The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-06-29
HAD ALL KINDS OF TIME.
There Was Much Confusion i'm United
States Before 1888.

States Before 1883.
Prior to IL o'clock noon Sunday,
November 10, 1888, the United States
was all in confusion in regard to
time. There were SO separate and
distinct standards in use throughout
the country. indianapolis, for in
stance, had three standards. When
advertising the time of departure OF
train it was necessary for the rail-
road company to explain it's stand
ard. Indianapolis standard time was
Is minutes faster than what is now
standard Central time, Chicago's
standard was 9 minutes faster and
Cincinnati's standard was % min
utes faster. Travelling men anxious
to observe punctuality in their en-
gagements formed the habit of
changing their watches every time
they changed their location. The
railroad companies had waited in
vain for the government to take
some definite action. On January
49, 184S, the British government
adopted a standard time schedule
which rectifed the trouble in the
British islands. At that time an en-
deavor was made to enlist the CO.
operation of the United States, but
the authorities anticipated an un-
usual amount of confusion, and the
project came to naught.
In 1888 the railroads decided to
take the initiative. They divided the
country into five zones-internation-
al, eastern, central, mountain and
western or pacific-and decided that
they would make their schedules on
the basis of these five standards,
which were an hour apart. They al
so talked seriously of changing rail-
road clock dials to embrace "a con-
secutively numbered hours, but at
conference held in March, 1884, after
the new time schedule had gone into
effect, the innovation was abandoned.
But the project reached point
where more than 400 applications for
a patent on the new dial were filed
at the patent Office, thus moving the
government to announce that in the
fifteenth century a Frenchman had
built clock of this design, conse-
quently the idea was public property.
1t was decided to make the change
all over the country at the same time,
and November 49,, 1888, was decided
on as convenient date. There were
some protests from cities in which
the change involved considerable
change in clocks. In Detroit, for in
stance, it was necessary to make
change of 80 minutes. But the de-
cision was applauded by large ma
jority.
For years it had been the custom
of telegraph operators to close their
instruments at three minutes before
noon in order to have the wires clear
for the time dispatch from the naval
observatory at Washington. This
time was chosen to make the change.
and at the appointed hour the Indian
apolis telegraphers set their clocks
and watches back 16 minutes. On
the previous Thursday the Indian
apolis jewelers. had held meeting
and decided to conform to the new
standard, and it was also decided to
change the court house clock accord
ingly. On the Saturday previous to
the change the indianapolis Journal
printed the following editorial para
graph, showing how the change was
welcomed here and frowned upon in
some other. cities:
'*Very wisely the local time in In
dianapolis will change tomorrow at
noon to conform to the standard rail-
road time. To have done otherwise
would have been to involve the city
in endless confusion. AS rule,
every city has taken steps to har-
monize the time so as not to be both
cred with standard and local time.
Some pig-headed people in Cincinnati
propose to point it out, but if the
people of that provincial village can
stand it their nonsense need not dis
turb any one living out in the world,
where he comes in contact with. the
march of events
Fearing legal complications Super
intendent of Police Robbins issued
orders that the saloons were to OBJ
serve the old time, and the street
car company refused to conform to-
public opinion for some time, incur
ring severe criticism. But on Mon
day morning the 6 o'clock gun at
kL@ Lo