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| I-90 in South Dakota / Daveynin Flickr CC BY 2.0 |
There was a time in the United States that it was hard to know what time it was. Every town and city had their own time and it could be a completely different time just 5 miles away. This made it hard to make deliveries and railroad schedules, so finally the government decided it was time to do something. The first organized time zones in the United States were called railroad time, but this was still very confusing. Even as late as the 1970s, you could drive 100 miles and have to change your watch numerous times in parts of the country.
Time in 19th Century United States
Before 1883, there
was no standardized way to tell time in the United States. Local areas all had their own time and
there were no time zones yet. Each town used some form of local solar time and
each town had a clock tower or clock and watches in the jewelry store window.
By 1884 it was
obvious the world needed a more logical way of knowing what time it is. A
meeting of 25 nations decided to divide the planet into 24 zones separated by
15 degrees longitude. The starting point was to be the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England and each zone would be plus or minus Greenwich, which is called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
GMT is what time it is in Greenwich,
England.
The world was a
much smaller place in the 19th century, so knowing what time it was
in Greenwich, England wasn’t very important to someone in the
middle of Nebraska.
During the 19th
century, time was very important to the railroads. A train had to leave an
exact amount of minutes after the previous train to prevent accidents. But
knowing exactly what time it was, was still a problem. It could be 9:20 in Detroit and maybe 9:24 in the next town.
The importance of a
standardized time became clear in 1853, when in New England there was a terrible train crash. Two
trains collided killing 14 people. This happened because two train engineers
had two different times on their watches.
Timing was everything to the running
and safety of the railroads. Yet opposition to a standardized time was strong.
Many towns didn’t want to have to live their lives according to railroad time.
Before 1883, each
town had its own time depending on the sun, people used the sun to tell them
when to get up, when it was high noon and when to go to bed. Hunger pains let
them know when it was time to eat and astronomical tables invented by a former slave,
Benjamin Banneker, who used his knowledge of math and astronomy to project sunrise,
sunset and other celestial times.
By the 1880s, the American Watch Company was
starting to mass produce watches.
In 1881, there were
approximately 50 different regional times in the US. The railroads asked William Frederick to
come up with a plan to have a standard time in the United States.
At high noon on November
18, 1883, the railroads
adopted the Standard Railway Time in the United States and Canada, but it would be many years later before
most people and towns would use it.
Even in 1900, Detroit still used their localized time which was
28 minutes ahead of the central standardized time. It wasn’t until 1905 when Detroit finally joined in with the Central Standard
Time zone.
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| 1892 Burlington Railroad time zone map |
Time in the 20th Century
The railroads
finally had their standard time and most of the United States went along with it, but it wasn’t until March
19, 1918 when the
Standard Time Act became law and the US had four standard time zones
Also in 1918,
daylight savings time was created, but repealed in 1919 after World War I ended.
The matter of moving clocks ahead during the summer would be a local issue. So
standardized times still remained confusing during the summer.
Standard War Time
During World War II
the United
States
went on what was called Standard War Time. This was the equivalent of year long
Daylight Savings Time. On February 9, 1942, the US Congress passed the War Time Act.
It was thought that year long daylight savings would save energy and resources
that were needed for the war.
All times zones in the United States used war time. When you read stories from
World War II newspapers, you will see the use of war time. For example you
might see a story that includes EWT or Eastern War Time or MWT for Mountain War
Time.
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| 1945 newspaper article announcing V-E Day using Eastern War Time |
Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is
The War Time Act
ended after the war on September 25, 1945 and the United States went back to standard time. But, the
decision whether or not to have daylight savings time during the summer was
left up to local cities or states. Some states did use daylight time and others
did not. This once again left the United States having a mix of different times in
different places every summer.
Knowing what time
it was in another city or state was a problem during the summer and it was not
unusual to have to set your watch numerous times on a car trip of just 35
miles. Not only could local regions and states use or not use Daylight Savings
Time, but the start and end periods for Daylight Savings Time was also up to
the local areas.
Finally fed up with
all of the confusion, the transportation industry lobbied congress to do
something about the mixed up summer times. The final decision came when the
congressional committee found out that on a 35-mile stretch between W.V. and Ohio, bus travelers went through 7 different
time changes.
In 1966 congress
passed the Uniform Time Act creating a unified Daylight Savings Time and a
unified start and end for it. The law did provide for any state that wanted to
exempt itself from Daylight Savings could do so.
Today, Hawaii and Arizona, except for the Navajo Nation, do not
observe Daylight Savings. And to this day I can never remember what time of
year Arizona is on Pacific or Mountain Time.
Oil Shortage Time
In 1974, during the
oil embargo energy crises, President Nixon signed into law the Emergency
Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act, a long title which meant Daylight
Savings Time was to start on January 6, 1974 until October 1974.
I do remember this and
it was strange to see the sun rise so late in the morning. In places like Minneapolis and Billings, the sun didn’t rise until 9 AM that January.
Time for the Conclusion
After a century of
tinkering with time, there is now a uniform time in the United States today, unless you need to know what time it
is in Arizona.
© June 2010 Sam Montana
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