Additionally, the 24 time zones would be based on this location (Greenwich, England, was agreed to be the prime meridian, which refers to zero degrees longitude). Then in 1884, at the International Meridian Conference in the United States, it was unanimously decided that Greenwich, England, would act as the Earth’s prime meridian and the Greenwich Mean Time ( GMT) as the entire world’s time standard. Britain, at the time, had many means of transportation, majorly ships, using the Greenwich Meridian than the rest of the world put together, and the British Nautical Almanac have been working on charts for a long time.The dependable and accurate data that the Greenwich Observatory regularly presented.Two reasons were responsible for this wide acceptance of the Greenwich Meridian, namely: At that time, the Greenwich Meridian was the most popular among the various meridians used for longitudinal references among different countries, and many people unofficially see the Greenwich Meridian as the prime meridian. Also, around the time Fleming’s idea became popular, Britain had already begun using their own timing system, taking their point of origin to be the Greenwich Meridian. With time, Fleming’s proposition became widely accepted.
He explained that since the earth rotates 15 degrees every hour (or 360 degrees in 24 hours), dividing the world into 24 time zones that were each 15 degrees of longitude apart made sense. He was mainly instrumental in having a unified world timing system by helping to convene the International Meridian Conference. It was Sir Sanford Fleming, in 1878, who first proposed the idea of using international time zones. The need for a better and unified timing-keeping system became not only noticeable but urgent. The reason for this was simple-many trains were scheduled to operate at specific times for both departure and arrival. Time calculation also became a severe problem for long-distance travelers. His discovery became the foundation upon which Act 5 George III (the Longitude Act) was built: the same longitudinal concept that we still use today.Īlthough the Longitude Act made it easier to locate ships at sea at the period, the heightened need for an efficient, time-saving system of telecommunication and the expansion of various means of transportation in the 19th century became a stumbling block. Then in 1764, an English horologist, named John Harrison, invented the clock that could be used to determine the location of a ship at sea. One of the drawbacks of the pendulum clock, however, was that it could not accurately measure time for scientific purposes and could not also sufficiently determine longitude at sea. The sun was used to measure time, with people telling the time using sundials.Īs time went by, and around the 17th century, some other tools such as pendulum clocks came onto the scene. An example of these large clocks was the Time Bell (Zytglogge Tower) in Switzerland. What usually was the ‘standard’ was, in many cases, a clock tower or large clock placed in strategic places in these locations where everyone could see it. In the United States alone, there were more than 300 local times during this period. Time varied across short distances, and there were no time standards.
5 Countries That Are in Pacific Standard TimeĪ few centuries ago, every country, city, and town of the world was actually on its own time.
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