In order to make their schedules more standard, what did the railroads do?
1 Answer
Pushed for the adoption of meridian time zones in order to standardize local times.
Explanation:
in the 1800's time was a locally determined value determined by some local solar time frame. This was then made known to the populous of the area by a mutually accepted clock centrally located in a church steeple, civil building or even a shop.
An amateur astronomer William Lambert suggested time zones as early as 1809. This idea was rejected until Charles Dowd re-visited the concept in 1972 but was not able to standardized the adoption by the US and Canadian Railroads until November 18, 1883.
Although, adopted by the Railroads in 1883, there were still many regions across the country that continued to depend upon local solar measures well into the 1900's.
In 1884 The Prime Meridian Conference in Washington DC adopted the time zones nationally. The time zones continue to undergo slight variations today under the guidance of the Department of Transportation since 1966.
