4/6/2024 0 Comments Modern railway systems![]() Within a century, many people transitioned from living by local time based on the sun to a calculated, mechanical time that was less seasonably and locally variable - but this got messy along the way, as some people worked to devise new systems while others resisted change.Įven as the calculated average length of a day (“mean time” or “clock time”) became the standard rather than “solar time,” people set their watches against a local standard, such a clock in a jeweler’s window or a church steeple. Looking back at how trains as a new technology in the 1800s affected the way people conceptualized time also provides some unique insight into just how transformative this era of history was, how far we’ve come, and the development of watches. Naturally, precise watches were a big part of making all this possible. More close to home for our modern lives, however, is how railroads also brought concepts of time into the modern era with the introduction of a single Standard Time, and the time zones we live by today. The evident need for better accuracy and the watches that stemmed from this need is just part of the interesting story of the railroad’s intersection with horology. In 1891, two trains collided head-on in Ohio because a conductor’s watch was off by four minutes. ![]()
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