Jim Taylor’s Weblog

Standardization
        I recognize that every car maker wants to put its individual stamp on the interior design of that vehicle. Every manufacturer wants the freedom to improve on past designs.
        But surely we consumers of those designs also have a right to expect certain things. That door handles, for example, will not be artfully disguised to disappear into or under armrests.
        We standardized light bulb sockets. We standardized electrical plugs and telephone connectors. We standardized the length of the foot and the metre, even if we don\’t agree which one to use.
        And we standardized time.
        Every year, at the end of October, we switch from daylight saving time to Standard Time. Daylight saving time itself is a standard, accepted by everyone except the province of Saskatchewan and the town of Creston, B.C.
        Standard time was invented by a Canadian, Sandford Fleming, chief engineer for the new Canadian Pacific Railway. In those days, each town determined noon – the moment when the sun stood highest in the sky – for itself.
        That didn\’t matter much when people travelled by foot. Even by horse and buggy. You simply adjusted your watch – which probably wasn\’t accurate enough to worry about anyway.
        But it mattered to a railroad, which had timetables to meet. So Fleming divided the world into 24 time zones, each covering approximately 15 degrees of longitude. Within each zone, the same time would apply to everyone.
        Although Fleming was initially derided as a “communist,” because of his international approach, the idea gradually gained acceptance. On January 1, 1885, by an agreement signed two months before in Washington, Standard Time came into being.