About Time - Chapter 11 - Universal time

The discovery of the Americas in the 15th century would start an age of exploration when Western cultures would expand their empires across the world’s oceans. Traversing these vast stretches of sea was a navigational challenge that would eventually be overcome by the introduction of mobile precision timepieces. Their development was rapid and they would soon feature minutes and even seconds. However, up until the 19th century the stationary clock and bell towers would still show or sound a local time that could easily disagree with the local time of a nearby village. This was never a problem since no one could ever physically tell the difference.

But that suddenly changed with the invention of 01:00 - the train and telegraph which transcended the earlier boundaries of space and time. These revolutions in transportation and communication exposed the differences between local times which quickly became confusing and problematic. In order to prevent a global crisis of time management, we were forced to synchronize our times. Within just a few years this led to the 1884 model of universal time zones. Later, with the rise of radio, television and the Internet, the uniform timetable would become firmly rooted into our everyday lives.

01:43 - Exact, rigid and uniform time had found its way to our living room walls, pockets, wrists, nightstands and digital screens. We now marched to its drumbeat and sleep, eat and work not when we’re tired, hungry or have completed a task. But when it is time. .