'Time' as We are used to keep it
King Charles II at 1675 commissioned the Royal Observatory at the Greenwich Hill on the south bank of Thames. In order to "apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying of the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting of the art of navigation." John Flamsteed was the first 'Royal Astronomer' of British Kingdom. On top of the hill, the observatory famed by Flamsteed House was first set up. Now the organization boasts on their website saying "...where east meets west".
A 1700 farmer or royal clerk from Asia or Africa or Europe or America hardly needed to maintain or keep Time as we 'modern' people keep today. They only needed to know how much heat the sun gives over a cycle and when rain will come in order to get the fixed amount of outcome as previous year. Clerks were only needed in case of incidents. Time keeping was exclusive to religion and some ambitious and generous rulers. [In this case exception is may be the Mayan empire who took time keeping too much seriously]
After commercial train service is introduced in Great Britain at 1830 from Liverpool to London to commute people rather than coal and finished industry products, the isle faced a serious problem. As having more than one clock in each city was luxurious at that time, people tended to keep track of time as they wished, obviously because who cares! It was never needed to regulate all the cities' time with perfect synchronization. When there was 11.30 pm in London, Liverpool could keep 11.45 pm and Plymouth would easily go with 11.20 pm. But with the arrival of train and the ever increasing need for scheduling in the factories the merchants and owners faced a huge impediment. They needed men from outside local town and on time. In 1840, first train schedule was published. Then Great Western Railway, an LSE (London Stock Exchange) giant founded by the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel took steps in 1847. It proposed along with other commuter companies to fix the time with the Greenwich hour. It was proven lucrative for the factories as they could also get to keep their workers at bay with the schedule. Soon, the trend caught up with every factories. Large clock towers spawned at rail stations, churches and town squares all over the British Isle with or without church's affiliation. The railway enterprise in Britain was so influential that in mere two decades the nation had thousands of kilometers of railways in their native land and colonies where other European powerhouse was still clinging to ripe the fruit of industrial revolution.
Eventually in 1880 Queen Victoria decreed this time-keeping all over her Kingdom which already covered all inhabited continents and quarter of the lands. And it was standardized as GMT all over the world. Then followed the radio, then TV and the latest oxygen of human, Internet.
"Which year it is?" would be an irrelevant question to a 1800 Congo river basin's wood trader as well as the exact time of that very day. Within two centuries, clock became so common that whereas a medieval town could only dream of a watch at their expose, now an individual can possess numerous, even keep two or three 'time-keeper' always on them. The wheel of civilization has shaped the way of our lives and badgered the dials so as to how we should keep time in an unprecedented level.
A 1700 farmer or royal clerk from Asia or Africa or Europe or America hardly needed to maintain or keep Time as we 'modern' people keep today. They only needed to know how much heat the sun gives over a cycle and when rain will come in order to get the fixed amount of outcome as previous year. Clerks were only needed in case of incidents. Time keeping was exclusive to religion and some ambitious and generous rulers. [In this case exception is may be the Mayan empire who took time keeping too much seriously]
After commercial train service is introduced in Great Britain at 1830 from Liverpool to London to commute people rather than coal and finished industry products, the isle faced a serious problem. As having more than one clock in each city was luxurious at that time, people tended to keep track of time as they wished, obviously because who cares! It was never needed to regulate all the cities' time with perfect synchronization. When there was 11.30 pm in London, Liverpool could keep 11.45 pm and Plymouth would easily go with 11.20 pm. But with the arrival of train and the ever increasing need for scheduling in the factories the merchants and owners faced a huge impediment. They needed men from outside local town and on time. In 1840, first train schedule was published. Then Great Western Railway, an LSE (London Stock Exchange) giant founded by the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel took steps in 1847. It proposed along with other commuter companies to fix the time with the Greenwich hour. It was proven lucrative for the factories as they could also get to keep their workers at bay with the schedule. Soon, the trend caught up with every factories. Large clock towers spawned at rail stations, churches and town squares all over the British Isle with or without church's affiliation. The railway enterprise in Britain was so influential that in mere two decades the nation had thousands of kilometers of railways in their native land and colonies where other European powerhouse was still clinging to ripe the fruit of industrial revolution.
Eventually in 1880 Queen Victoria decreed this time-keeping all over her Kingdom which already covered all inhabited continents and quarter of the lands. And it was standardized as GMT all over the world. Then followed the radio, then TV and the latest oxygen of human, Internet.
"Which year it is?" would be an irrelevant question to a 1800 Congo river basin's wood trader as well as the exact time of that very day. Within two centuries, clock became so common that whereas a medieval town could only dream of a watch at their expose, now an individual can possess numerous, even keep two or three 'time-keeper' always on them. The wheel of civilization has shaped the way of our lives and badgered the dials so as to how we should keep time in an unprecedented level.
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| Johannes Vorstermans: Greenwich, with London in the distance, 1680 |
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