Did you know that at one time, there was more that 300 time zones in the US?

[JGalt]

We didn't have the four US time zones until 1883, and the railroads that were responsible for that.

Surprising Railroad Inventions: U.S. Time Zones​

"Long before the days of Rolex, Citizen and Apple, telling time was a little more complicated than simply glancing down at your watch. Back in the early 1800s, the sun served as the official “clock” in the U.S., and time was based on each city’s own solar noon, or the point when the sun is highest in the sky.

While this may have seemed like a good idea, this timekeeping method resulted in the creation of more than 300 local time zones across the country — not to mention disparity in local time depending on your location. So, for example, while it could be 12:09 p.m. in New York, it could also be 12:17 p.m. in Chicago.

Think about all of the confusion that would cause in today’s busy world!

A Railroad Revolution​

​

When we fast forward a few decades to the mid-late 1800s, railroads were building track across the nation at lightning speed, drastically changing the way people traveled and transported goods. Rather than getting around by foot or on horseback, trains were emerging as a powerful force to propel industrialization and commerce across the country at a very fast pace. Trains were crossing time zones much quicker, making it difficult to keep a standard schedule. When it came to telling time, it was clear the railroads, and those that utilized the railroads, were in desperate need of some order.

In addition to the railroads, around this same time frame, government officials and scientists were also pushing for time standardization in an effort to develop accurate reports across various locations throughout the country.

On November 18, 1883, the railroads moved forward with the adoption of four U.S. time zones, an idea that had been proposed 11 years earlier by Charles Dowd, a Yale-educated school principal. The time zones, Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific, are still in place today. Each time zone is set one hour apart, which allowed the railroads to coordinate train schedules across the entire country.

Living on Railroad Time​

As years went by and train travel continued to become an integral part of doing business from city to city, “railroad time” was gradually adopted as the official time in the U.S. Eventually this system was signed into U.S. law with the finalization of the Standard Time Act on March 19, 1918.

Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation oversees the nation’s time zones and the uniform observance of Daylight Saving Time, including exercising the authority that allows a state to change its official time zone.

So, the next time you glance at your watch or cell phone to check the time, you can thank the railroad for keeping us all in sync — no matter where you or your shipments are located."

Surprising Railroad Inventions: U.S. Time Zones

 

[Picaro]

The railroads also generated a lot of legal precedents for national business laws, state and Federal, some good, some bad. Also responsible for many accounting and management innovations, which can be considered as important as tech inventions like telephones and telegraphs, which the railroads were the first to use them and provide right of ways for their spread across the country.

Then there are the engineering innovations, and their needs even drove innovations from the early oil industry for safer lamp oils, kind of like the same spurs the military provided. People like Walter Chrysler learned their mechanical engineering on the job at a railroad. Automobiles evolved from steam engines. National consumer brands were made possible by railroads, and the development of refrigerated rail cars led to vastly expanded meat and vegetable businesses, then home coolers and air conditioning.

Even the bankers worst depredations and looting didn't completely wreck them until the 1920's.

 

[toobfreak]

Surprising Railroad Inventions: A Railroad Revolution​

The railroad has worked wonders for me!

 

[CrusaderFrank]

We didn't have the four US time zones until 1883, and the railroads that were responsible for that.

Surprising Railroad Inventions: U.S. Time Zones​

"Long before the days of Rolex, Citizen and Apple, telling time was a little more complicated than simply glancing down at your watch. Back in the early 1800s, the sun served as the official “clock” in the U.S., and time was based on each city’s own solar noon, or the point when the sun is highest in the sky.

While this may have seemed like a good idea, this timekeeping method resulted in the creation of more than 300 local time zones across the country — not to mention disparity in local time depending on your location. So, for example, while it could be 12:09 p.m. in New York, it could also be 12:17 p.m. in Chicago.

Think about all of the confusion that would cause in today’s busy world!

A Railroad Revolution​

​

When we fast forward a few decades to the mid-late 1800s, railroads were building track across the nation at lightning speed, drastically changing the way people traveled and transported goods. Rather than getting around by foot or on horseback, trains were emerging as a powerful force to propel industrialization and commerce across the country at a very fast pace. Trains were crossing time zones much quicker, making it difficult to keep a standard schedule. When it came to telling time, it was clear the railroads, and those that utilized the railroads, were in desperate need of some order.

In addition to the railroads, around this same time frame, government officials and scientists were also pushing for time standardization in an effort to develop accurate reports across various locations throughout the country.

On November 18, 1883, the railroads moved forward with the adoption of four U.S. time zones, an idea that had been proposed 11 years earlier by Charles Dowd, a Yale-educated school principal. The time zones, Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific, are still in place today. Each time zone is set one hour apart, which allowed the railroads to coordinate train schedules across the entire country.

Living on Railroad Time​

As years went by and train travel continued to become an integral part of doing business from city to city, “railroad time” was gradually adopted as the official time in the U.S. Eventually this system was signed into U.S. law with the finalization of the Standard Time Act on March 19, 1918.

Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation oversees the nation’s time zones and the uniform observance of Daylight Saving Time, including exercising the authority that allows a state to change its official time zone.

So, the next time you glance at your watch or cell phone to check the time, you can thank the railroad for keeping us all in sync — no matter where you or your shipments are located."

Surprising Railroad Inventions: U.S. Time Zones

But they could measure the temperature accurately to a tenth of a degree, even in the deep ocean

 

[Mortis]

So, we down-sized from 300 to 11?

Man, I am all "zoned out" from these time zones.

 

[luiza]

And once upon a time there was a truly horrible little white boy named IQ-2.0 by his robotic hybrid parents ---

Which makes 301 .

 

[whitehall]

Nobody needed a watch back then except to catch a train and almost nobody needed to catch a train.