The word “time” is the most common noun in the English language, so it’s no wonder that there are so many idioms related to time. Keeping time is an idiom that means measuring time.
The history of keeping time dates back to ancient Egypt. They used tall standing beams called obelisks to measure the time it took the sun to move across the sky. Watching the moving shadow of an obelisk was used by cultures all over the world to tell time. Later, people used burning incense or candles, sand in an hourglass, and even water to keep time. In 1685, a man named Christiaan Huygens invented the world’s first pendulum clock that used a swinging weight to measure time.
While using pendulums to measure time was accurate, before the late 1800s, there were no time zones or an accepted system for converting times around the world. Many towns set their own time according to when the sun was at the highest point in the sky. When it was noon in Washington DC, it was 12:12 in New York City. Other towns set their time according to sunrise or sunset.
In the 1800s, there were 300 different local times in different towns across the United States. This all changed as the power of railroad companies grew in the US. These railroad companies needed a simple way to keep track of arrivals and departures of their trains, so they created four time zones in the US.
Many people were not happy about a company coming in and changing the way they kept time. At first, some towns tried to rebel against the new railroad time, and many places kept two clocks on the wall, one showing the local time and the other showing railroad time.
Eventually, the railroads and other business interests won in the US, as well as in other countries, and standard time zones were set around the world. There is one place where time zones are never used, though. All pilots in every country in the world use UTC or Universal Coordinated Time while in the air. It makes sense to minimize any confusion when you want to avoid crashing.
Astrophysicist Dick Henry and economist Steve Hanke believe that pilots aren’t the only ones who can benefit from a universal time. They want to do away with time zones for everyone. Henry and Hanke say, “Local solar time was fine, when almost all activity was local!” Now that we live in a global world, it’s high time we all got on the same page. They say that communication, travel, and trade would all be easier if every country followed the same clock.
References:
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/730727038
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/segments/91585-unlocking-the-secrets-of-time
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/12/the-radical-plan-to-destroy-time-zones-2/
The word “time” is the most common noun in the English language. It’s no wonder that there are so many time idioms. Keeping time is an idiom that means measuring time. The history of keeping time dates back to ancient Egypt. They looked at the movement of shadows to keep time. Later, people used candles, sand, and even water to keep time. In 1685, Christiaan Huygens invented the world’s first pendulum clock. It used a swinging weight to measure time. Before the late 1800s, there were no time zones. There was no system for converting times around the world. Many towns set their own time by when the sun was at the highest point in the sky. When it was noon in Washington DC, it was 12:12 in New York City. Other towns set their time using sunrise or sunset. In the 1800s, there were 300 different local times across the United States. This all changed as the power of railroad companies grew in the US. These companies couldn’t keep track of when their trains were coming and going. They created four time zones in the US to fix the problem. Many people were not happy about a company coming in and changing the way they kept time. At first, some towns tried to fight against the new railroad time. Many places kept two clocks on the wall, one showing the local time and the other showing railroad time. Eventually, the railroads won in the US, as well as in other countries. Time zones were set around the world. There is one place where time zones are never used. All pilots in every country in the world use UTC while in the air. It makes sense to avoid any confusion when you want to avoid accidents. Professors Dick Henry and Steve Hanke believe that pilots aren’t the only ones who need to use the same time. They want to do away with time zones for everyone. Henry and Hanke say, “Local solar time was fine, when almost all activity was local!” Now that we live in a global world, it’s high time we all followed the same clock. They say that communication, travel, and trade would all be easier if every country was on the same page. References: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/730727038 https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/segments/91585-unlocking-the-secrets-of-time https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/12/the-radical-plan-to-destroy-time-zones-2/
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