A History of Time Zones

Do you remember the old days of calling a phone number to find out the time?

2:34 - A useful marine chronometer is not just a basic clock, it needs to be incredibly precise, robust and accurate enough to be used as a portable time standard. The story of its invention by John Harrison is certainly history that deserves to be remembered.

Daylight saving time reminds me of the story of the old man whose feet were cold at night, so he cut a foot off the top of his blanket and sewed it onto the bottom.

Daylight Saving Time and Personal Income Tax, two TEMPORARY measures introduced during WW1 over 100 years ago, and still with us today.

The History Guy could make knitting sound interesting!!! Keep the history lessons coming please!

As an aviator, Zulu time is necessary reference. Someone asked for the history of the bowtie; I second that request!

It has occured to me, with the variety of topics that THG covers, he would make one hell of a contestant on JEOPARDY.

I was in Teheran, Iran a number of years ago. The time zone line ran right down through the middle of the city and they could not resolve which zone it should be put in. They finally drew a circle around the city and slipped it by half an hour in the circle. When it was 10:00 AM in the next time zone to the west, it was 9:30 AM in Teheran. I encountered the same situation when I visited Newfoundland, Canada in 1982.

Captain Cook was entrusted with the third Chronometer ever made on his first voyage of discovery. Explains the accuracy of his mapping.

Thank you! My mother was a telephone operator in Alaska 1967. She remarked how frustrating it was at the time because Alaska still observed several different time zones.

I shall comment without any desire to draw the history guy to the Dark Side. That would be Daylight Wasting Time, which is never been proven to save energy, the primary "reason" put forth by the Forces of Evil.. There is no need for it on the farm because the farmer works according to actual daylight, no matter the "time," and so should we all.

Another awesome story is the clock in Grand Central. It was wired directly to the US NAval observatory and was the master clock (by direct wire) for all railroads east of the Mississippi and roughly north of the Mason Dixon line

Fasinating subject. Im 60 now, but I remember in 5th grade when they would pass out globes and look at the time zones. It was one subject i really remember my ears would perk up. Thanks history guy for making me feel like that again!

About time you covered this topic!

Oh hey, it's always cool to see a bit of history from my hometown referenced; at 2:56, the red & white clock with two minute hands is in Bristol in the UK, on the old Corn Exchange building in the centre. The clock's minute hands display GMT, and the second minute hand is 11 minutes behind it, representing the old Bristol time standard (as Bristol is around 100 miles west of London, where GMT is defined). As a weird little piece of local (and possibly apocryphal) trivia, people often used to do business outside the corn exchange on small iron tables/pedestals which still exist today known as the "Nails" (see the google maps street view link below, where you can see both the clock with its two minute hands, and the nails on the street below), and it's claimed that the idiom "Paying/Cash on the nail", meaning to have struck a bargain/trade on the spot, comes from merchants placing their money on the nails to signify that they were happy with the trade being offered, and that a deal had been struck! https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4546562,-2.593666,3a,90y,172.99h,103.95t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1scHwKkHuiihg5m4jT2NP1zA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

It's Daylight SAVING Time. It's not plural. You're not alone in saying it wrong. Many people do. Doesn't change the fact this video is a good lesson for those who never heard the story. Thanks.

Another episode of History Guy that I'm glad I took "time" to watch.

the universal time constant: ATTACK at dawn.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

I still remember the shortwave time stations: "At the tone"...