Everything in life is dictated by time, and relying on where you live, your time is completely different than someone someplace else. This hasn’t always been the case. How then was it decided how our time was divided up?
The origins of time zones might be traced to at least one particular change in transportation–the rise of the railroads. In the late 1800s, when trains grew to become the desirered means of journey throughout the US, a problem surfaced. Passengers needed to catch their train at a selected time of their a part of the country, and trains wanted a set time so that they wouldn’t crash into each other.
Towns normally set their local time by the sun’s movement, so when trains started to chop the travel time between these towns, the time between these areas was vastly different. The railroads had to have different arrival and departure instances for different trains relying on the local time the place the train was coming or going. It became a scheduling mess, and a better way was needed.
The railroads have been the first to develop a time zone system in 1883 instead of relying on the federal government. They established four zones throughout the country; the Eastern, Central, Western, and Pacific. These zones are carefully aligned with the zones we’ve today. It wasn’t till 1918 that these time zones became official under the Normal Time Act. This was additionally when daylight saving time was established.
A 12 months after the railroads set their time zones, delegates from 25 international locations met in Washington DC to establish time zones worldwide and across completely different countries. They set the standard starting level (the Prime Meridian) on the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. With every 15 degrees longitude change, the time changed by one hour. Going east an hour was gained, and by traveling west an hour was decreased. The consequence was 24 time zones that covered all the world.
The choice of Greenwich as the Prime Meridian was because of its in styleity, although different countries were using other lengthyitude reference points. The observatory had a file of accurate and reliable navigation data used in the shipping industry, and Britain had more ships and shipping visitors than the rest of the world combined at that time. It wasn’t wholly adopted by each country right away, however. The French used Paris as their Prime Meridian till 1911.
So who in the end decides what the time zones are? It’s truly determined by particular person countries. While many international locations adopted the hourly time zones, there have been still many variations as different nations decided on half or quarter-hour deviations from those zones.
Many countries have modified their time zones to fit their needs. In 1949, China’s communist authorities moved the country’s 5 time zones into one. The time for the complete country was based on the time in Beijing, and the reason was to determine national unity. There are other oddities with time zones across the world. In the summer, Australia has not only vertical time zones like we’re familiar with however horizontal ones as well, and Russia truly covers twelve time zones but only recognizes 9 of them.
The current time zones are far from uniform, and lots of other strange time zones crop up because of daylight saving time. This would require a wholly separate discussion.
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