Editing Time zone (section)

=== Railway time ===
{{Main|Railway time}}
[[File:Time zone chicago.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Plaque commemorating the Railway General Time Convention of 1883 in North America]]
[[File:Coventry Time Zone Clock.jpg|thumb|right|The control panel of the Time Zone Clock in front of [[Coventry Transport Museum]]]]

In the 19th century, as transportation and telecommunications improved, it became increasingly inconvenient for each location to observe its own solar time. In November 1840, the British [[Great Western Railway]] started using GMT kept by portable [[marine chronometer|chronometers]].<ref>{{Cite journal|date=December 1840|title=WESTMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY. Saturday, November 21, 1840.|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(00)59842-0|journal=The Lancet|volume=35|issue=901|pages=383|doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(00)59842-0|issn=0140-6736|access-date=January 27, 2021|archive-date=March 30, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210330010908/https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(00)59842-0/fulltext|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=June 2023}} This practice was soon followed by other [[History of rail transport in Great Britain|railway companies in Great Britain]] and became known as [[railway time]].

Around August 23, 1852, time signals were first transmitted by [[telegraph]] from the Royal Observatory. By 1855, 98% of Great Britain's public clocks were using GMT, but it was not made the island's legal time until August 2, 1880. Some British clocks from this period have two minute hands, one for the local time and one for GMT.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/bristol-time.htm |title=Bristol Time |work=GreenwichMeanTime.com |access-date=December 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628151049/http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/bristol-time.htm |archive-date=June 28, 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On November 2, 1868, the British [[Colony of New Zealand]] officially adopted a standard time to be observed throughout the colony.<ref>{{cite web|title=Telegraph line laid across Cook Strait.|url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/submarine-telegraph-line-laid-across-cook-strait|publisher=New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage|access-date=January 5, 2020|archive-date=February 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218115412/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/submarine-telegraph-line-laid-across-cook-strait|url-status=live}}</ref> It was based on longitude {{nowrap|172°30′}} east of [[Greenwich]], that is 11 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT. This standard was known as [[Time in New Zealand|New Zealand Mean Time]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Our Time. How we got it. New Zealand's Method. A Lead to the World.|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19290408.2.88&srpos=2|work=Papers Past|publisher=Evening Post|access-date=October 2, 2013|page=10|archive-date=October 8, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131008192904/http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19290408.2.88&srpos=2|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Time zone map of the United States 1913 (colorized).png|thumb|center|upright=1.6|1913 time zone map of the United States, showing boundaries very different from today]]

Timekeeping on [[North America]]n [[Rail transport|railroads]] in the 19th century was complex. Each railroad used its own standard time, usually based on the local time of its headquarters or most important terminus, and the railroad's train schedules were published using its own time. Some junctions served by several railroads had a clock for each railroad, each showing a different time.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/2010/11/1118railroad-time-zones/ |title=Nov. 18, 1883: Railroad Time Goes Coast to Coast |last=Alfred |first=Randy |date=November 18, 2010 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |access-date=July 30, 2018 |archive-date=August 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819071241/https://www.wired.com/2010/11/1118railroad-time-zones/ |url-status=live }}</ref>  Because of this a number of accidents occurred when trains from different companies using the same tracks mistimed their passings.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/11/americas-first-time-zone/ |title=America's first time zone|date=November 10, 2011 }}</ref>

Around 1863, [[Charles F. Dowd]] proposed a system of hourly standard time zones for North American railroads, although he published nothing on the matter at that time and did not consult railroad officials until 1869. In 1870 he proposed four ideal time zones having north–south borders, the first centered on [[Washington, D.C.]], but by 1872 the first was centered on meridian [[75th meridian west|75° west of Greenwich]], with natural borders such as sections of the [[Appalachian Mountains]]. Dowd's system was never accepted by North American railroads. 
Chief meteorologist at the [[United States Weather Bureau]] [[Cleveland Abbe]] divided the United States into four standard time zones for consistency among the weather stations. In 1879, he published a paper titled ''Report on Standard Time''.<ref name=wws>{{harvnb|Debus|1968|p=2}}</ref> In 1883, he convinced North American railroad companies to adopt his time-zone system. In 1884, Britain, which had already adopted its own standard time system for England, Scotland, and Wales, helped gather international consent for global time. In time, the American government, influenced in part by Abbe's 1879 paper, adopted the time-zone system.<ref>{{harvnb|Asimov|1964|p=344}}</ref>
It was a version proposed by William F. Allen, the editor of the ''Traveler's Official Railway Guide''.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/mawhite/Papers/TimeZones.pdf |title= Economics of Time Zones |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120514014456/http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/mawhite/Papers/TimeZones.pdf |archive-date= May 14, 2012 }} &nbsp;{{small|(1.89&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> The borders of its time zones ran through railroad stations, often in major cities. For example, the border between its Eastern and Central time zones ran through [[Detroit]], [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], [[Pittsburgh]], [[Atlanta]], and [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]]. It was inaugurated on Sunday, November 18, 1883, also called "The Day of Two Noons",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5748 |title=The ''Times'' Reports on "the Day of Two Noons" |work=History Matters |access-date=December 5, 2011 |archive-date=April 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404083446/http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5748 |url-status=live }}</ref> when each railroad station clock was reset as standard-time noon was reached within each time zone.

The North American zones were named Intercolonial, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. Within a year 85% of all cities with populations over 10,000 (about 200 cities) were using standard time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sos.state.il.us/departments/archives/from_the_ashes/doc24.html |title=Resolution concerning new standard time by Chicago |publisher=Illinois Secretary of State |website=Illinois State Archives  |access-date=December 5, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005050317/http://www.sos.state.il.us/departments/archives/from_the_ashes/doc24.html |archive-date=October 5, 2011 }}</ref> A notable exception was Detroit (located about halfway between the meridians of Eastern and Central time), which kept local time until 1900, then tried Central Standard Time, [[local mean time]], and [[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Standard Time]] (EST) before a May 1915 ordinance settled on EST and was ratified by popular vote in August 1916. The confusion of times came to an end when standard time zones were formally adopted by the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] in the [[Standard Time Act]] of March 19, 1918.