What do your computer monitor, frogs, Buran spacecraft and time zones have in common? Things and phenomena of our world sometimes intertwine strangely. But, having found the bifurcation point here, let's figure it out at the same time with time zones.
Who is Wollaston?
At the beginning of the 19th century, the most talented scientist W. Wollaston lived and worked in England. In 1804, he discovered the element Rhodium, without which the production of liquid crystal screens is impossible. He was an inquisitive person, and drew attention to the dispute between two scientists: Volta and Galvani. These Italians were engaged in tormenting frogs with electricity, trying to figure out the nature of this phenomenon. Wollaston decided to join them and, having stipulated the time of the experiment, went on a trip.
This is where the opportunity happened! The fact is that the time at the beginning of the nineteenth century was determined by the Sun. And although the clock was already there, there was no single standard of time! It was noon in London and Rome when the Sun was rising to its zenith. Wollaston synchronized his pocket watch with London time, arriving in the Italian capital a few days later, an hour and a half late.
It was then that the idea came to him about the global standard for counting the daily cycle. It is necessary that people know: if it is 12 o'clock in London now, then in Rome it is 13 o'clock, and in Calcutta it is 6 pm. But, like any brilliant idea, it was fully realized later, after the appearance of a faster vehicle - a steam locomotive.
The first steps
The railway appeared in England in 1833. The first line, between Plymouth and London, stretches for 350 km. The train left London at 10:00, traveled for 9 hours, and was supposed to be in place at 19:00 London time. However, he ended up in Plymouth at 19: 20-19: 30. The reason is local solar time!
It was then that the management of the Great Western Railway took time in London as the standard. Since then, for almost half a century, the London Railroad has lived according to its autonomous temporary standard. Only in the last quarter of the nineteenth century the question of dividing the entire planet into time zones appeared on the agenda.
Basic principles
In order not to get confused, by 1925 everyone agreed that if there are 24 hours in a day, then 24-hour zones should be set. Accordingly, 360˚ was divided by 24, and 15˚ fell into one time zone. The meridian passing through the Greenwich Observatory was taken as the zero point. This means that the zero time zone is 7.5˚ east and west of the prime meridian.
This is how geographic time zones were formed. But what if the borders of the state do not correspond to these virtual borders?
There are administrative time zones for this. Since January 1, 1925, when the Universal Time Standard came into effect, each subject is free to set any time convenient for him on his territory. The main thing is to observe two conditions: 1. Link your local time to the universal time; 2. Notify the world community about your decision.
That is why at different times there were up to 50 (!) Administrative time zones on Earth.
Time Zones
Dividing the entire surface of the Earth into only 24 hour zones with a difference of one hour is the way of a computer. Man is a multifaceted and unpredictable creature. Therefore, in addition to common sense, other irrational motives invade his decisions.
On the island of Newfoundland, in Iran and Afghanistan, Australia and North Korea, the time zone differs not by a whole number of hours, but by half an hour. In particular, 3:30 is Newfoundland standard time, and +3: 30 is Iranian standard time. The difference of half an hour, of course, stands out from the general series, but it is quite understandable.
Nepal is a completely different matter. Their administrative time is +5: 45. Absurd? But the indigenous people of Nepal, and those who are conceived by a Nepalese and a Nepalese can be considered as such, throughout their history have constantly tried to abstract themselves from the vast India and all-consuming China.
In India, administrative time was determined by the meridian passing through Calcutta (+5: 00) until 1971. And in Nepal the time zone was +5: 30. Then in India the meridian passing through Hyderabad was taken as the standard, that is, they were equal to Nepal. And in turn, the Nepalese added 15 minutes to their standard time.
Since then, the joke has taken root in Nepal: "When it comes to punctuality, national elasticity works in Nepalese."
Only they are not unique. In Australia, there are 5 villages on the border of the western states, unremarkable for the time being. Who, for example, knew the village of Mandrabilla, with 20 inhabitants, located on the edge of the Great Australian Desert. In 1987, a certain Don Harrington bought desert land there at a cheap price, built the longest golf course and pushed through the legislative fixation of the time zone +8: 45.
There are just over 1,000 islanders living in New Zealand's Chegem archipelago. To isolate from the general mass, they also set the time +12: 45.
But the Irish have surpassed all, oh, these red-haired beasts! For centuries, they have been in constant opposition to the British Empire. And, being a part of Great Britain, they enjoyed the broadest autonomy.
After the meridian passing through the Greenwich Observatory was adopted in 1880 as the global reference point, Dublin decided that their Dunsink Observatory was no worse! Irish astronomers have determined that the exact time difference between Greenwich and Dublin Observatory is 25 minutes 21 seconds. And in the same year 1880, the administrative time zone was established throughout Ireland - 0:25:21. This artifact of the desire for independence existed until 1916.
About bifurcation point
And what does the Soviet spaceship "Buran" have to do with it? It is very appropriate to mention it. In honor of Wollaston, who first put forward the idea of \u200b\u200btime zones, the mineral wollastonite was named. It has a number of remarkable properties, one of which is high temperature refractoriness. Wollastonite, mined in Altai deposits, was used for thermal insulation of the Burana cladding.
Kaluga region, Borovsky district, Petrovo village
The Ethnographic Park-Museum is a unique space for the dialogue of cultures, an area of \u200b\u200btravel, discovery, inspiration, education and love. In ETNOMIR, on an area of \u200b\u200b140 hectares, architecture, national cuisine, crafts, traditions and everyday life of almost all countries are presented. In addition to ethnic yards, museums, workshops and other cultural sites, you will find a well-developed infrastructure and service in the park. It offers visitors 12 unique ethnic hotels - huts, huts, yurts, chums, Himalayan and Nepalese houses and even an Indian palace.
You can organize a winter trip to the largest ethnographic park in Russia by booking a bus tour. The long-awaited January vacation is a time that is so great to spend in the company of friends, visit interesting places, walk up to your fill, enjoy pure snow, winter entertainment. Bus tours to the ethnographic park give you the opportunity to have a wonderful rest for a great price: an hour and a half in a comfortable bus - and you are in ETNOMIR! And here: Christmas tree, holiday excursions, winter animation, New Year's master classes ...
Where on Earth do the new calendar days begin, or, in other words: where does the day begin on our planet?
We know that the entire surface of the globe is conventionally divided into 24 time zones, and the origin of geographic longitudes comes from the prime meridian, which many know as Greenwich.
It is the meridian of the zero time zone, in the east of which Moscow, for example, is located with a time difference of 4 hours, i.e. UTC +4 (summer time), and from the western side, for example, in Alaska, UTC -9 hours.
So, on the world map there is also a conditional date line, relative to which in the west and east the current date differs by a whole day. This line corresponds to the 180 ° meridian.
The need to delimit the surface of the Earth by such a line is primarily related to avoid confusion in calendar dates when moving it by air and water vehicles. Astrology, by the way, also takes into account the exact time and place of birth or the data of a specific event, when you have to build a natal chart, solarium or transit horoscope.
The line on which the date changes does not quite repeat the strictly drawn line of the 180 ° meridian and practically does not pass anywhere on land, except for Antarctica and the ice of the North Pole. And if this happens, then the governments of the states themselves decide to which part of the land relative to the date line to attribute their possessions - to the eastern or western. More often, such a decision is associated with close economic and political ties with neighboring states, with which it is easier to do business on the same date, or within the country itself. For example, when Alaska was sold to the United States, the date was shifted one day back because the dates in Russia and the United States did not coincide.
From the north, the date change line runs along the Arctic Ocean, bends around Russia from the east, passing through the Bering Strait and dividing Russia and Alaska, bends westward from the meridian 180 °, leaving the Aleutian Islands in the east, then returns to the meridian line and follows the Pacific ocean to Antarctica. Here, the date line deviates strongly to the east only in Oceania, skirting the islands of Kiribati and others, whose inhabitants are the very first on the planet to meet a new day.
From the point of view of tourism, it is very interesting to visit, for example, the picturesque islands of Tonga, Samoa or Fiji, located along the date line, in order, for example, to celebrate the New Year twice, flying from west to east on a charter flight from the Tonga archipelago, where January 1, to some island in Samoa, where the day of December 31 begins.
Be healthy and happy! Until next time on the site ""!
When traveling around Russia and the world, you must remember that the time may vary depending on where you are. Since the local time is mainly used everywhere, it is necessary to be able to determine it anywhere in the world. The modern time zone system is based on the universal coordinated time UTC (universal time), on which the time of all time zones depends. The UTC scale was introduced in 1964 and is established by an atomic clock. Coordinated Universal Time UTC, always remains an independent reference point for the whole world and from which, knowing the difference between your standard time, you can always calculate your local time.
The standard time system makes it easy to determine the standard time at any point. There is a certain relationship between standard time and time zones. The difference in the zone times of two points is equal to the difference in the numbers of the time zones. The specified ratio allows you to determine the time at a given point by the known standard time of another point in time.
The time at a given point will be equal to the time of the point where it is known, plus or minus the difference in the numbers of time zones. The specified difference is added to the known standard time if the point whose time is determined is located to the east of the point whose time is known, and if to the west it is subtracted.
In Russia:
According to the federal law "On Amendments to the Federal Law" On the Calculation of Time ", adopted on July 1, 2014, from October 26, 2014 Moscow time corresponds to the third time zone in the national time scale of the Russian Federation UTC + 3. There are 11 time zones, corresponding to the international numbering of time zones from 2 to 12 inclusive.
1st time zone (MSK-1, Moscow time minus 1 hour, UTC + 2): Kaliningrad region;
2nd time zone (MSK, Moscow time, UTC + 3): Republic of Adygea (Adygea), Republic of Dagestan, Republic of Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Republic of Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Republic of Karelia, Republic of Komi, Republic of Crimea, Republic of Mari El, Republic of Mordovia, Republic of North Ossetia - Alania, Republic of Tatarstan, Chechen Republic, Chuvash Republic - Chuvashia, Krasnodar Territory, Stavropol Territory, Arkhangelsk Region, Astrakhan Region, Belgorod Region, Bryansk Region, Vladimir Region, Volgograd Region, Vologda Region region, Voronezh region, Ivanovo region, Kaluga region, Kirov and Kostroma regions, Kursk region, Leningrad region, Lipetsk region, Moscow region, Murmansk region, Nizhny Novgorod region, Novgorod region, Oryol region, Penza region, Pskov region, Rostov region, Ryazan region, Saratov region, Smolensk region, Tambov region, Tver region , Tula region, Ulyanovsk region, Yaroslavl region, Nenets Autonomous District; federal cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol;
3rd time zone (MSK + 1, UTC + 4): Udmurt Republic, Samara region;
4th hour zone (MSK + 2, UTC + 5): Republic of Bashkortostan, Perm Territory, Kurgan Region, Orenburg Region, Sverdlovsk Region, Tyumen Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Districts;
5th time zone (MSK + 3, UTC + 6): Altai Republic, Altai Territory, Novosibirsk, Omsk and Tomsk Regions;
6th time zone (MSK + 4, UTC + 7): Republic of Tuva, Rep. Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk Territory and Kemerovo Region;
7th hour zone (MSK + 5, UTC + 8): Republic of Buryatia, Trans-Baikal Territory, Irkutsk Region;
8th hour zone (MSK + 6, UTC + 9): Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (Aldansky, Amginsky, Anabarsky, Bulunsky, Verkhnevilyuisky, Vilyuisky, Gorny, Zhigansky National Evenki, Kobyaysky, Lensky, Megino-Kangalassky, Mirninsky, Namsky , Neryungrinsky, Nyurbinsky, Olekminsky, Oleneksky Evenki national, Suntarsky, Tattinsky, Tomponsky, Ust-Aldansky, Ust-Maisky, Khangalassky, Churapchinsky and Eveno-Bytantaysky districts), the city of Yakutsk, Amur region;
9th hour zone (MSK + 7, UTC + 10): Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (Verkhoyansk, Oymyakonsky and Ust-Yansky districts), Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, Magadan Region, Sakhalin Region (Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, Anivsky, Dolinsky , Korsakovsky, Kurilsky, Makarovsky, Nevelsky, Nogliksky, Okhinsky, Poronaysky, Smirnykhovsky, Tomarinsky, Tymovsky, Uglegorsky, Kholmsky, South Kuril regions), Jewish Autonomous Region, the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk;
10th hour zone (MSK + 8, UTC + 11): Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (Abyisky, Allaikhovsky, Verkhnekolymsky, Momsky, Nizhnekolymsky and Srednekolymsky districts), Sakhalin Oblast (North Kuril district);
11th time zone (MSK + 9, UTC + 12): Kamchatka Territory, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.
Exact time signals are transmitted by radio, television and via the Internet in the UTC system.
The time zones of the world are a unique phenomenon that some states do not accept in principle in their attempts to "adjust" the boundaries of time to their needs and ideology.
Time zones of the world are a unique phenomenon that some states do not accept in principle.
In past centuries, different countries where people lived according to the solar calendar had their own rules for setting the time. Usually it depended on geographic longitude, which was very inconvenient, especially for traffic.
The standardization of time boundaries first appeared in Britain in the early 19th century. Greenwich London Time (TCT) was set. This system works to this day.
The idea of \u200b\u200bdividing the world into 24 zones belongs to S. Fleming. For each belt, he proposed to assign 15 degrees of longitude (Table 1).
Table 1. The number of time zones in different states
| Number of belts | The state |
| 1 | Japan |
| 1 | South Africa |
| 1 | Estonia |
| 1 | Croatia |
| 1 | Turkey |
| 1 | Syria |
| 1 | Romania |
| 1 | Monaco |
| 1 | Madagascar |
| 1 | Lithuania |
| 1 | China |
| 1 | Italy |
| 1 | Egypt |
| 1 | Hungary |
| 1 | Belgium |
| 1 | Algeria |
| 1 | Austria |
| 2 | Chile |
| 2 | Portugal |
| 2 | Mongolia |
| 2 | Kazakhstan |
| 2 | Spain |
| 2 | Congo |
| 3 | Mexico |
| 3 | Indonesia |
| 4 | Brazil |
| 5 | New Zealand |
| 5 | Denmark |
| 6 | Canada |
| 8 | Great Britain |
| 8 | Australia |
| 11 | USA |
| 11 | RF |
| 12 | France |
Antarctica Time Zone Map
When did the world move to the new system?
- In 1883, all US railways were transferred to this system.
- Some settlements did not switch to the new system, which still continued to live according to their "time". In some regions, this continues to this day.
- In 1884, an international conference was held in the United States to develop a new system of time zones. Its meetings were attended by 25 representatives from different states. As a result, it was decided on the prime meridian passing through the city of Greenwich.
- The system was introduced in the Russian Federation in 1917.
How to find out what time zone is in a state or region?
- Open the directory on the World Wide Web.
- Explore a map of time zones in a regular geographic atlas.
- Ask one of the locals what time it is.
How do time zones change in the countries of the world?
- When there is a transition from belt to belt, the duration of the minutes and seconds does not change - only the value of the hours.
- In some states, time differs from the world one not by a certain number of hours, but, for example, by 40 or 45 minutes. But this is a deviation from the standard.
- The abbreviation for World Time is UTC. From the "0" meridian there is a shift in the positive direction or negative - to the east and west, respectively. In countries where the transition to seasonal time is carried out, the offset according to the TCB changes.
States in which "their" time
Some states are located in several time zones, and this problem is solved in different ways everywhere.
- The mainland of the country is located in six time zones, and the main one in 11.
- At the state level, time zones were fixed only in 1918.
- Now there are four belts: Pacific, mountain, central and eastern.
- They live according to their own hours in the Aleutian and Hawaiian Islands, in Alaska.
- Timezone boundary lines are quite complex. A single belt can divide a county or state, so times are often adjusted to match territorial boundaries.
- France breaks world records for the number of belts, although in reality it is located in only one. There are 12 corresponding zones here.
- The state is located in the "0" time zone, so the time here corresponds to Greenwich.
- For economic purposes, in order for the work schedule to coincide with the hours, the time adopted for Central Europe is used here, i.e. TCB + 1 hour.
Belarus:
- Since 2011, “daylight saving time” has been introduced in the country, which corresponds to world time + 1 hour.
- Minsk time is equal to TCB + 3 hours, therefore it coincides with Kaliningrad time and lags behind Moscow time by an hour.
- The same time is accepted by Armenians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Abkhazians, Turkmen, etc.
People's Republic of China:
- This state is located in five time zones. Until the establishment of communist rule in 1949, the division was still observed. But now the time in the country is the same everywhere.
- The republic "leaves" the TCB for +8 hours.
- The same time throughout the country is not convenient for all of its inhabitants, especially the west suffers. Astronomical time here runs away from the accepted one by two hours, and you need to go to work not at 8 am, but at 6. Therefore, the beginning of the working day had to be postponed.
Its territory also has its own time. It differs from the world by +9 hours. But since the state is small, there are no problems. Dawn here very early, and darker late.
Time difference between Moscow and Russian cities.
The time is now set using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which replaced Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). UTC is based on the Uniform Atomic Time Scale (TAI) and is more convenient for civilian use. Time Zones around the globe are expressed as positive and negative offsets from UTC. It should be remembered that UTC time is not translated either in winter or summer. Therefore, for those places where there is a daylight saving time, the offset relative to UTC changes.
Delineation principles
The modern time zone system is based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), on which the time of all time zones depends. In order not to enter local time for every degree (or every minute) of longitude, the Earth's surface is conventionally divided into 24 time zones. When moving from one time zone to another, the values \u200b\u200bof minutes and seconds (time) are saved, only the value of hours changes. There are some countries in which the local time differs from the world time not only by a whole number of hours, but also by an additional 30 or 45 minutes. However, such time zones are not standard time zones.
Russia - 11 time zones;
Canada - 6 time zones;
USA - 6 time zones (including Hawaii, excluding island territories: American Samoa, Midway, Virgin Islands, etc.);
in the autonomous territory of Denmark - Greenland - 4 time zones;
Australia and Mexico - 3 time zones each;
Brazil, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo - 2 time zones each.
The territories of each of the remaining countries of the world are located in only one any time zone.
Despite the fact that the territory of China is located in five theoretical time zones, uniform Chinese standard time operates throughout its territory.
The only administrative-territorial unit in the world whose territory is divided into more than two time zones is the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), which is a subject of the Russian Federation (3 time zones).
In the USA and Canada, the boundaries of time zones are very tortuous: there are often cases when they go through a state, province or territory, since territorial affiliation to a particular zone is determined at the levels of administrative-territorial units of the second order.
UTC-12 - Date Line
UTC-11 - Samoa
UTC-10 - Hawaii
UTC-9 - Alaska
UTC-8 - North American Pacific Time (USA and Canada)
UTC-7 - Mountain Time (USA and Canada), Mexico (Chihuahua, La Paz, Matsatlan)
UTC-6 - Central Time (USA and Canada), Central American Time, Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey)
UTC-5 - North American Eastern Time (US & Canada), South American Pacific Time (Bogota, Lima, Quito)
UTC-4: 30 - Caracas
UTC-4 - Atlantic Time (Canada), South American Pacific Time, La Paz, Santiago)
UTC-3: 30 - Newfoundland
UTC-3 - South American Eastern Time (Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Georgetown), Greenland
UTC-2 - Mid Atlantic Time
UTC-1 - Azores, Cape Verde
UTC + 0 - Western European Time (Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Casablanca, Monrovia)
UTC + 1 - Central European Time (Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Brussels, Vienna, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest, Warsaw, Ljubljana, Prague, Sarajevo, Skopje, Zagreb) West Central African Time
UTC + 2 - Eastern European Time (Athens, Bucharest, Vilnius, Kiev, Chisinau, Minsk, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Helsinki, Kaliningrad), Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, South Africa
UTC + 3 - Moscow Time, Eastern African Time (Nairobi, Addis Ababa), Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia
UTC + 3: 30 - Tehran Time
UTC + 4 - Samara Time, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia
UTC + 4: 30 - Afghanistan
UTC + 5 - Yekaterinburg time, West Asian time (Islamabad, Karachi, Tashkent)
UTC + 5: 30 - India, Sri Lanka
UTC + 5: 45 - Nepal
UTC + 6 - Novosibirsk, Omsk time, Central Asian time (Bangladesh, Kazakhstan)
UTC + 6: 30 - Myanmar
UTC + 7 - Krasnoyarsk Time, Southeast Asia (Bangkok, Jakarta, Hanoi)
UTC + 8 - Irkutsk Time, Ulaanbaatar, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Western Australian Time (Perth)
UTC + 9 - Yakutsk Time, Korea, Japan
UTC + 9: 30 - Australian Central Time (Adelaide, Darwin)
UTC + 10 - Vladivostok Time, Eastern Australian Time (Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney), Tasmania, Western Pacific Time (Guam, Port Moresby)
UTC + 11 - Magadan Time, Central Pacific Time (Solomon Islands, New Caledonia)
UTC + 12 - Kamchatka Time, Marshall Islands, Fiji, New Zealand
UTC + 13 - Tonga
UTC + 14 - Line Islands (Kiribati)
Before the introduction of standard time, each city used its own local solar time, depending on the geographical longitude. The standard time system was adopted in the late 19th century as an attempt to end the confusion caused by the use of its own solar time in any given area. The need to introduce such a standard became extremely urgent with the development of the railway, if train schedules were drawn up according to the local time of each city, which caused not only inconvenience and confusion, but also frequent accidents. This was especially true for large areas connected by a railway system.
Before the invention of the railroad, travel from one place to another took so long. When traveling, the time would need to be adjusted by only 1 minute every 12 miles. But with the advent of the railroad, which made it possible to travel hundreds of miles a day, timing became a major problem.
Great Britain
Britain was the first country to decide to establish a single standard time for the entire territory of the country. The British Railways were more concerned with the problem of inconsistency in local time, which forced the government to unify time throughout the country. The original idea came from Dr. William Hyde Wollaston (1766-1828) and was taken up by Abraham Follett Osler (1808-1903). The time was set in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and has long been called "London time".
The Great Western Railroad was the first to use the "London Time" (1840). Others began to imitate it, and until 1847 most British railways were already using a single time. On September 22, 1847, the Railway Clearing House, which set the standards for the entire industry, recommended setting Greenwich Mean Time at all stations with permission from the General Postal Service. The transition took place on December 1, 1847.
On 23 August 1852, the time signals were first transmitted by telegraph from the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
Until 1855, the vast majority of Britain's public clocks were set at Greenwich Mean Time. But the process of official transition to the new time system was constrained by British legislation, thanks to which local time remained officially adopted for many years. This led, for example, to such oddities as, for example, the opening of polling stations at 08:13 and closing at 16:13. Officially, the transition to a new time in Britain nevertheless took place after the enactment of the legislation on determining the time on August 2, 1880.
New Zealand
New Zealand was the first country to officially adopt national standard time (November 2, 1868). The country is located 172 ° 30 "longitude east of Greenwich and its time was 11:30 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, a standard known as New Zealand Mean Time.
North America
In America and Canada, standard time and time zones were introduced on November 18, 1883, also by the railways. By then, timing was a local affair. Most cities used "solar time" and the standard by which the time was set was often a clock that was well-known in each locality (for example, clocks on church bell towers or in the windows of jewelry stores.
The first person in the United States to feel the growing need for time standardization was amateur astronomer William Lambert, who in early 1809 presented a recommendation to Congress for the establishment of time meridians in the country. But this recommendation was rejected, as was Charles Dowd's original proposal, submitted in 1870, which proposed establishing four time zones, the first of which ran through Washington. In 1872, Dowd revised his proposal, changing the center of reference to Greenwich. It was this last proposal of his, almost unchanged, that was used by the railways of the United States of America and Canada eleven years later.
On November 18, 1883, the American and Canadian Railways moved clocks at all train stations according to the time zone (forward or backward). The belts were named Eastern, Central, Mountainous and Pacific.
Despite the transition of major railways in the United States and Canada to standard time, it took many years until the latter became the norm in everyday life. But the use of standard time began to spread rapidly, given its obvious practical benefits for communication and travel.
Within a year, 85% of all North American cities (about 200) with populations exceeding 10,000 were already using standard time. Only Detroit and Michigan stood out prominently.
Detroit lived local time until 1900, when the Municipal Council decreed that the clock must be set back twenty-eight minutes before Central Standard Time. Half of the city complied and half refused. After considerable debate, the decree was canceled and the city returned to sunny time. In 1905, Central Time was adopted by the city vote. Detroit switched to Eastern Standard Time (EST) by the 1915 City Ordinance and then the 1916 vote.
Throughout the United States, normal time and time zones were introduced with the Standard Time Act of 1918. The US Congress approved the standard time zones previously established by the railways and delegated responsibility for any subsequent changes to them to the Midshtatn Trade Commission, the only federal traffic regulator at the time. In 1966, the authority to legislate timing was transferred to the Congressional Department of Transportation.
The current boundaries of time zones in the United States have changed significantly from their original version, and such changes continue to this day. The Department of Transport handles all change requests and conducts rulemaking. In general, time zone boundaries tend to drift westward. For example, at the eastern end of the time zone, sunset can be changed one hour later (by the hour) by moving to the time zone adjacent to the east. Thus, the boundaries of the time zone are locally shifted to the west. The reasons for this phenomenon are similar to the reasons for the introduction of "daylight saving" time in Russia (see. Summer time). The accumulation of such changes leads to a long-term trend towards the westward movement of the belt boundaries. This is not unstoppable, but it is very undesirable, as it entails a late sunrise in such areas, especially in winter. Under US law, the main factor in deciding whether to change the time zone is "business facilitation." According to this criterion, the proposed changes were both approved and rejected, but still most of them were accepted.