This meant that time changed in gradients, a complex system captured in gorgeous time tables from the era. noon was when the sun was highest in the sky. in the 1870s there were hundreds of time zones, because localities tended to run on mean solar time, i.e. The patent office in Bern, Switzerland, where Einstein worked, was a clearinghouse for patents on the synchronization of clocks. In the last part of the 19th century, the coordination of clocks and the standardization of time had engaged the passions of nations, business leaders, astronomers and philosophers. Galison relates, before the advent of factories began to standardize life, and railroad systems with crisscrossing tracks made it imperative to know which train was where and when, there were too many times, one for every village. "It's in as plain sight as it could possibly be," he said.Īs Dr. And one clue to the origin of relativity can be found in something as mundane and practical as a 19th-century train schedule. Peter Galison, 48-a Harvard professor of the history of science and of physics, a pilot, art lover and nascent filmmaker-is right, physics and Einstein have flourished more in their connections to the world than in any ivory tower aloofness. In fact, there's a historical argument that the challenges of scheduling trains inspired Albert Einstein's development of the general theory of relativity:Įinstein's relativity has long been regarded by scholars as a monument to the power of abstract thought. Chicago was and still is the biggest railroad town in the country, and the railroads were, in both the United States and Europe, the catalyst for the creation of time zones. What only glancingly made it into the article was something else I learned: America was divided into its (mostly accepted) time zones in Chicago. I learned a lot from it, including how complex and contentious they still are (Maine and Massachusetts have been considering getting out of daylight saving time and moving to the Atlantic time zone, and they have a compelling argument), and how daylight saving time emerged from one postman's entomology hobby. Yesterday I published a freelance piece on the ins and outs of time zones.
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