The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-04-21
Changes In
Standard
Time Zones

People nowadays are 80 USED 10 tne
standard time system that many find
it hard to believe that until less than
half a century ago about everybody
ard everything went by solar or
sun" time, as indicated by the posi-
ton of the sun. AS the railroads de-
veloped and commerce and travel in
creased, it was found necessary to
simplify time systems adopting new
and somewhat artificial time stand.
ards and ignoring to some extent To-
cal or sun time.
Thirty-five years ago there were 90
odd different time standards in use in
the United States. Naturally the use
Of so many different standards made |
the operation of the railroads, diff
cult complicated business and was
the cause of endless confusion and
trouble for travellers. No one could
ever be sure of catching train or OF
making connections at junction
points because of the time differences |
between different places, In many
cases arbitrary and whilly illogical.
AS everyone familiar with mathe-
NAUTICAL geography knows, a differ
ence of Is degrees in longitude on the
earth's surface corresponds to time
difference of one hour. That is, two
places separated by Is degrees Of
longitude on the eorth's surface cor
J responds to time difference of one
hour, the time Of the easternmost be-
ing an hour faster than that Of the
D other.
1t seems that one c. F. Dowd, OF
Saratoga Springs, N Y, was the first
} to think Of making this fact the basis
of q simplfed standard time system.
Anyway, he Is credited with having
4 worked out the general features Of
! such system and bringing It to the
attention Of the public. A, young
railroad man, w. F. Allen, was so i'm.
4 pressed with the advantages offered
by the scheme that he set to work
= and developed it in practical man
ner. The idea appealed to the rail
= roads and the principal lines Of the
7 United States and Canada at length
adopted It. It became generally Ell
fective at noon on November IS, 1888
Under this standard time system
the continent was divided into fou
longitudinal zones or belts and me
ridian as a basis, was fixed for eacl
zone, From the eastern to the west
ern side of the continent the tim
zones were named: Eastern, Ger
trail Mountain and Pacific. The me
ridians fixed for these zones wer
Eastern rs degrees, Central 80 d.
grees, Mountain 105 degrees, Pacifi
100 degrees.
It will be noted that these merid
ans are IS degrees Of longitude apal
and that the time difference betwee
them is therefore one hour. Th
time Of each zone is the true, sola
time of places on Its meridian. Ths
is, the clocks which throughout an
gone show the same standard time Il
dictate the noon hour Just at the tin
the meridian of that particular zor
comes vertically under the sun,
Since the time difference betwee
adjacent zones is one hour, 1t Is oh,
GUS that when 1t is IL o'clock moo
in the Eastern zone, II is IL o'clock
the Central zone, 10 o'clock In d
Mountain zone, and o'clock In 4
Pacific zone. A traveller going fro
east to west has to turn his wat
back one hour In crossing from o
zone into another II he wants TO Ike
in step with the time. Conversely,
going from west to east he is oblig
to turn his time piece forward Q
hour whenever he crosses a
marking the boundary between t
zones.-Pathfinder.
Tha ANIMAL nnints ont that wi