In 1879, a Canadian rail engineer named Sir Sandford Fleming came up with a revolutionary idea after missing a train: the creation of time zones. On 18 November 1883, the US and Canadian railroad industries adopted Fleming's idea, but because of the sheer size of the North American continent, it was decided that four major time zones would be created: Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time – each of which remain relatively unchanged to this day. Starting that year, America’s railroads began operating on a system of just four time zones – Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. And because businesses kept to the same schedule as railroads, cities adopted the same time system.
Standardized time has enabled the nation to run on one system for time-keeping. But it has set people at odds with their inner clocks, the organic timepieces that runs on their own circadian rhythms.
And, I might add, we need to get rid of changing the fuckin' clocks twice a year. Pick one and stick with it. If it was up to me, I'd go with DST all year 'round...
China has a single time zone for the entire country while it's big enough to have five. They also don't use that daylight savings time crap.
ReplyDeleteWith all the aggravations in the world today, it amazes me that so many people freak out over changing clocks twice a year. We could stick to standard time or DST, but as with most things it's a tradeoff. You may not be old enough to remember, but back in 1974 we tried year-round DST as a response to the oil crisis. The result was that in much of the country during the winter it was dark until 8 AM or later . . . when kids were walking to school. Parents were *very* concerned about children's safety and the measure was quickly rescinded. Similarly, year-round standard time would mean that in the summer several hours of daylight would occur while we are all sound asleep -- seems like a waste.
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line is that there is no ideal solution that will work for everyone. It's a tradeoff so we pick the option that seems to suit most people most of the time and that's that