  It is usually stated in the literature that Geneva was the first city to
adopt mean solar time, in 1780, followed by London (or the whole of England) in
1792, Berlin in 1810 and Paris in 1816. In this short note I partially revise
this statement, using primary references when available, and provide dates for
a few other European cities. Though no exact date was found for the first
public use of mean time, the primacy seems to belong to England, followed by
Geneva in 1778-79 (for horologists), Berlin in 1810, Geneva in 1821 (for public
clocks), Vienna in 1823, Paris in 1826, Rome in 1847, Turin in 1849, Milan,
Bologna and Florence in 1860.
