On at the present time in 1883, to fight the confusion of hundreds of native occasions, American and Canadian railroads launched continental time zones.
For so long as folks have been preserving monitor of time, clocks have been set in response to the motion of the solar. As late because the Eighteen Eighties, native time in most U.S. cities revolved round “excessive midday” — the time when the solar appeared highest within the sky. As you possibly can think about, all these totally different native occasions posed a scheduling nightmare for railroads, who typically have been caught posting dozens of arrival and departure occasions for a similar practice, every correspondent to a special city or native time. To make issues worse, particular person practice stations set their very own clocks, complicated passengers and making it inconceivable to coordinate correct practice schedules.
Rail techniques discovered they have been unable to run easily and not using a uniform time-keeping system — and quite than turning to the governments of the USA or Canada, they took it upon themselves to create the brand new time-code system, dividing the continent into quadrants similar to these we use immediately.
The recognition of the railroad made for a straightforward transition to the brand new time zones, as most individuals started adopting theirs instantly. Thirty-five years later Congress formally acknowledged the time zones set forth by the railroads and known as on the Interstate Commerce Fee to oversee them.
