canada when it was established in eighteen, eighty two and he served as the organizations president in eighteen, eighty eight he was give
honorary doctorate from several schools and was needed and eighteen ninety seven he died and how a fax and nineteen fifteen was buried in ottawa. So, yes, he barely did not live long enough to see the united states enacts their standardized time officially, although he saw it adopted pretty much everywhere in his lifetime. He also, I should say, as much
He sounds like a pill. He did die in the home of his daughter. He was surrounded by his loved ones. He was very adored by his family. Now I think you
professionally very stalwart in his beliefs, but he sounded like he was not a horrible. I want to make that clear,
out of a person who can be very stubborn, especially if I think I'm right about something I can't get it I
as for listener mean a very, very, very late. Thank you are ye because, as most everyone knows, we ve been staying home for this whole pandemic. Our office is currently changing places. We are moving their different digs, which means that all of this stuff that goes to stuff you missed in history class goes to my dad.
Yeah and last tuesday. Thirty two boxes arrived by courier on my front, porch that the office manager had sent to my home all my goodness
largely like books from publishers, but also a lot of gems among them. I am one of those gems was a gift sent to us by our listener tom who writes miss fry because he knew it was coming to to me. Essentially it
office. I hope this finds you in yours well, a greeting which takes on a new meeting in today's world some time ago.
I mentioned the enclosed waffle maker to you on twitter. You seemed
delighted on the concept but dubious about the cost.
Receiving mine and languishing for months. I realized I would be unlikely to ever use it, so I decided to pass it on to someone who would make use of it. I hope
Brings you some small measure of the pleasure and entertainment that you and miss Wilson have brought to me over the years
May you in yours have days filled with joy nights filled with peace and lives filled with love, sincerely tom, which is the sweetest note of all time. But this one
filmmaker, which I remember talking about on twitter, makes waffles that look like legos and you can stick them to get out.
I love it. It is, and it comes with too little trays that are like your base tray, so you can
when you blocks, and when next, you find yourself
here in Atlanta tracy, we are going to have waffle fees to the likes of which has never been seen, so excited will do, savory waffles will do sweet waffles will make waffles with pumpkin will make waffles with apple we'll make waffles. I don't know we make fish waffles whatever you want to do, it's going to be a waffle,
thank you so much tom. I, it was one of the things in the midst of opening box after box of books from publishers. I was like what is this magical discovery he sent that back in jail.
Where is so omega, meanwhile yan into
it of how often I am I have been in the office twice in the last two and a half years right. That's amazing! I know we have.
So many listeners who are so thoughtful and want to send us physical items, let that be
a lesson to you. I may or may not see them for yeah a year or more like how
and I are both working me- pretty much exclusively remotely holly, mostly to exclusively remotely irons higher office- is kind of between spaces at this moment with this move. So if you,
look up our address on line, it's probably our old office that will come up in search results, and so, if you send stuff there, he may never see a may get lost forever and I think we're still
and of working through what things will look like in the new space which, to my knowledge, we don't actually have access to yet so you're thinking of sending a physical item.
Hold off for a little bit of corporate governance adele,
may always limbo yes, but I'm very excited for weapons. Thank you tom. If you would like to write to us in a way that is, is all
most guaranteed to get through. You can see the heavier email and history podcast,
I heart radio dot com, you can also, of course, find us on social media as missed in history pretty much everywhere, and if you would like to subscribe to the show- and you have not yet no matter what time zone you're in it's super,
breezy. You can do that. Only I hurt radio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite broadcasts.
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Transcript generated on 2022-06-15.