Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson, So Tracy.
Speaker 1: Humans have understood the passage of time and been able
Speaker 1: to calculate the length of a day pretty accurately for
Speaker 1: quite a while. Yea longer than we have records, probably, yes,
Speaker 1: But there was not a standard way to approach time
Speaker 1: on a global scale until pretty late in the game.
Speaker 1: For hundreds of years longer than that, even cities or
Speaker 1: towns generally had their own local time. That time was
Speaker 1: determined by when the sun hit at zenith above them,
Speaker 1: and that was established as noon, and the rest of
Speaker 1: the hours of the day were determined based on that.
Speaker 1: Pretty simple. Each municipality or community had an official timekeeper.
Speaker 1: That person was the authority on what time it was.
Speaker 1: Any other clocks are watches in that community were set
Speaker 1: to match the timekeeper's time. That kept everybody in a
Speaker 1: group on the same page. However, though this worked just
Speaker 1: fine and for a very long time. As humans began
Speaker 1: to industrialize and travel became more swift, thanks largely two railroads,
Speaker 1: it became much more important to figure out what time
Speaker 1: it was both in the place where your journey started
Speaker 1: and the place where it ended, as well as any
Speaker 1: stops in between, and that could rapidly get really confusing. So,
Speaker 1: just as a very sloppy example, imagine a journey today
Speaker 1: where you have a flight with a layover, and if
Speaker 1: you left your starting airport and you got to the
Speaker 1: layover airport and their time was twenty three minutes off
Speaker 1: of what you expected, because often they were not like
Speaker 1: round numbers that were different, figuring out your connection could
Speaker 1: get really dicey in a hurry. And that kind of
Speaker 1: thing was happening to people traveling by rail before a
Speaker 1: standard time was established, and it was more than just
Speaker 1: an inconvenience because this also led to dangerous conditions and
Speaker 1: collisions when trains were running based on different local times
Speaker 1: but on the same track. So even the people that
Speaker 1: were scheduling trains couldn't quite get it together with one
Speaker 1: another to make a system to make it safe for
Speaker 1: a while. So today we're going to talk about that problem,
Speaker 1: and specifically about the man who is usually credited with
Speaker 1: solving the problem by standardizing time zones, and that person
Speaker 1: was Sandford Fleming. Sanford Fleming was born January seven, eight seven,
Speaker 1: in Kirkcaldy, five Scotland. Parents were Elizabeth Aren't Fleming and
Speaker 1: Andrew Greig Fleming. Andrew was a carpenter. The Flemings had
Speaker 1: a sizeable family. In addition to Sandford, there were seven
Speaker 1: other children. Sanford's early education was in school in Kennaway
Speaker 1: and Killcaldy, and then at fourteen he started studying with
Speaker 1: an engineer and surveyor named John Sang. This was a
Speaker 1: natural fit even as a child, Sandford had shown a
Speaker 1: natural skill at drawing and mathematics alike. Yeah, kind of
Speaker 1: perfectly intersect into like surveying and architecture work. Saying gave
Speaker 1: Fleming a lot of practical, really valuable hands on instruction.
Speaker 1: Scotland's railroads were rapidly expanding at this time, and when
Speaker 1: Saying was called the survey sites as part of that project,
Speaker 1: his student went with him and he assisted. He was
Speaker 1: given tasks on site, but Fleming saw a future for
Speaker 1: himself outside of Scotland, even though he did enjoy surveying.
Speaker 1: After several years under Saying's mentorship, Sandford moved from Scotland
Speaker 1: to Canada in eight He did not make this journey alone.
Speaker 1: His cousin Henry Fleming and his brother David also moved
Speaker 1: to Canada with him. All three young men were hoping
Speaker 1: to find employment and new opportunities in North America, and
Speaker 1: they were all so hoping that they would be able
Speaker 1: to acquire land and become settled enough that the rest
Speaker 1: of their family could join them. The Fleming trio sailed
Speaker 1: aboard a ship called the Brilliant, and this was not
Speaker 1: an easy journey. On May one, which was only a
Speaker 1: week into the voyage, Sandford recorded this in his journal quote,
Speaker 1: as the evening advanced, the storm grew worse. I never
Speaker 1: expected to see daylight again. When a great wave swept
Speaker 1: above our heads, it had a sound as if the
Speaker 1: sea was closing over us. We slept none all night.
Speaker 1: Sandford is said to have been so convinced that they
Speaker 1: were all about to die that he put a message
Speaker 1: in a bottle and threw it overboard. Has had a
Speaker 1: farewell letter to the family in it, and that bottle
Speaker 1: did get to Scotland, But it looks like by the
Speaker 1: time the family received it, they knew that Sandford, David,
Speaker 1: and Henry had all gotten to Canada safely. Yet that
Speaker 1: was a long trip though. That was a five week
Speaker 1: long trip, so after this we think we're gonna die night.
Speaker 1: They still had four more weeks at sea to probably
Speaker 1: white knuckle it through the entire journey, and then after
Speaker 1: landing in Quebec City, the three young men had another
Speaker 1: three weeks of travel ahead of them. They boarded a
Speaker 1: steamship to what was at the time called Upper Canada
Speaker 1: that would eventually be Ontario, and that was to the
Speaker 1: city of Peterborough. They're Fleming found work with a surveyor
Speaker 1: named Richard Birdsall. Fleming needed to be certified as a
Speaker 1: surveyor in Canada to work on his own, and that
Speaker 1: was going to take some money and some time and
Speaker 1: some experience, and to help cover his basic expenses, he
Speaker 1: took sidework in map making jobs so that he could
Speaker 1: bring in extra money. He drew maps of various municipalities,
Speaker 1: including Peterborough, Hamilton, Cobourg, and Toronto. And it was also
Speaker 1: in Toronto that he moved into a new job working
Speaker 1: for a surveyor named John Stouton Dennis. Finally, on April nine,
Speaker 1: Fleming got his Canadian Surveyors ortification. Almost immediately after being certified,
Speaker 1: Fleming joined with other surveyors they formed the Canadian Institute
Speaker 1: in Toronto. This was intended as a professional organization for surveyors,
Speaker 1: engineers and architects. The society was founded in June of
Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine, but it didn't get the membership and
Speaker 1: structure that was needed to be recognized as a professional society.
Speaker 1: Fleming was not willing to let the group fall apart,
Speaker 1: so he reorganized it as a scientific society and remained
Speaker 1: involved with it in the fifteen years that he lived
Speaker 1: in Toronto. He also spearheaded the group's production of its periodical,
Speaker 1: which was just titled Canadian Journal. Two professional achievements marked
Speaker 1: Fleming's life in eighteen fifty one. First, the map of
Speaker 1: Toronto that he had worked on with John Stotton Dennis,
Speaker 1: which was the last of those map projects that he
Speaker 1: had done as sidework, was published, and then he designed
Speaker 1: the first Canadian postage stamp. He sometimes credited with making
Speaker 1: the beaver like the landmark animal of Canada and their
Speaker 1: unofficial mascot at that point. In eighteen fifty two, Sandford
Speaker 1: Fleming started working for the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Union
Speaker 1: Railroad as an assistant to Frederick William Cumberland. He had
Speaker 1: been one of his collaborators and setting up the Canadian Institute.
Speaker 1: They're working relationship, though, was really not good. Fleming became
Speaker 1: increasingly irritated with Cumberland, who often took a lot of
Speaker 1: side jobs that split his attention off from their railroad work.
Speaker 1: Things became so heated between them that Cumberland fired Fleming
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty five, but Fleming felt that his supervisor
Speaker 1: had been the one who was in the wrong, and
Speaker 1: he went to the railroad's leadership to complain. The result
Speaker 1: of this seemed like a win for Fleming. He was
Speaker 1: given Cumberland's job, but Cumberland was on the railways board
Speaker 1: of directors, and over the next few years the two
Speaker 1: of them just kept clashing more and more. Fleming was
Speaker 1: ultimately the one who lost in their disputes. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: was a particularly contentious argument about pay that he really
Speaker 1: really thought Cumberland was responsible for and he did not
Speaker 1: win that one, and it really stung. And as that
Speaker 1: conflict between Fleming and Cumberland had continued to grow, Fleming
Speaker 1: had been allowed to stay with the railroad as an
Speaker 1: employee that had become the Northern railway at that point,
Speaker 1: but he was also allowed with permission to take side jobs.
Speaker 1: This was different for him and that he had gotten
Speaker 1: permission to do this, whereas Cumberland was just taking jobs
Speaker 1: whenever he wanted, so he saw it as a different situation.
Speaker 1: And Fleming had also started his own private firm with
Speaker 1: a colleague named Collingwood Schreiber. The two of them designed
Speaker 1: the Palace of Industry for Toronto in eighteen fifty eight.
Speaker 1: If you look at photos of this particular structure, it
Speaker 1: probably looks very familiar because it was based on Joseph
Speaker 1: Paxton's Crystal Palace created for London's Great Exhibition of eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty one, which we have talked about on the show before.
Speaker 1: Fleming continued his railway work for decades. He thought it
Speaker 1: was important to expand the railroads, and in particular to
Speaker 1: establish a transcontinental railway. Fleming duet plans for various very
Speaker 1: ambitious railway projects and lobbied the government both in Canada
Speaker 1: and in Britain for funding for these projects. Initially, he
Speaker 1: struggled to get approvals, but he was making a name
Speaker 1: for himself in the process. When it became really an
Speaker 1: obvious and pressing need for a railway to connect Canada's
Speaker 1: continental colonies to the maritime colonies. Sanford Fleming was the
Speaker 1: obvious choice to everybody to become the chief surveyor for
Speaker 1: the project. He was given that job in eighteen sixty three,
Speaker 1: and in eighteen sixty seven he was promoted to Engineer
Speaker 1: in chief for the Intercolonial Railway. And despite the various conflicts,
Speaker 1: he was growing quite successful. And as that success grew,
Speaker 1: Fleming wisely invested in real estate that not only expanded
Speaker 1: his wealth, but it also made some strategic sense for
Speaker 1: his work. He wasn't like buying speculating on real estate.
Speaker 1: He was buying basically land for himself in various places.
Speaker 1: He had moved to Ottawa in eighteen sixty nine. That
Speaker 1: was a move that was pretty necessary because he needed
Speaker 1: to be closed to federal government offices for the work
Speaker 1: he was doing in In eighteen seventy four, he also
Speaker 1: bought a home in Halifax, Nova Scotia, so that when
Speaker 1: he traveled there for work on the ongoing Maritimes project,
Speaker 1: he would have a home base. And he also, as
Speaker 1: had been planned, moved his family over to Canada and
Speaker 1: settled them in Halifax. We'll pause here for a quick
Speaker 1: sponsor break, and when we come back, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: the ways that Sanford Fleming came into conflict with his colleagues, which,
Speaker 1: based on the conflict so far, seems a little unsurprising
Speaker 1: they would continue. Fleming, who was known to be obstinate
Speaker 1: but also often right, continued to butt heads with various
Speaker 1: peers in the industry. This seems to have pretty much
Speaker 1: always been a case of Fleming being certain that he
Speaker 1: knew better than the other party what was genuinely best
Speaker 1: for any given project. For example, when commissioners of the
Speaker 1: National Railway wanted to use timber for the construction of
Speaker 1: bridges as part of the Intercolonial Railway project, Fleming was
Speaker 1: adamant that they should be using steel and stone instead,
Speaker 1: and he went right up the chain of command in
Speaker 1: Ottawa government to make that case. Fleming got his way,
Speaker 1: and as a consequence, those structures were far sturdier and
Speaker 1: had longer life than was projected had the bridges been
Speaker 1: built with timber. This, of course, seems pretty obvious now,
Speaker 1: but in the late eighteen sixties the cost difference was
Speaker 1: so significant that it was considered a better idea by
Speaker 1: a lot of people to use Timber Sandford fleming approach,
Speaker 1: which also involves some new engineering techniques that he was pioneering,
Speaker 1: resulted in bridges that were strong enough and with enough
Speaker 1: longevity that they actually cost less to maintain over the
Speaker 1: long term. Even though he was having a proven track record,
Speaker 1: the railways kept seeing Fleming as a problem. After he
Speaker 1: became the chief engineer on the Pacific Railway. Fleming was
Speaker 1: very outspoken about his ideals, and a friend of his,
Speaker 1: Reverend George Grant, even published a book detailing the reverence
Speaker 1: travels with Fleming as he made his surveys. That book
Speaker 1: was the best seller. It's noted as giving a lot
Speaker 1: of insight into the railroads and its benefits to the
Speaker 1: general public, but the railroad did not appreciate moves like that.
Speaker 1: The railroad found Fleming's constant willingness to just share his
Speaker 1: views with the public to be a problem. He worked
Speaker 1: for the railroad, but he wasn't approved to be a
Speaker 1: spokesman for the railroad, and that created issues as his
Speaker 1: outspokenness made him the face of the railroads to the public.
Speaker 1: He was let go in May of eighteen eighty with
Speaker 1: a retirement severance of thirty thousand dollars. This is one
Speaker 1: of those things that I think if you've never worked
Speaker 1: in a corporate structure, you might be like, why shouldn't he?
Speaker 1: But if there are always people, I mean, it would
Speaker 1: be like me if I just started shooting my mouth
Speaker 1: off about the way like our company runs part of
Speaker 1: its business, and they would be like, Holly, that's not
Speaker 1: your business, shut up, um, And that would be valid
Speaker 1: because it's not my business. Every company I've worked for
Speaker 1: has had rules about like what kind of thing you're not,
Speaker 1: whether you're allowed to speak on behalf of the company,
Speaker 1: and if you are allowed, there's still a bunch of
Speaker 1: rules about it. He may have been the expert, but
Speaker 1: he was a stracy just said, not designated as a spokesman.
Speaker 1: So for him to just go blab stuff all the
Speaker 1: time was really problematic. But just four years after this devastating,
Speaker 1: essentially firing, they framed in as a retirement and he
Speaker 1: got severance, but he had really been fired of Four
Speaker 1: years later, Fleming, who had actually continued to have a
Speaker 1: stake in the Canadian Pacific Railway, became director of the
Speaker 1: Canadian Pacific Railway. He had purchased shares in the Hudson's
Speaker 1: Bay Company. That company had transferred massive land holdings to
Speaker 1: the Canadian government in the eighteen seventies. The Canadian Pacific
Speaker 1: Railway Company was incorporated in eighteen eighty one by Act
Speaker 1: of Parliament, and so he was connected to all of
Speaker 1: this by virtue of having had those shares. Fleming had
Speaker 1: served in a role as resident Canadian director with Hudson's Bay,
Speaker 1: and he applied for the Canadian Pacific Railway director position
Speaker 1: in eighty three and got it. So, if you're thinking
Speaker 1: I thought this episode was about time zones, why have
Speaker 1: we been talking about railroads this whole time, it's because
Speaker 1: the railroad work is directly tied to the establishment of
Speaker 1: standardized time. As a career railroad man who traveled a lot,
Speaker 1: Fleming had a deep appreciation for how tricky and can
Speaker 1: using it could be to reconcile the local time and
Speaker 1: whatever place that was he were traveling. And when it
Speaker 1: came to running an entire unified transportation system had to
Speaker 1: go in and out of a variety of places that
Speaker 1: all kept their own local time, this whole task was
Speaker 1: a huge headache. You can see where someone building a
Speaker 1: railroad would be like wait, but what time is it
Speaker 1: where this station is, Well, it's seventeen minutes later than
Speaker 1: at the previous station, Holly, oh Okay. Even before he
Speaker 1: had been let go from the railroad in eighteen eighty,
Speaker 1: Fleming was taking on new roles outside of the industry.
Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy nine, Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario asked
Speaker 1: him to become chancellor. That kind of made him the
Speaker 1: spokesperson for science and professional education for the school. He
Speaker 1: was really active in that position for the rest of
Speaker 1: his life and helped to establish the School of Mining
Speaker 1: and Agriculture there, and he lobbied for financial support for
Speaker 1: the university science programs. Also in eighteen seventy nine, Daniel
Speaker 1: Wilson reinstated Fleming at the Canadian Institute. Wilson, like Fleming,
Speaker 1: thought there should be standardized time. Because Fleming was already
Speaker 1: seen as a scientific authority by both the public and
Speaker 1: by a lot of his peers. All of these developments
Speaker 1: coming at the same time really made the late eighteen
Speaker 1: seventies the right moment for Fleming to make a case
Speaker 1: for a standardized time around the world. There were two
Speaker 1: different and separately prepared reports that were published in eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy nine about the problem of their not being a
Speaker 1: standardized time. One of those was written by Fleming, the
Speaker 1: other was written by chief of the United States Weather Service,
Speaker 1: Cleveland Abbey. Fleming read his report in front of the
Speaker 1: Canadian Institute, and then it went to the Governor General
Speaker 1: and then up to the Colonial Office. Throughout its movement
Speaker 1: and its distribution, the reception to this paper was extremely good.
Speaker 1: Everyone agreed that something needed to be done to get
Speaker 1: people on one unified system. Abby was also getting positive
Speaker 1: reactions to his paper, which he first presented to the
Speaker 1: American Meteorological Society. His impetus for writing this report was
Speaker 1: a series of observations on the Northern Lights, and because
Speaker 1: of a lack of an agreed upon meantime, reports from
Speaker 1: different places were almost impossible to reconcile to compile actual data.
Speaker 1: While Fleming wanted to help the train industry, Abby wanted
Speaker 1: to create a stronger guideline for time based science reporting.
Speaker 1: But once Abby and Fleming realized that each of them
Speaker 1: had written on this subject and had also used very
Speaker 1: similar ideas about how to accomplish a global system of time,
Speaker 1: they didn't do what you might expect if you've listened
Speaker 1: to previous episodes featuring scholars who have similar ideals, and honestly,
Speaker 1: if you've listened to the earlier part of this episode
Speaker 1: about how uh kind of argumentative that Fleming could be.
Speaker 1: They did not have a fight about it. They joined forces.
Speaker 1: The two men had a lot of connections throughout North
Speaker 1: America and Europe. They had these connections in both government
Speaker 1: and the scientific communities. They knew if they widened those
Speaker 1: connections and if they lobbied for the adoption of time
Speaker 1: standards as a team, they could have a really wide
Speaker 1: net of influence. Yeah, it was like, you have a
Speaker 1: whole group of people that you con curry favor with.
Speaker 1: I also have a different group of people. What if
Speaker 1: we put these all together? How big will our influence be? Now?
Speaker 1: Just to be clear, these papers that came out that
Speaker 1: same year did not just spring up out of the blue.
Speaker 1: Both of these men and others had been working on
Speaker 1: this idea and writing about it for some time before
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy nine. Usually people will point to eighteen seventy six,
Speaker 1: when Fleming had published a paper called Terrest Real Time,
Speaker 1: which opened with quote, the question to which I proposed
Speaker 1: to direct attention is not purely English in its interest,
Speaker 1: or indeed limited to any particular country or continent. It
Speaker 1: is a question which concerns all nations in common, and
Speaker 1: it is probably of less importance to the inhabitants of
Speaker 1: the British Isles than to colonists and those who live
Speaker 1: in continental countries. It went on to say, quote, within
Speaker 1: a comparatively recent period, the human race has acquired control
Speaker 1: over a power which already has in a remarkable degree
Speaker 1: changed the condition of human affairs. The application of steam
Speaker 1: to locomotion by land and water has given an enormous
Speaker 1: stimulus to progress throughout the world, and with the electric
Speaker 1: telegraph as an auxiliary, has somewhat rudely shaken customs and
Speaker 1: habits which have been handed down to us from bygone centuries.
Speaker 1: We still cling, however, to the system of chronometry inherited
Speaker 1: from a remote antiquity, notwithstanding difficulties and inconveniences which are
Speaker 1: constantly met in every part of the world, but which
Speaker 1: are so familiar to us that they are not regarded
Speaker 1: or are silently endured. It's a very long winded way
Speaker 1: to say you don't have to miss your trains all
Speaker 1: the time. We can miss this. We don't have to
Speaker 1: keep doing it this way just because the way we've
Speaker 1: the way we've done it for so long. Yeah. Fleming's
Speaker 1: work on this subject was more extensive than Abby's, which
Speaker 1: is why he is largely credited with the idea of
Speaker 1: creating and championing standard time. He was also, as we
Speaker 1: have said, very outspoken, so his name became the one
Speaker 1: more recognized as the leader of the effort to get
Speaker 1: a time system adopted. Both of them basically had this
Speaker 1: idea to set up twenty four time zones around the
Speaker 1: world to match the number of hours in a day,
Speaker 1: and to divide the circumference of the equator by twenty
Speaker 1: four to establish those zones. Fleming had given an example
Speaker 1: of the issues of local timekeeping for travelers in his
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy six paper, one that seems taken from his
Speaker 1: own life experience and his intimate knowledge of train travel. Quote.
Speaker 1: To illustrate the points of difficulty, let us first take
Speaker 1: the case of a traveler in North America. He lands,
Speaker 1: let us say, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and starts on
Speaker 1: a railway journey through the eastern portions of Canada. His
Speaker 1: route is over the Intercolonial and Grand Trunk Lines. He
Speaker 1: stops at St. John, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. At
Speaker 1: the beginning of the journey, he sets his watch by
Speaker 1: Halifax time. As he reaches each place in succession, he
Speaker 1: finds a considerable variation in the clocks by which the
Speaker 1: trains are run, and he discovers that at no two
Speaker 1: places is the same time used. Between Halifax and Toronto.
Speaker 1: He finds the railways employing no less than five different
Speaker 1: standards of time. If the traveler remained at any one
Speaker 1: of these cities referred to, he would be obliged to
Speaker 1: alter his watch in order to avoid much inconvenience and
Speaker 1: perhaps not a few disappointments and annoyances to himself and others. If, however,
Speaker 1: he should not alter his watch, he would discover on
Speaker 1: reaching Toronto, but it was an hour in five minutes,
Speaker 1: faster than the clocks and watches in that city. You
Speaker 1: can see why this would be a big pain in
Speaker 1: the neck. We're going to talk about how all of
Speaker 1: this discussion about time finally turned into action in just
Speaker 1: a moment. But first we will hear from the sponsors
Speaker 1: that keep stuff you missed in history class going. Fleming's
Speaker 1: greatest asset in his work to standardize time was the
Speaker 1: American Society of Civil Engineers. Because so many of their
Speaker 1: members worked for various North American railroads, they all had
Speaker 1: a vested interest in fixing this problem. The society instituted
Speaker 1: a standing committee on time in one and Fleming was
Speaker 1: named as its chairman. He used this position to gather
Speaker 1: data from railroad workers and scientists, paying the research expenses
Speaker 1: for all of this out of his own pocket, and
Speaker 1: he found out pretty quickly that just about everyone in
Speaker 1: the railroad industry was in favor of his system. So
Speaker 1: though he was planning to take his findings to the
Speaker 1: US Congress for action, the North American railways acted independently
Speaker 1: before that could even happen, and cooperatively adopted his plan
Speaker 1: for one hour time zones on November three. So keep
Speaker 1: in mind that before this there were a hundred and
Speaker 1: forty four different localized times being used in the United
Speaker 1: States alone, so no wonder an entire industry that was
Speaker 1: trying to link all these places together was in favor
Speaker 1: of the plan. Simplified things for them considerably, yes, and
Speaker 1: after the trains adopted it, most of North America kind
Speaker 1: of followed suit, but even so there wasn't anything official
Speaker 1: in place at a government level, and other continents and
Speaker 1: countries were still kind of doing their own thing. But
Speaker 1: the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Meteorological Society
Speaker 1: were very vocal about the need for a wider adoption
Speaker 1: of this system, and members of those groups reached out
Speaker 1: to their contacts in Congress to push for action. President
Speaker 1: Chester A. Arthur also requested that some plan for a
Speaker 1: wider adoption be explored, and at the same time, the
Speaker 1: papers by both Fleming and Abbey were still being circulated
Speaker 1: to various other countries and support continued to grow. The
Speaker 1: results of this was that in October of eighteen eighty four,
Speaker 1: the International Meridian Conference was held in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: This conference was called entirely with the goal of choosing
Speaker 1: one single global prime meridian is the position of zero
Speaker 1: degrees longitude, and that would be the base for all
Speaker 1: the other calculations. Twenty six nations participated in this Austria, Hungary, Brazil, Chile, Columbia,
Speaker 1: Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Hawaii, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Mexico, Netherlands, Paraguay, Russia,
Speaker 1: San Domingo, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United States,
Speaker 1: and Venezuela. Sometimes you'll see this reported as twenty two countries,
Speaker 1: because a lot of folks weren't there yet on the
Speaker 1: first day. I'm just gonna, in my head canon be
Speaker 1: it's because the time zones didn't exist and they had
Speaker 1: missed their connections. Admiral CRP. Rogers, who was one of
Speaker 1: the US delegates, was named President of the conference, and
Speaker 1: in his opening speech, Roger stated that quote in my
Speaker 1: own profession that of a seaman. The embarrassment arising from
Speaker 1: the many prime meridians now in use is very conspicuous,
Speaker 1: and in the valuable interchange of longitudes by passing ships
Speaker 1: at see, often difficult and hurried, sometimes only possible by
Speaker 1: figures written on a blackboard, much confusion arises, and at
Speaker 1: times grave danger. In the use of charts to this
Speaker 1: trouble is also annoying, and to us who live upon
Speaker 1: the sea, a common prime meridian will be a great advantage.
Speaker 1: I need not trespass further upon your attention, except to
Speaker 1: lay before you the subject we are invited to discuss
Speaker 1: the choice of a meridian to be employed as a
Speaker 1: common zero of longitude and standard of time reckoning throughout
Speaker 1: the world. The meridian that passed through the Royal Observatory
Speaker 1: in Greenwich, England had been in use by a lot
Speaker 1: of mariners and railroads for some time as the mean
Speaker 1: from which all distance and time was calculated. It was
Speaker 1: not a universally accepted prime meridian before this conference, Maps
Speaker 1: that were created in different countries would often put the
Speaker 1: zero longitude line through the capital of whatever country the
Speaker 1: map was made in. This kind of reminds me of
Speaker 1: our Gertis Mercatur episode talking about different places putting their
Speaker 1: north north not necessarily being up. It's got some similarities
Speaker 1: to that, and that is made calculating navigational roots and difficult.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't about time and selecting a prime meridian
Speaker 1: that would be agreed on internationally. The hope was that
Speaker 1: a universal time what eventually became known as Coordinated Universal
Speaker 1: Time or UTC, would be established. The minutes to this
Speaker 1: entire conference are readable online. There's a link to them
Speaker 1: at their Project Guttenberg location. In our show notes and
Speaker 1: a lot of it is pretty dry parliamentary procedure. But
Speaker 1: Pierre Jensen, one of the French delegates and also the
Speaker 1: director of the Physical Observatory of Paris, made the case
Speaker 1: that a prior gathering in Rome had seemed to only
Speaker 1: consider the geographical aspect of the meridian question and not
Speaker 1: the hydrographic needs of the world. He made an impassioned
Speaker 1: and lengthy speech in which he stated, quote, nearly all
Speaker 1: the astronomical tables used at the present time by the
Speaker 1: astronomers and the navies of the world are French and
Speaker 1: calculated for the Paris meridian. This is also a little
Speaker 1: bit related to our episode on the discovery of longitude,
Speaker 1: which you can check out for a kind of a
Speaker 1: companion piece to this. It also reminds me of the
Speaker 1: Esperanto episode when there were conferences about what if we
Speaker 1: adopted Esperanto as an international language, and France was like,
Speaker 1: but France is already the international language, or French is
Speaker 1: already the international language. Yes. Anyway, Jason went on to
Speaker 1: make it clear that he felt that France had always
Speaker 1: been brushed aside and considerations, and that he clearly saw
Speaker 1: the adoption of Greenwich as the international prime meridian as
Speaker 1: an unfair advantage to England that would just lead to
Speaker 1: future conflict. Arguing quote, I now hastened to say that
Speaker 1: I am persuaded that the proposition voted for at Rome
Speaker 1: was neither made nor suggested by England. But I doubt
Speaker 1: whether it would render a true service to the English
Speaker 1: nation if it be agreed to. An immense majority of
Speaker 1: the navies of the world navigate with English charts. That
Speaker 1: is true, and it is a practical complement to the
Speaker 1: great maritime activity of that nation. When this freely admitted
Speaker 1: supremacy shall be transformed into an official and compulsory supremacy,
Speaker 1: it will suffer the vicissitudes of all human power, and
Speaker 1: that institution, the common Meridian, which by its nature is
Speaker 1: of a purely scientific nature, and to which we would
Speaker 1: assure a long and certain future, will become the object
Speaker 1: of burning competition and jealousy among nations. It's an interesting thought.
Speaker 1: It will make England too important, and we will all
Speaker 1: quite about this forever. And this is also like it
Speaker 1: just came up in the Mercator episode also about like
Speaker 1: this map that's a standard puts Europe in the middle.
Speaker 1: It's the same kind of thought process about like the
Speaker 1: eurocentric city and in this case like the Britain specifics
Speaker 1: and eccentricity of all of it. Now, the French delegation
Speaker 1: did propose a resolution that would avoid this problem. That
Speaker 1: resolution read quote that the initial meridians should have a
Speaker 1: character of absolute neutrality. It should be chosen exclusively so
Speaker 1: as to secure to science and to international commerce all
Speaker 1: possible advantages, and especially should cut no great continent, neither
Speaker 1: Europe nor America. That resolution got only three votes of
Speaker 1: support from France, Brazil and San Domingo. It did not pass,
Speaker 1: but the conference did pass seven other resolutions, which read
Speaker 1: as follows. One that it is the opinion of this
Speaker 1: Congress that it is desirable to adopt a single prime
Speaker 1: meridian for all nations in place of the multiplicity of
Speaker 1: initial meridians which now exists too. That the Conference proposes
Speaker 1: to the government's here represented, the adoption of the meridian
Speaker 1: passing through the center of the transit instrument at the
Speaker 1: Observatory of Greenwich as the initial meridian for longitude three.
Speaker 1: That from this meridian, longitude shall be counted in two
Speaker 1: directions up to one eighty degrees east longitude being plus
Speaker 1: and west longitude minus four that the Conference proposes the
Speaker 1: adoption of a universal day for all purposes for which
Speaker 1: it may be found convenient, and which shall not interfere
Speaker 1: with the use of local or other standard time. We're desirable.
Speaker 1: Five that this universal day is to be a mean
Speaker 1: solar day. It is to begin for all the world
Speaker 1: at the moment of mean midnight of the initial meridian,
Speaker 1: coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date
Speaker 1: of that meridian, and is to be counted from zero
Speaker 1: up to twenty four hours. Six. That the Conference expresses
Speaker 1: the hope that, as soon as maybe practicable, the astronomical
Speaker 1: and nautical days will be arranged everywhere to begin at
Speaker 1: mean midnight. Seven That the Conference expresses the hope that
Speaker 1: the technical studies designed to regulate and extend the application
Speaker 1: of the decimal system to the division of angular space
Speaker 1: and of time shall be resumed so as to permit
Speaker 1: the extension of this application to all cases in which
Speaker 1: it presents real advantages. So as you read that, you
Speaker 1: may have surmised that though the Conference established the prime meridian,
Speaker 1: it did not dictate its adoption in any real way.
Speaker 1: Each country could enact the system, however, and whenever it wished.
Speaker 1: In the sixteen years between the conference and the dawn
Speaker 1: of the twentieth century, most countries had officially adopted or
Speaker 1: officially transition to the resolutions agreed to by the International
Speaker 1: Meridian Conference, and that was still a very at your
Speaker 1: own pace approach, with some countries keeping their own time
Speaker 1: for a while or observing the standardization but not in
Speaker 1: any official way. Although the US had adopted it pretty
Speaker 1: completely by for instance, it wasn't actually cautified or mandatory
Speaker 1: until nineteen eighteen. Countries also weren't bound to adhere to
Speaker 1: the twenty four hour fifteen degrees of longitude plan where
Speaker 1: it didn't make sense. And if you look at a
Speaker 1: time zone map today, you'll see plenty of places where
Speaker 1: the time zone lines shift to follow the boundaries of
Speaker 1: different countries or states, or so that the line runs
Speaker 1: along a river, just to make things a little simpler
Speaker 1: in day to day life, and because you're probably wondering
Speaker 1: if you don't already know, some places use half hour
Speaker 1: time zones where it makes sense, and because the polls
Speaker 1: are where the lines of longitude all converge, they use
Speaker 1: the same coordinated universal time as Greenwich. Those time zone
Speaker 1: lines have shifted over the years as well. I think
Speaker 1: the most recent change was in so pretty recently. For example,
Speaker 1: Georgia was initially split by a time zone line when
Speaker 1: standardization was adopted. So very roughly speaking, if you know
Speaker 1: the state of Georgia, the western third of the state
Speaker 1: was in the Central time zone while the rest was
Speaker 1: in the Eastern time zone. And it actually wasn't until
Speaker 1: one that the State of Georgia was entirely moved into
Speaker 1: the Eastern time zone. Now for US folks, on March
Speaker 1: nineteenth eighteen, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Standard Time Act,
Speaker 1: making it law in the US. The Eastern, Central Mountain, Pacific,
Speaker 1: and Alaskan time zones were all established at that time.
Speaker 1: Those time zones are still the ones that we use.
Speaker 1: Although at that point time zones fell under the jurisdiction
Speaker 1: of the Interstate Commerce Commission. That work was shifted over
Speaker 1: to the Department of Transportation when it was founded in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties six. There has been a lot of discussion
Speaker 1: recently about daylight savings time. There are other countries that
Speaker 1: do some shifting, but we're focusing on the U S
Speaker 1: since this has been a big issue lately. It was
Speaker 1: established in the US through that Standard Time Act. The
Speaker 1: idea was that if we shifted time around so that
Speaker 1: people were awake and active during most of the hours
Speaker 1: where there would be sunlight, less energy would be used.
Speaker 1: This was initially a World War One money saving measure
Speaker 1: that was new in terms of legislation, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: a new idea. Benjamin Franklin had pitched a similar idea
Speaker 1: in France as a way to save candles. Sometimes people
Speaker 1: credit him with inventing daylight savings time. That's not quite correct.
Speaker 1: His version was more about shifting your personal schedule, not
Speaker 1: changing the time by an hour. She's basically like just
Speaker 1: just say you wake up at ten instead of nine,
Speaker 1: or like he just wanted to change it. An entomologists
Speaker 1: from New Zealand named George Hudson had actually suggested a
Speaker 1: clock change to conserve daylight hours back in though after
Speaker 1: the war, daylight saving time went away until World War Two,
Speaker 1: when it was once again implemented. It was repealed again
Speaker 1: in It wasn't until the passing of the Uniform Time
Speaker 1: Act in nineteen sixty six that Congress made a national
Speaker 1: standard time, including the observance of daylight saving time. Although
Speaker 1: Hawaii and Arizona both opted out of daylight Saving time,
Speaker 1: with the exception of the navajun aation in the northeast
Speaker 1: of what's now Arizona. The Uniform Time Act also set
Speaker 1: daylight Saving time as a permanent annual shift, starting the
Speaker 1: last Sunday in April and ending the last Sunday in October.
Speaker 1: Of course, those dates have changed over the years. In March,
Speaker 1: the U. S. Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act. This
Speaker 1: wasn't an official vote, it was a verbal They all
Speaker 1: were like yes, and then there are some question marks
Speaker 1: if they understood it. Yeah, it's a thing called unanimous consent.
Speaker 1: And apparently afterwards some senators who were interviewed were like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what just happens. Right, This Sunshine Protection
Speaker 1: Act would is intended to make Daylight Savings Time permanent.
Speaker 1: It still needs to pass in the House of Representatives
Speaker 1: and it would then need to be signed into law
Speaker 1: by the President. This has certainly sent a lot of
Speaker 1: people into a frenzy because the bill has supporters and
Speaker 1: attractors on both sides of the political aisle, and if
Speaker 1: you are on social media at all, you have seen
Speaker 1: people very upset about it. In both directions, probably because
Speaker 1: we're recording this. The House will vote and all of
Speaker 1: these things will be handled before we published, because how
Speaker 1: stuff works. As for Sanford Fleming, he was one of
Speaker 1: the charter members of the Royal Society of Canada when
Speaker 1: it was established in eighteen eighty two, and he served
Speaker 1: as the organization's president in eight eight. He was given
Speaker 1: honorary doctorates from several schools and was knighted in eighteen
Speaker 1: nine seven. He died in Halifax in nineteen fifteen was
Speaker 1: buried in Ottawa. So yes, he barely did not live
Speaker 1: long enough to see the United States enact They're standardized
Speaker 1: time officially, although he saw it adopted pretty much everywhere
Speaker 1: in his lifetime. He also, I should say, as much
Speaker 1: as he sounds like a pill, he did die in
Speaker 1: the home of his daughter. He was surrounded by his
Speaker 1: loved ones. He was very adored by his family. So
Speaker 1: I think he was professionally, very stalwart in his beliefs.
Speaker 1: But he sounded like he was not a horrible man.
Speaker 1: I want to make that clear well. And as a
Speaker 1: person who can be very stubborn, especially if I think
Speaker 1: I'm right about something, I kind of get it. I
Speaker 1: have for listener mail a very very very late thank you,
Speaker 1: because yes, most everyone knows we've been staying home for
Speaker 1: this whole pandemic um. Our office is currently changing places.
Speaker 1: We are moving through different digs, which means that all
Speaker 1: of the stuff that goes to stuff you missed in
Speaker 1: history class goes to my desk. And last Tuesday, thirty
Speaker 1: two boxes arrived by courier on my front porch that
Speaker 1: the office manager had sent to my home. Oh my
Speaker 1: goodness of largely like books from publishers, but also a
Speaker 1: lot of gems among them. And one of those gems
Speaker 1: was a gift sent to us by our listener, Tom,
Speaker 1: who writes ms Fry, because he knew it was coming
Speaker 1: to to me essentially at the office. I hope this
Speaker 1: finds you and yours well. A greeting which takes on
Speaker 1: new meeting in today's world. Some time ago I mentioned
Speaker 1: the enclosed waffle maker to you on Twitter. You seemed
Speaker 1: delighted on the concept but dubious about the cost. After
Speaker 1: receiving mine and it languishing for months, I realized I
Speaker 1: would be unlikely to ever use it, so I decided
Speaker 1: to pass it on to someone who would make use
Speaker 1: of it. I hope it brings you some small measure
Speaker 1: of the pleasure and entertainment that you and Miss Wilson
Speaker 1: have brought to me over the years. May you and
Speaker 1: yours have days filled with joy, nights filled with peace,
Speaker 1: and lives filled with love. Sincerely, Tom, which is the
Speaker 1: sweetest note of all time. But this waffle maker, which
Speaker 1: I remember talking about on Twitter, makes waffles that look
Speaker 1: like legos and you can stack them together. Oh that's great.
Speaker 1: I love it. It is and it comes with two
Speaker 1: little trays that are like your base tray, so you
Speaker 1: can put your blocks and Um. When next you find
Speaker 1: yourself here in Atlanta, Tracy, we are going to have
Speaker 1: waffle feast to the likes of which has never been seen.
Speaker 1: So excited. We'll do savory waffles, We'll do sweet waffles.
Speaker 1: We'll make waffles with pumpkin. We'll make waffles with apple,
Speaker 1: We'll make waffles, I don't know, we make fish waffles.
Speaker 1: Whatever we want to do. It's gonna be a waffle party. Um.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Tom. I uh. It was one
Speaker 1: of the things in the midst of opening box after
Speaker 1: box of books from publishers, I was like, what is
Speaker 1: this magical discovery. He sent that back in January, So
Speaker 1: that's an indicator of how often I'm I've been in
Speaker 1: the office twice in the last two and a half years.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. I know. We have so many listeners who
Speaker 1: are so thoughtful and want to send us physical items.
Speaker 1: Let that be a lesson to you. I may or
Speaker 1: may not see them for a year or more. And
Speaker 1: at this moment, like Holly and I are both working
Speaker 1: Me pretty much exclusively remotely, Holly mostly too exclusively remotely.
Speaker 1: Oren's High. Our office is kind of between spaces at
Speaker 1: this moment with this move, So if you look up
Speaker 1: our address online, it's probably our old office that will
Speaker 1: come up in search results, And so if you send
Speaker 1: stuff there, you might never see it and they get
Speaker 1: lost forever. And I think we're still kind of working
Speaker 1: through what things will look like in the new space,
Speaker 1: which to my knowledge, we don't actually have access to yet.
Speaker 1: So you're thinking of sending a physical item, just hold
Speaker 1: off for a little bit so it doesn't go into
Speaker 1: just Mailimbo. Yes, but I'm very excited for waffles. Thank you, Tom.
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us in a
Speaker 1: way that is almost guaranteed to get through. You can
Speaker 1: do that via email at History podcast at iHeart radio
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also, of course find us on
Speaker 1: social media as Missed in History pretty much everywhere, and
Speaker 1: if you would like to subscribe to the show and
Speaker 1: you have not yet, no matter what time zone you're in,
Speaker 1: it's super duper easy. You can do that on the
Speaker 1: I heart Radio app or anywhere you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a
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