hy We Have Time Zones 時區是怎么來的

Robert McNamara

顏丹 選譯

Time zones， a novel concept in the 1800s， were created by railroad officials who held meetings in 1883 to deal with a major headache. It was becoming impossible to know what time it was.

The cause of confusion was simply that the United States had no time standard. Each town or city would keep its own solar3 time， setting clocks so noon was when the sun was directly overhead.

That made perfect sense for anyone who never left town. But it became complicated4 for travelers. Noon in Boston would be a few minutes before noon in New York City. And Philadelphians experienced noon a few minutes after New Yorkers did.

For railroads， which needed reliable5 timetables， this created a huge problem. “Fifty-six standards of time are now employed by the various railroads of the country in preparing their schedules of running times，” reported the front page of the New York Times on April 19， 1883.

Something had to be done， and by the end of 1883， the United States， for the most part， was operating on four time zones. Within a few years， the entire world followed that example.

So its fair to say the American railroads changed the way the entire planet told time.

時區在19世紀還是一個新奇的概念，是由鐵路官員創造出來的。他們在1883年召開會議以解決一個重大的難題。而現在已經不可能知道會議是幾點召開的了。

造成混亂的原因很簡單，就是美國沒有時間標準。每個鄉鎮或城市都有自己的太陽時，所以按照正午太陽直射頭頂的時間來設置時鐘。

這對那些從未離開過自己所在城鎮的人來說很清楚。但對于旅行者來說，情況變得復雜起來。波士頓的正午比紐約市的正午要早幾分鐘。費城人要比紐約人晚幾分鐘過正午。

對于需要可靠時間表的鐵路部門來說，這導致了一個巨大的問題。”1883年4月19日的《紐約時報》頭版報道說：“目前，全國各鐵路公司在編制運行時刻表時采用了56個時間標準。”

必須要做些什么了。到了1883年年底，美國大部分地區都采用了四個時區制。幾年之內，全世界都效仿了這個范例。

所以可以說，是美國鐵路改變了整個地球報時的方式。

The Decision to Standardize6 Time

The development of the railroads in the years following the Civil War only made the confusion over all the local time zones seem worse. Finally， in the spring of 1883， the leaders of the nations railroads sent representatives7 to a meeting of what was called the General Railroad Time Convention.

On April 11， 1883， in St. Louis， Missouri， railroad officials agreed to create five time zones in North America： Provincial， Eastern， Central， Mountain， and Pacific.

The concept8 of standard time zones had actually been suggested by several professors going back to the early 1870s. At first， it was suggested that there be two time zones， set to when noon occurred in Washington， D.C. and New Orleans. But that would create potential9 problems for people living in the West， so the idea finally developed into four “time belts” set to straddle10 the 75th， 90th， 105th， and 115th meridians.

On October 11， 1883， the General Railroad Time Convention met again in Chicago. And it was formally decided that the new standard of time would take effect a little more than a month later， on Sunday， November 18， 1883.

As the day for the big change was coming closer， newspapers published a great number of articles explaining how the process would work.

The shift only amounted11 to a few minutes for many people. In New York City， for example， the clocks would be turned back four minutes. Going forward， noon in New York would occur at the same moment as noon in Boston， Philadelphia， and other cities in the East.

In many towns and cities， jewelers used the event to drum up business by offering to set watches to the new time standard. And though the new time standard had not been sanctioned12 by the government， the Naval Observatory in Washington offered to send， by telegraph， a new time signal so people could synchronize13 their watches.

時間標準化的決定

美國內戰之后幾年的鐵路發展只使得所有使用本地時間的地區的情況更混亂。最后，在1883年春天，美國鐵路部門的領導人派代表參加了名為“全體鐵路時間大會”的會議。

1883年4月11日，在密蘇里州的圣路易斯，鐵路官員們同意在北美設立五個時區：省區、東部時區、中部時區、山區時區和太平洋時區。

實際上，早在19世紀70年代初就有幾位教授提出過標準時區的概念。起初，有人提議劃分為兩個時區，分別以華盛頓特區和新奧爾良的正午時間為準。……