Standard time

Standard time is the result of synchronizing clocks in different geographical locations within a time zone to the same time rather than using the local meridian as in local mean time or solar time. The time so set has come to be defined in terms of offsets from Universal Time. (See more about standard time.)

Where daylight saving time is used, standard time may refer to the time without daylight saving time.

History

Great Britain

Standard time was first used by British railways on December 11, 1847, when they switched from local mean time to GMT. The vast majority of Great Britain's public clocks were using GMT by 1855.

North America

Prior to the 1883, local mean time was used throughout North America, resulting in an inordinate number of local times. This caused convoluted regional and national train schedules. Sandford Fleming, a Canadian, proposed Standard Time at a Meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute on 1879 February 8. The heads of the major railroads met in Chicago to adopt the Standard Time System. The new system was adopted by most states almost immediately after railroads did so and finally officially adopted by the U.S. government almost fifty years later.

Criticism

Standard time (and daylight savings time) has been criticised by a small but vocal minority. The basese of these criticisms range from distrust of government to a belief that it disturbs circadian rhythms, to preferring traditional, non-mechanical natural markers of time, like sunsets, noon and sunrise.

The counter-argument to circadian rhythm-based criticism is that there is no specific reason why companies and business have to open or close at a specific time. For many years, the Soviet Union had a single time zone (today, Russia covers 14 time zones). Rather have office hours from 9 am to 6 pm in Vladivostok, offices opened at times appropriate to the relative position of the sun. But within the USSR, time was standardized.

See also

• Daylight saving time
• Local mean time
• Solar time
• Time zone
• Universal Time