February 9, 2024 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, China runs on just a single time zone; in America, we have four: Pacific, Mountain, Central and Eastern, but we used to have thousands!
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites up next. Here's Greg Hangloo
with a story of how time zones came to America.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What time is it? It's a seemingly easy question, but
depending on what time zone you live in, your time
will be different. The development and spread of the railroads
across the United States and the eighteen hundreds brought a
wave of changes to American life. It's a heroic chapter
in American history, but the most interesting transformation is least known.
(00:52):
Each town in the United States had its own time,
depending on when the noonday sun was directly overhead. Here's
American popular science author Steven Johnson.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
So you know what it's like taking a train ride. Today.
You can kick back, read a book, listen to some music.
But imagine what it would have been like in eighteen
seventy trying to take a train. Let's say we're traveling
from New Haven to New York, and so I get
on the train at twelve o'clock new Haven and it
takes us two hours to get to New York, So
we should be arriving in New York at two o'clock,
(01:27):
but in fact, in New York time, that's technically one
fifty five. But the train we're on is actually running
on Boston time, So that means we're actually pulling into
the station in New York on Boston time at two seventeen.
But then we're like making a connection to a train
to Baltimore that's running on Baltimore time, so that train
(01:49):
is actually leaving the station at two oh seven, which
seems to be in the past. I mean, you have
to be a math major to figure out what time
it is.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So how did the nation on uniform time zones? Some
may think that the government brought order out of this chaos,
but this was not the case. It was the railroads
that spearheaded the move to a time zone system, because
the varying times in different towns created hazards for traveling trains.
(02:19):
A miscalculation of one minute could mean a collision. As
the Foundation for Economic Education, President Lawrence Reid noted, east
to West travel was rough. Predicting the time a train
would arrive at any particular stop was no small feat
In the days before standard time. Fearing government intervention, railroad
(02:42):
managers commissioned transportation publisher William Frederick Allen to devise a
simple plan. He proposed four time zones, divided vertically fifteen
degrees apart by lines called meridians. Those Meridians came close
to the cities of Philadelphia, Memphis, Denver, and Fresno. In
(03:05):
October of eighteen eighty three, a General Time convention held
in Chicago set up by various railroads, approved of noon
November eighteenth, eighteen eighty three, as the date when railroad
time would replace local time. The railroads didn't bother with
legislation or with Congress. Here's historian Michael O'Malley, author of
(03:31):
Keeping Watch, a History of American Time.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
They just say we're doing it, and you can get
on board. They call it the Day of two Noons.
That's the nickname that railroad announced. It's a Sunday that
at noon on this day, November eighteenth, they're just going
to stop all operations. Wherever the train is, it's just
going to stop and it's going to wait however long
it takes to catch up with what the news stand
d time will be and in cities, any city that
(03:58):
agrees to go along with it, and most of them do.
They stopped the clocks or they suddenly moved them ahead.
And in major cities in America, people get into this
and they gather around the clocks wondering, sort of anxiously,
what's going to happen. You know, it's a puzzling thing.
There's you know, jokes that if you slip on a
banana peel at the right moment, you'll take fifteen minutes
to fall. And then it happens, you know, and people
(04:20):
look at each other and they shrug, and nothing much happens.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Since these new time zones were a private undertaking, they
had no force of law. Only railroad employees had to
obey the new times, But in fact people began to
set their watches by a railroad time, and the change
was widely accepted. Some government officials were apparently annoyed that
(04:43):
such a change could take place without their playing any
serious role. According to H. Stuart Holbrook in the Story
of American Railroads, the traveling public and shipper too quickly
fell in with the new time belt plan and naturally
found it good. But Uncle Sam wasn't ready to admit
(05:05):
the change was beneficial. A few days before November eighteenth,
the Attorney General of the United States issued an order
that no government department had a right to adopt railroad
time until authorized by Congress. So when did Congress authorize
the change? Thirty five years later on March nineteenth, nineteen eighteen,
(05:30):
during World War One. At this point, Congress passed the
Standard Time Act and made official what everyone else had
put into practice. Time zones were now legally part of
American life. Here again is Michael O'Malley.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
What standard time did is it changed the nature of community.
Before standard time, the time of day was what the
local sun was doing, and it was noon in your valley.
On the other side of the mountain, it was not
quite noon yet. But standard time, if everybody adopted, it
put people in new forms of relationship to each other.
So after eighteen eighty three, from Portland, Maine to Atlanta,
(06:07):
everybody's on Eastern times. Eight o'clock in the morning means
eight o'clock in the morning, regardless of what the sun
is doing. If you think of north South as being
one of the great divides of American life, this obliterates
north south, and it makes north and south the same
all along the eastern seaboard. Whereas before north and south
were very different. It makes east and west a more
(06:27):
meaningful difference, and it unites a whole western region from
Texas up to Minnesota in a single time. So it
does rearrange the kind of priorities for community.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
Today, let's celebrate time zones by remembering the constitutional role
of government to enforce laws and provide national defense. Beyond that,
a free people can create solutions to a multitude of problems.
They did so in eighteen eighty three when they created
time zones. I'm Greg Hangler, and this is our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And a great job as always on the production by
Greg Hangler, the story of how time zones came to America.
Here on our American Stories. Folks, if you love the
(07:31):
stories we tell about this great country, and especially the
stories of America's rich past, know that all of our
stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture and
faith are brought to us by the great folks at
Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things
that are beautiful in life and all the things that
are good in life. And if you can't cut to
Hillsdale Hillsdale will come to you with their free and
(07:53):
terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to learn more.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites up next. Here's Greg Hangloo
with a story of how time zones came to America.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What time is it? It's a seemingly easy question, but
depending on what time zone you live in, your time
will be different. The development and spread of the railroads
across the United States and the eighteen hundreds brought a
wave of changes to American life. It's a heroic chapter
in American history, but the most interesting transformation is least known.
(00:52):
Each town in the United States had its own time,
depending on when the noonday sun was directly overhead. Here's
American popular science author Steven Johnson.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
So you know what it's like taking a train ride. Today.
You can kick back, read a book, listen to some music.
But imagine what it would have been like in eighteen
seventy trying to take a train. Let's say we're traveling
from New Haven to New York, and so I get
on the train at twelve o'clock new Haven and it
takes us two hours to get to New York, So
we should be arriving in New York at two o'clock,
(01:27):
but in fact, in New York time, that's technically one
fifty five. But the train we're on is actually running
on Boston time, So that means we're actually pulling into
the station in New York on Boston time at two seventeen.
But then we're like making a connection to a train
to Baltimore that's running on Baltimore time, so that train
(01:49):
is actually leaving the station at two oh seven, which
seems to be in the past. I mean, you have
to be a math major to figure out what time
it is.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So how did the nation on uniform time zones? Some
may think that the government brought order out of this chaos,
but this was not the case. It was the railroads
that spearheaded the move to a time zone system, because
the varying times in different towns created hazards for traveling trains.
(02:19):
A miscalculation of one minute could mean a collision. As
the Foundation for Economic Education, President Lawrence Reid noted, east
to West travel was rough. Predicting the time a train
would arrive at any particular stop was no small feat
In the days before standard time. Fearing government intervention, railroad
(02:42):
managers commissioned transportation publisher William Frederick Allen to devise a
simple plan. He proposed four time zones, divided vertically fifteen
degrees apart by lines called meridians. Those Meridians came close
to the cities of Philadelphia, Memphis, Denver, and Fresno. In
(03:05):
October of eighteen eighty three, a General Time convention held
in Chicago set up by various railroads, approved of noon
November eighteenth, eighteen eighty three, as the date when railroad
time would replace local time. The railroads didn't bother with
legislation or with Congress. Here's historian Michael O'Malley, author of
(03:31):
Keeping Watch, a History of American Time.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
They just say we're doing it, and you can get
on board. They call it the Day of two Noons.
That's the nickname that railroad announced. It's a Sunday that
at noon on this day, November eighteenth, they're just going
to stop all operations. Wherever the train is, it's just
going to stop and it's going to wait however long
it takes to catch up with what the news stand
d time will be and in cities, any city that
(03:58):
agrees to go along with it, and most of them do.
They stopped the clocks or they suddenly moved them ahead.
And in major cities in America, people get into this
and they gather around the clocks wondering, sort of anxiously,
what's going to happen. You know, it's a puzzling thing.
There's you know, jokes that if you slip on a
banana peel at the right moment, you'll take fifteen minutes
to fall. And then it happens, you know, and people
(04:20):
look at each other and they shrug, and nothing much happens.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Since these new time zones were a private undertaking, they
had no force of law. Only railroad employees had to
obey the new times, But in fact people began to
set their watches by a railroad time, and the change
was widely accepted. Some government officials were apparently annoyed that
(04:43):
such a change could take place without their playing any
serious role. According to H. Stuart Holbrook in the Story
of American Railroads, the traveling public and shipper too quickly
fell in with the new time belt plan and naturally
found it good. But Uncle Sam wasn't ready to admit
(05:05):
the change was beneficial. A few days before November eighteenth,
the Attorney General of the United States issued an order
that no government department had a right to adopt railroad
time until authorized by Congress. So when did Congress authorize
the change? Thirty five years later on March nineteenth, nineteen eighteen,
(05:30):
during World War One. At this point, Congress passed the
Standard Time Act and made official what everyone else had
put into practice. Time zones were now legally part of
American life. Here again is Michael O'Malley.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
What standard time did is it changed the nature of community.
Before standard time, the time of day was what the
local sun was doing, and it was noon in your valley.
On the other side of the mountain, it was not
quite noon yet. But standard time, if everybody adopted, it
put people in new forms of relationship to each other.
So after eighteen eighty three, from Portland, Maine to Atlanta,
(06:07):
everybody's on Eastern times. Eight o'clock in the morning means
eight o'clock in the morning, regardless of what the sun
is doing. If you think of north South as being
one of the great divides of American life, this obliterates
north south, and it makes north and south the same
all along the eastern seaboard. Whereas before north and south
were very different. It makes east and west a more
(06:27):
meaningful difference, and it unites a whole western region from
Texas up to Minnesota in a single time. So it
does rearrange the kind of priorities for community.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
Today, let's celebrate time zones by remembering the constitutional role
of government to enforce laws and provide national defense. Beyond that,
a free people can create solutions to a multitude of problems.
They did so in eighteen eighty three when they created
time zones. I'm Greg Hangler, and this is our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And a great job as always on the production by
Greg Hangler, the story of how time zones came to America.
Here on our American Stories. Folks, if you love the
(07:31):
stories we tell about this great country, and especially the
stories of America's rich past, know that all of our
stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture and
faith are brought to us by the great folks at
Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things
that are beautiful in life and all the things that
are good in life. And if you can't cut to
Hillsdale Hillsdale will come to you with their free and
(07:53):
terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to learn more.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.