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Time for a Change: The long, contentious history of time shifts
The long, contentious history of time shifts
Some of these efforts are entertainingly petty, as when Germans adopted mitteleuropaische Zeit — signifying that Germany, not England, was at the center of European culture — and, my favorite, when the French used “Paris time minus nine minutes and twenty-one seconds” (which just happened to be GMT) as the basis for their system of timekeeping. This chart from an 1857 copy of Dinsmore’s American Railroad and Steam Navigation Guide and Route-Book gives a sense of the complexity of timekeeping across geographical expanses: Part of their resistance was practical, but some of it reflected the feeling that traditional ways of life were slipping away, and the needs of cities and factories were dictating even the ancient rhythms of the farmer.
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