American Reacts to Why Britain is the Center of the World

[@Alan_Clark]

It is a good thing that Paris didn't get the prime meridian, otherwise we would have PMT instead of GMT. 😄

[@almac2598]

Nice one.

[@jbird4478]

Nowadays the French and Brits finally made peace by calling coordinated universal time UTC, which makes sense in neither French nor English.

[@kevincasey5035]

@@jbird4478 No peace JBird rather a quiet simmer. Used to have responsibility for maintaining a watch on "Time" in Working Group 4A at the ITU. GMT = average position overhead of the Sun and UTC was defined as a number of oscillations of a Caesium atom and then 60 seconds =1 minute and so on. Americans designed GPS using UTC and had to keep adjusting their clocks to keep in line with GMT as UTC was adjusted to keep time with GMT ( the STANDARD time). So the Americans pushed for UTC to become the standard time - which the French loved because it was a French invention! BUT. Adopting UTC would have meant that in centuries to come, people would be getting up as the sun was going down ( and it would still be 07:00 a.m.). So UTC was adopted with the constraints that GMT was subject to.

[@jbird4478]

@@kevincasey5035 UTC is the standard time because it is based on the SI unit for time, instead of GMT which is an obsolete measurement. Regardless, I meant the abbreviation used. Coordinated universal time would be CUT in English, but TCU in French. So they decided to compromise by giving nobody what they wanted, which is UTC and doesn't make sense in either language.

[@DenUitvreter]

TMP probably.

[@optimist3580]

Britain is not only the centre of the world - it’s the centre of the universe

[@stevebagnall1553]

Solar system but not universe.

[@marksummerson3966]

No, Universe as any Star Trek fan will tell you English is the default language of the Universe. 🤣

[@christinecrockford1654]

Yes your so right. We the greatest most amazing country in space lol

[@randar1969]

@@stevebagnall1553 Everywhere is the centre of the universe! Because everything is inflated from the centre and never moved. Inflation doesn't move any objects. it creates empty space between them. Moving into that space due to gravitational forces doesn't remove you from the center either it's still part of it. If you can't make sense of it, don't dispair! Many don't understand. The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.

[@philjones6054]

Mr Spock, a Vulcan, spoke perfect English, meaning English has travelled 20,0000, 567,000, 0742 light years into space minimum.

[@TMMGarf]

It is also worth noting that the Greenwich Meridian was first recorded in 1676. This is a very US centric version of the facts.

[@necaacen]

its really strange that the guy suggests countries didnt really use maps or trade with each other until the 1800s. some really weird takes. youd probably find significant trade between different peoples in 1800bc, never mind 1800ad. the romans and the greeks had huge merchant ships.

[@RazagalArtanis]

Yea, it's almost like the Empire with land in every continent bar Antarctica using the same maps and time... for 200 years was able to get greater buy-in 😅

[@Luuuma7]

Even his US-centric version of the story was very poorly explained.

[@L4g__]

​​@@RazagalArtanis its not good to lie... We got a good chunk of Antarctica too

[@blackbob3358]

@@L4g__ Aye, spending millions of tax payers money on summat they hav'nt found yet. And yep, they could stick a flag in a geographical location, SECOND. About that time my great great granny was dying of hypothermia because they could'nt afford the coal. The "good old days".

[@pgbaines65]

The UK was the first country to standardise across it and was because of keeping trains running to time across the country. We also created the first clocks that could keep accurate time on a ship making navigation more accurate. 👍🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🤠

[@tenniskinsella7768]

And rude eu countries call us the island. In comments on utube rrmoaners are exaggerating about brexit

[@johnnymcfake]

​@@tenniskinsella7768, are people still talking about Brexit? I've not heard that word for about 2 years.😂

[@johnnymcfake]

@fishingdandan4788 , what? I said no-one talks about it anymore. You people are crazy.

[@johnnymcfake]

@fishingdandan4788 , dude, I know where I am. I spend my time between Scotland, England and Wales. I haven't heard the word Brexit for at least two years. I don't know how else to put that. No-one cares, and no-one is stopping me from pissing off to Spain.

[@johnnymcfake]

@@fishingdandan4788 , I can assure you, it is that easy. My parents moved to Spainl last year. Getting residency was a piece of piss.

[@lanarkcd]

I remember a KZbin video on a British passenger ship which was stopped on the equator with its stern simultaneously in the Northern Hemisphere and its bow in the Southern Hemisphere it was also straddling the international dateline at 11.59 on the 31st of December one half of the ship was in 1899 while the other half of the ship was on January 1st 1900. The ship at that moment in time existed in different years on different centuries the 18th and 19th while being in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres at the same time.

[@JEF3N]

Someone must have done it for the New Year 1999-2000 so the different ends of the ship would be in a different millenniums

[@MrDaiseymay]

SHAME IF NOBODY THOUGHT OF IT@@JEF3N

[@alanmabbutt]

Nope, the 20th century started on 1st Jan 1901. The millennium actually started on 1st Jan 2001. Maybe that was the bug, people got the wrong year 😂

[@djin81]

He's skipping the part about how super accurate clocks were needed to accurately navigate in the ocean, that weren't effected by rough seas. That's a big part of why British maps were more accurate. Look into a guy called John Harrison the clockmaker.

[@Brookspirit]

Yep, the best clocks in the world at the time.

[@silverfireUK]

The documentary 'Longitude' is about John Harrison. I'm sure that his invention of the Marine Chronometer and the fact that if GMT was 0 the International Date Line passes through the least number of countries had something to do with the decision. Although yes, Britain is the centre of the World.

[@wessexdruid7598]

@@silverfireUK Just not the 'center' ;-)

[@eddiechapman3274]

Yes but then he would not be able to make it sound like it was all down to the Americans, they like nothing more than altering or omitting facts of history in their favour.

[@blackbob3358]

Aye, if mr Harrison was a septic tank, i fancy he'd have got a mention. There were lots of good chronometer makers about, at the time. Just seems "John boys" was the best candiddate. Ye French still struggle with the concept.

[@peterdurnien9084]

It's wonderful to see people discovering thing I learnt 65 years ago at school.

[@carlapocock3849]

Loe it!

[@davegardner8338]

I know , information and facts about the world and history seem to bypass Americans completely, their lack of basic knowledge continues to amaze me !

[@daveward4358]

Same here. Dave from the U.K.

[@clivecosta-correa2102]

Ditto, we learned about longitude/latitude aged about 11. Given the US' prominence in the world, Americans are especially poor at geography. That said, and speaking as a Brit, the anglosphere (US/Canada/UK/Australia/New Zealand) generally has tendency to show less interest in non English-speaking territories.

[@ritajames7797]

Yes, Peter, although not in your school year, they still taught this at primary age when I was at school. Today the focus on other priorities now (more political etc ...🤣 )

[@FixTheLanes]

This is common knowledge in the UK. Probably because we are the centre 🇬🇧🤣🤣

[@davidcooper2871]

Year 7 geography when we are 11 😅

[@yomrwhite607]

exactly americans with their idiot education system lol

[@BgStalker]

Not only in the UK, but also in the rest of Europe(i think). I am from much on the east and i know that from my school lessons. Apparently is American thing to not know that.

[@ianknealy2843]

And my town is the centre of Britain and my house is the centre or that town. Therefore the whole world revolves around me.

[@MDM1992]

@@BgStalker there's many things America chooses not to teach their students..

[@hugohugo2832]

Britain is going through a down phase but remember it is the greatest power the world has ever known. It has the most illustrious history.

[@briank4404]

They've been the biggest bullies you mean...

[@hugohugo2832]

@@briank4404hardly. Rule with the cooperation of the natives. We are a small country. We can’t bully, merely persuade. I don’t know where you are from but judging by the inferiority complex I’d say Ireland.

[@necaacen]

@@hugohugo2832 im fairly sure there was a fair amount of bullying m8. youre guessing hes from ireland? based on what? britian did invade ireland, occupy its country, stole its wealth while a million people died of starvation and openly talked about culling the 'sub human' population of ireland and replacing it with british settlers. so is that how britain established the 'inferiority' of the irish, while obviously not being bullies, they were persuading them of course, persuading them with guns, slavery and genocide.

[@hugohugo2832]

@@necaacen “bullying” you sound a bit wet. Hard time at school?

[@AuralVirus]

come on dude every country at 1 time in history has "bullied" on another, don't forget the Roman empire conquered Britain which is where we got the name from ie the "Roman Province of Britannia". Other conquerors eg the mongols : both conquered more of the known world than Britain and whilst we are at it America has attacked more countries than anyone in history.... here's a list of countries bombed since WW2 FAR FAR more than Britain. China 1950-53 Guatemala 1954 Indonesia 1958 Cuba 1959-60 Guatemala 1960 Belgian Congo 1964 Guatemala 1964 Dominican Republic 1965-66 Peru 1965 Laos 1964-73 Vietnam 1961-73 Cambodia 1969-70 Guatemala 1967-69 Lebanon 1982-84 Grenada 1983-84 Libya 1986 El Salvador 1981-92 Nicaragua 1981-90 Iran 1987-88 Libya 1989 Panama 1989-90 Iraq 1991 Kuwait 1991 Somalia 1992-94 Bosnia 1995 Iran 1998 Sudan 1998 Afghanistan 1998 Yugoslavia - Serbia 1999 Afghanistan 2001 Libya 2011 Iraq and Syria 2014 - Somalia 2011 - Iran 2020 - @@briank4404

[@carlena4300]

On Christmas day I was a victim of the international date line. Took off from Germany to Canada in late morning, landed in Canada in the early afternoon. Took off from Canada to New Zealand in the early evening, landed two days later. Experienced Christmas day twice and skipped the 26th of Dec. Wild when you think about it 😆

[@carlena4300]

I forget which country it is but a chain of islands close to the international date line switched time zones to better trade with (I think) the US. Its definitely interesting!

[@threestepssideways1202]

@@carlena4300 Samoa ? I think it was the other way around in their case. They initially changed their timezone to better trade with the US, given their close neighbour and US territory American Samoa was on the other side of the dateline. Samoa though had far closer links and trade with NZ and Australia and so changed back in 2011. There have been a few other occasions when this has happened, Kiritbati as some point I think, but the Samoa situation was the last time it happened.

[@DMGamanda]

Could have been worse if you went the other way you could have missed Christmas day 😆

[@carlena4300]

@@DMGamanda true! It was nice seeing all the staff dressed up for Christmas and eating the different Christmas foods in Germany and Canada!

[@sugarfoot1956]

Is there a link to the video he’s reacting to?

[@rbweston]

John Harrison who invented the most accurate chronometer was the reason we were able to fix Longitude and therefore work out time differences. He's a facinating character and worth looking into.

[@RexCorpuscle]

Nope. How to find your longitude is nothing to do with where the zero meridian should be.

[@itsmewill8725]

@@RexCorpuscle 😆 maybe your way off the time..

[@itsmewill8725]

@@RexCorpuscle navigation maybe ?

[@dp-sr1fd]

I think when he weas a young man he made a clock out of wood. He used Lignum Vitae wood as bearings and this clock was in a courtyard. It is still there working I believe. This was in the mid 1700,s.

[@leejeffrey6672]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnnZpWduiJ6fatksi=MmuC8HA9tIHhay2V This is a link to a brilliant drama called "Longitude". It tells the true story of John Harrisons struggle not only how to perfect his timepiece but how the establishment tried to deny him reward that had been offered to anyone that could solve the problem of navigating the oceans safely. The 3hr long drama simultaneously tells the story of John Gould the man who meticulously restored all of the clocks and his struggles with PTSD following the first world war. A plethora of famous British actors add to a fantastic true story.

[@williambell8282]

This is why when you were sailing around the world you needed a very accurate chronometer which was set to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). A prize was offered by the Admiralty in London to be awarded to the person who could make such a timepiece. A Yorkshireman named Harrison eventually succeeded in doing this and from then on sailors could take a sight of the sun at local noon and calculate the difference between that and GMT and thus work out their longitude. Latitude was measured by calculating the angle of the sun above the horizon.

[@Stand663]

Harrison is quite a prominent name in Yorkshire. Sorry for being slightly off topic.,

[@moonramshaw1982]

Wasnt it the Harrison piece that Del Boy thought was a Victorian egg timer and finally became a millionaire lol

[@richardhockey8442]

@@moonramshaw1982 That's the one - a nice little earner for Del Boy - 5 million knickers

[@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13]

@@moonramshaw1982 Egg timer 😂🤘 brilliant show loved it

[@raystewart3648]

Only Fools and Horses. Great episode.

[@andrewhallam237]

Having England as the prime meridian makes sense also because it puts the international date line mostly over the pacific ocean and a few uninhabited islands.

[@rootchiller]

Imagine that dropping through the middle of Europe.

[@andrewhallam237]

@@rootchiller Yep, many people on here are saying it was because England was the most powerful but It is far more likely to be the simple fact that having the prime meridian in London was the least disruption for the whole world, just a fluke of geography :)

[@robertfoulkes1832]

Even if the prime meridian was somewhere else (e.g. Washington DC) the IDL could still go through the Bering Strait and down the middle of the Pacific, it just wouldn't be at (roughly) 180° E/W. It is much neater to have it there though.

[@SKOLAH]

Britain is NOT England.

[@papapiers1588]

It’s the British Isles… not England. England is only the bottom part.

[@billyhills9933]

Before Britain could standardise time all over the world they had to standardise it in Britain, which meant getting rid of all of those localised times. As is common for this sort of thing, there was much complaining. Bristol, a city 120 miles west of London, has a building with a clock on it with two minute hands - one shows GMT while the other is 10 minutes slower and shows (what was) local Bristol time.

[@59patrickw]

this is railway time you are talking about this standardised time from there on in the military GMT is known as zulu time

[@tonys1636]

@@59patrickw Airlines also refer to GMT as Zulu time. At sea still GMT.

[@rocketrabble6737]

That is, surely, not strictly right. They needed a fixed point for maritime navigation purposes (vital for Britain) but they only really needed standardised time within Great Britain with the fast growth of the railways; time-tabling was a nightmare without it.

[@valproton3841]

It's also a recognition of Britains contribution to navigation. John Harrison from the UK, solved the problem of longitude by inventing a timepiece that could tell the right time at sea. His chronometer, H4, built in 1759 after years of experimentation, was the first marine timekeeper accurate enough to be used with confidence.

[@gkkes]

Wasn't this DelBoy's timepiece? 😂

[@JohnImrie]

@@gkkes That was H3, which in real life is still missing.

[@marvinc9994]

And not a SINGLE mention of the Harrison Chronometer(s) - each of them a Thing of Beauty - which saved countless seamen's lives. You couldn't accurately determine Longitude without them. What a genius Mr Harrison was! Anyone interested in exploring this fascinating subject further should get himself a copy of Dava Sobel's excellent book, _Longitude_ , and the DVD of the same name based upon it, starring Jeremy Irons and Michael Gambon (as John Harrison).

[@sheert]

Yep, this is the technological reason to choose Greenwich: for a long time ships could only determine their latitude with any accuracy (using a sextant when the sun is highest in the sky). It's kind of hard to navigate or draw accurate maps without knowing your longitude. Harrison invented a method to measure longitude using accurate clocks that could withstand conditions at sea (including constant movement and temperature changes). Ships used to synchronize their clocks before leaving port using the Greenwich observatory.

[@andydudley1775]

thats what we got you for.

[@DanielEbeck]

This is it. Back in the early days of Empire, you needed to know not only were you were, but when you were as well

[@adamnewman6846]

It is placed in the Observatory museum

[@marvinc9994]

@@adamnewman6846 Indeed _they_ are: H1, H2, H3, H4.

[@janehenry3206]

We did this at Uni and I think there was a docudrama about it, they needed accurate time for railways, factories and sea travel. To be more complete about why Britain was at the forefront of this he should have discussed John Harrison and his Marine Chronometer, as it was this that enabled seafarers to calculate longitude. I think France was peeved that Greenwich was chosen above them, which is always a bonus.

[@kumasenlac5504]

The French had a problem with maps - after their first full national survey the King observed that the national astronomers had lost the country more territory than their armies had !

[@carolineb3527]

I remember the first time I went to Paris - my sister and I went on one of those tour buses so we could get our bearings and at one point the guide said "it's from here that time is measured". The bus was full of Brits and we all laughed until the bus shook. 🤣🤣🤣

[@SevCaswell]

I had always heard that the agreement was between France and Britain that Greenwich could be the centre of time but Paris would be home to metric measurement. But I guess that the video maker being American had to make it about America too.

[@karenblackadder1183]

In the early 60s we covered this in the Infant School (5-7 years old) If you have to be in Uni to learn this basic thing, education is going to hell in a handbasket!

[@peterdurnien9084]

Love to hate the french.

[@sambranton3346]

If you get the chance visit Greenwich, it's a great place with lots of truly historic things to learn and see. Only reason Britain is the centre is because they figured it out and made it a thing first.

[@Ominousheat]

Dam good place to see London's new skyline as well.

[@intrepidless853]

not really theres huge modern reasons for it too like the stock markets

[@k.coconnor3656]

Only reason mate? Get educated.

[@ftroop2000]

I live within a 10 minute (clear), drive of the Greenwich Observatory. Never been to it😳 Not been to any of our "tourist attractions", and I'm 41😅😅😅

[@Ominousheat]

@@ftroop2000 😲 I don't often say this but you need to get out more.

[@skullcompco]

As a Brit, its heartwarming to think that the French and Germans sit down for lunch, when we tell them it's lunchtime!

[@Anna-vl4ju]

😂😂

[@garypierce8392]

You gonna give Al Murray some credit for that?

[@rosfow]

The UK had been using GMT for a couple of centuries before it was made the international standard. The Chester Arthur thing was the International Meridian Conference of 1884. In the UK we had already realised the problem with train timetables in the 1850's. Different parts of the UK used to have slightly different times depending on when the sun set and rose.

[@billmayor8567]

Another fun fact, the british also invented trains!

[@majorlaff8682]

Along with most other technology that improved the lives of millions of people. I'm no white supremacist but the supremacy of white culture and history cannot be denied.

[@SF64]

We're just really rubbish at running and maintaining them now, much like most things we've invented 😅

[@JohnSmith-ne4zg]

And gravity 😊

[@newton18311]

and America

[@horseracingfreetips785]

At one point a third of the worlds trains were ran on Welsh coal.

[@travelledfar]

Part of the reason for noon being set at Greenwich, is that it sits on a hill, overlooking the Thames. At noon, a ball set at the top of the observatory, drops, thereby allowing all captains on the river below, to set their timepieces, to allow for accurate navigation. This setting can then be passed to all ships they encounter (concider the size of the British trading empire).

[@peterdurnien9084]

There is or was also a ball clock at Lyttelton in New Zealand. Damaged in an earthquakes 2010and 2011. the ball dropped at 1:00. There is the one O'clock gun at Edinburgh Castle. all serve the purpose of a signal to seafarers to set their time pieces accurately.

[@davidfarrer4332]

The world still runs according to how Britain’s balls drop! 😅👍🇬🇧

[@JohnOConnell]

They also had signal towers in a long line from Greenwich all the way to Portsmouth, where the Royal Navy was mainly based. When the ball dropped at Greenwich, each signal tower would signal noon, that signal would get to Portsmouth, 90 miles away, in about 1 minute, and all the Royal Navy captains would sit there clocks to 12:01:00.

[@mr-dan-coleman]

It still works!

[@torbjornkvist]

Wow, I learned this in school, back when education still was worth something.

[@Sophie.S..]

I learned this at school and may I say I might be slightly younger than you.

[@Nick186]

Same here and now they don’t teach them this kind of thing

[@simiangimp2282]

A threepenny piece, roughly....

[@sarahandley9804]

Sir George Airy established the Prime Meridian in 1851 and by 1884 over two-thirds of all ships and tonnage used it as the reference meridian on their charts and maps - Wikipedia

[@paultaylor5266]

While young we could visit the Greenwich Royal Observatory and look through 300 year old telescopes. Harrison's first clocks were and still are on display, sadly now most of the historically significant things both here and in the Maritime museum are not on public display. I think I had a gifted childhood.

[@markharris1125]

When you get to the UK, take the short trip out from Central London to visit Greenwich. For one thing, it's a beautiful park with a historical maritime museum. But up on the hill there, is a fantastic view across London, plus the Royal Observatory and the Greenwich meridian line across the pavement. My very favourite place in London. I can't remember not knowing about the Meridian line and how the times zones are measured, must have just gone in by osmosis over the years - though I too wouldn't have remembered it was Chester Arthur who sorted it all out. Well done, Mr President.

[@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13]

Yeah it's a nice place Greenwich I worked on painting the CUTTY SARK

[@Badgersj]

@@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13 I made an Airfix model of the Cutty Sark when I was little! Actually learnt quite a lot about the ship just from doing that. Recommend that activity to every parent wanting to (a) educate your child (b) keep them quiet for a bit.

[@SevCaswell]

You should also try to be there at exactly 12pm so you can see the ball drop. This is pretty much the last such mechanism in everyday use, but originally it was done so that ships on the Thames could take an accurate reading for noon to set the ship's clock to.

[@trytellingthetruth.2068]

Take a walk through the Greenwich foot tunnel next to the Cutty Sark. The echo is amazing.

[@jujutrini8412]

In Britain we learn about it in primary school so it’s easy to forget when exactly you learned about it.

[@mxlexrd]

The International Date Line is wiggly because countries want it to be the same date within the whole of their territory, so the line wiggles around the borders of Pacific island nations. Also, a small error he made is that the poles aren't 180⁰ north and south, they are 90⁰ north and south.

[@lizcollinson2692]

Ha, thanks didn't even notice that fudge up.

[@crazyt1483]

Not just in there territory but then who they traded with cos one of the islands trades a lot with Australia and ended up with separate days but due to the relationship it made sense to switch to the same calendar.

[@SevCaswell]

Most large countries have multiple time zones, except for China. Every single point in China has the same time as Beijing, so even if it is obviously night time it is morning if the sun has risen in Beijing.

[@peterdurnien9084]

The International date line was invented so that middle aged men from England could meet with girls from The Philippines.

[@HarrySmith-hr2iv]

@mxlexrd: I noticed that. He should go back to maths school for 10 years. And do a Masters Degree in Maths at the very least.

[@baylessnow]

Al Murray, 'The Pub Landlord' could have told you that. Check out Al Murray, 'Nations of the World' and 'Why The British are undefeated world war champions'.

[@Upemm]

Yep he does put succinctly 😂

[@Jeni10]

GMT - Greenwich Mean Time. In Australia, they teach is this stuff in school, also the International Date Line which is where each day begins. The messy line is about islands and time zone convenience, etc.

[@langdalepaul]

The original video is confusing two different (if somewhat related) concepts: longitude and time zones. These two issues were resolved in different ways, for different reasons, at different times. The only thing they have in common is that they are both centred on Greenwich.

[@annejenkins7516]

Longitude is a BBC drama about the Harris Clock. It's worth a watch because it's one of the most beautiful historical stories ever told.

[@jerrydearman4679]

*Harrison.

[@mikepxg6406]

Its the Harrison Clock.........his name was John Harrison ⏲

[@laguna3fase4]

I used to be crew on VC10s of the RAF and we flew around the world often. We always worked out our times of departure and arrival using GMT or as we called Zulu time. This was useful when we came to write down the flight times in our logbook each month, so no matter where we were we had an accurate time. I once flew from Melbourne Australia to Honalulu via Pago Pago in American Samoa. We left Melbourne at 7am (local time) on the Saturday morning. Because we were flying East we landed in Pago Pago during the night ( after crossing the date line). After refuelling we carried on to Honalulu and arrived there at 7am Saturday morning ( local time). Very confusing! About 24 hours later we took of flying west to Guam then Hong Kong , arriving during the evening of the Monday the next day. We needed five days off so another crew could do the same route as we had done. ( oh I forgot to say that we also had jet lag to consider).

[@aussie6910]

I remember Continental Airlines? advertising a 45min flight from Aust. to USA. Crossing the date line must have saved a lot of fuel, LOL.

[@martinbeacher6165]

Been to Greenwich Observatory a few times and there is an actual line on the ground which is the center point of the world time - so cool. Must have been so weird to live when each town/village had it's own time.

[@fayesouthall6604]

That’s the reason they did it.

[@sturoe7361]

Drive in France and you will it flagged up on signposts as well.

[@rootchiller]

@gregoryjones2457 Was going to say same thing. Most tourists take pictures with one foot in the East and one foot in the West.

[@dentray]

@gregoryjones2457 As a Kid it was free same as all the London Museums and even the Tower of London was free! Oh how times change !

[@otterspocket2826]

It wouldn't have been weird because nobody carried any means of telling the time on their person. The nearest church tower was everybody's wrist watch, and if you did travel to another village you'd have no way of knowing what time it was back home, or that you'd lost or gained a minute or two. This is why church towers and steeples tend to have clocks on them, as the highest and most visible point that could be seen from pretty well everywhere within the 'time zone'.

[@mildandbitter]

"Railway Time" was first introduced in Britain in 1840 (30 years before Chester A Arthur became President) this was because Bristol was 11 minutes behind London if you simply calulated noon as when the Sun was due South. The clock at The Exchange Bristol still has two minute hands one showing London tlme (GMT ) and one showing Bristol local time. In 1853 in the USA a railway accident resulting in 14 deaths was caused by the trains running to different local times.

[@RoyLlowarch]

Yep. I learned this at school many years ago. If I remember rightly there were only about 17 to 20 countries at a meeting in New York that decided where the Prime Meridian should be set and only France voted against it being at Greenwich in London

[@bogusmogus9551]

Of course France would.

[@FrostSpike]

But the French got a sort of consolation prize by badging GMT as UTC rather than CUT when picking a name for a "zulu" timezone without any DST adjustments applied. (They'd originally wanted TUC but that was just TOO French for most people.)

[@michaelchapman3384]

I'm surprised he didn't mention the added benefit of the date line dividing an ocean in half, and not a continent.

[@kumasenlac5504]

That was just a fluke.

[@HowellJones75]

Are you not taught this in school in the US?? It a standard part of learning how clocks work.

[@dawggonevidz9140]

The only thing americans are taught at school is to believe they are superior to everyone else.

[@DavidHeywood_Legend]

Very interesting I learned something today. If/when you come to Britain Greenwhich is worth a visit I'd say. There's a metal, I think it's brass, strip laid into the ground marking the line, so you can hop from the western to eastern hemisphere and back again and you can stand in both at the same time if you want to. I found it amusing when I was there.

[@Tom-771]

Because trains and railways were invented in the uk, time caused a problem for one line in particular, the Great Western Railway or GWR. From London you went due west to Bristol, a Moor seaport in the early 19th century and there were local variations all along the route. They decided to create a universal time for the uk that sorted out the railway timetable problem. This was based at Greenwich and it formed the basis later for what happens in this video. It just happened 20 or 30 years earlier.

[@bogusmogus9551]

The train stations used to have clocks with two second hands, one for local time and one for GMT. Bristol is about 30 minutes behind London (GMT)

[@L4g__]

Another classic GWR failure

[@MegaWeebles]

@@bogusmogus9551 No such thing as a train station!

[@TheMarrification]

The maps being like that is convenient as well. It means that the edge of the map cuts through the least amount of land possible making it easier to read.

[@claregale9011]

The Royal observatory in Greenwich was first established in 1676 near you can visit the national maritime museum . Its a lovely area set in a park .

[@TheArgieH]

I think they took advice from some gentlemen called Wren and Newton as regards the present building.

[@samsprrr3548]

The observatory is now in sussex in Herstmonceux .

[@TheArgieH]

@Sam Sprrr And, I believe the Isaac Newton telescope has emigrated to the Canaries. I am not sure what is left at Herstmonceux, but visited some years ago.

[@cazzyuk8939]

Hi Steve. I live a couple of miles from Greenwich. It was the place for all things maritme back in the day, there is a Martime Museum as well as a Park & other historical buildings to do with the Navy & Royalty. Henry VIII had a home & spent lots time in Greenwich, introduced deer to the park which are still here today. The Meridian Line is just outside the Royal Observatory & you can stand over it to have a foot in both E&W hemispheres.

[@stevenmutumbu2860]

True true I'm regular on that Greenwich Route.

[@skipper409]

The Corn Exchange in Bristol (UK) was built at a transitional time when “local time” was still a thing, but railways were being introduced….as a result the building has two clocks on it -‘local time’ and ‘train time’. As an aside, business dealings were conducted using permanent circular bronze tables outside the Corn Exchange, known as “nails” (they’re still there) - hence the expression “pay on the nail” for immediate cash transactions

[@wessexdruid7598]

All 'shipshape and Bristol fashion', too.

[@DavidCalvert-mh9sy]

I lived for a year some time ago, as a spotty faced teenager. The place we lived was the village of Patrington in the North East of Yorkshire in the UK. What blew my mind was discovering that longitude zero ran through the eastern edge of the village, not 60 feet from my bedroom. I lived for a year at the center of the world. And to this day I have no visible marks or scars from the experience.

[@markrainford1219]

You only lived ONE year as a spotty teenager. Lucky you 😂😂

[@kangacub]

Bristol train station has a clock with two minute hands. One is GMT, the other is set 12 minutes counter clockwise to represent local noon in Bristol.

[@DoomsdayR3sistance]

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) had been around decades before the convention in the US, worth noting this and yes, it was invented for boats and trains. Trains moved fast enough to cause most of these issues and Trains were invented in England, and England had the first commuter train lines; With the first passenger train running in the North East of England using George Stephenson's Locomotive No. 1.

[@timphillips9954]

First working train ran in Wales near Pontypridd.

[@martynnotman3467]

@@timphillips9954 yes but for cargo mostly. It wasnt a regular passenger service. That was the Stockton & Darlington

[@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13]

Yeah the north west in LIVERPOOL had the first skyscraper,overhead railway and underwater tunnel I'm probably totally wrong but I'm sure I heard it somewhere or off someone???

[@timphillips9954]

@@martynnotman3467 Good point, it carried coal to Barry Island and Cardiff.

[@majorlaff8682]

@@martynnotman3467 Darlington still has the longest continuous use railway bridge. It crosses the River Skerne. Trains use it daily on their run to Shildon.

[@raverdeath100]

you might want to look up "Lloyd's of London". this organization was also instrumental in the positioning of 0 longitude.

[@raphaelandrews3617]

Every school kid in Britain know this. When I was 8 years old our school took us on a visit to Greenwich and we were shown the Greenwich Date Line. There was a cool lake there with boats and we hired a row boat and rowed round the lake.

[@adamnewman6846]

Don't set your watch by that great big sundial by the boat pond it is only accurate 6 months of the year and that's only if the sun comes out.

[@BadBoy-kp6pq]

We all went lol

[@john.doyle.]

You're getting a bit mixed up here, the line at Greenwich is the meridian, the date line is the international date line on the opposite side of the world in the Pacific Ocean!

[@XMan-tu4iu]

As a footnote, The first calendar that has been discovered is from Britain. In the early 2000s some “bumps” were spotted on an arial photograph of a field in Crathes Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and after many years of study it was ascertained that the 12 bumps were where wooden posts had been positioned to create the earliest “lunar calendar” ever produced. The local farmers used it to plan the rotation and planting of their crops. The “calendar” has been dated to 8,000 BC so over 10,000 years old and thousands of years older than the Mesopotamian calendar that was previously thought to be the earliest in existence that dates to around 5,000BC.

[@alexsmith854]

I'm in London at the moment and I'm planning on going to Greenwich tomorrow. I did go to the science museum today and there was a section in there on clocks and how when trains were first used in England to connect cities they needed a standard time for the whole country which is when GMT(Greenwich mean time) was first introduced. The mess of the lines is down to territories, old colonies or old country borders.

[@geekexmachina]

We learned this in school, sometimes this would be taught in English as a comprehension exercise (basically a page of information about a topic which you had to answer questions about). Towns and cities built clock towers as a means to show what the local time was before this system. To at least prevent local chaos. The lies are squiggle y specifically so a small country could have 1 time zone when in some parts of the ocean it was sensible to group some archipelago together. This subject is a very large plot point in the book "around the world in 80 days" by Jules Verne most people of my age in the UK will have likely seen at least one film version of this or the cartoon series

[@terencehill1971]

Or even read the book.

[@piggypiggypig1746]

It also makes the map look pretty and symmetrical having zero longitude set on London with the two continental land masses on either side.

[@t.a.k.palfrey3882]

I watch your videos often and see you as a well educated person, someone interested in broadening your knowledge base as most intelligent people want to do, and as a man open to new ideas. Therefore, it comes as a surprise to hear from you that you were unaware of the Greenwich or Prime Meridian. Kids in Kenya, or where my grandsons live, in Australia and Canada, learn this when they are first introduced to a world map in Grade 3 or even earlier. 🌍🗺

[@rootchiller]

Maybe they are former colonies of Britain and would have a British based education.

[@Datokah]

Most kids in London go to Greenwich at some point or other (a school trip or visiting the National Maritime Museum) and the brass line that delineates East and West that is laid into the floor there, simply has to be stood on, with one foot in the East and one in the West.

[@lushbaby]

Nobby Hi. Thank you soo much.. For bringing soo much support and updating us...on..many topics we were unaware of. You take care. xx Try not to get arresting when you are on another picket line.

[@djalice]

I think Greenwich (or UK) makes sense as it places the International Date Line in a place where it causes the least upheaval. Imagine if the IDL was in UK/France, USA or Russia. It would be one day on one side of the country and the next day just over then road. I've been to Greenwich many time and the Observatory. Great place to visit and jump across the GMT line they have on the ground. At night they beam a green laser out across the sky marking the line which is wonderful to see. Greenwich is a must.

[@paulm2467]

Yes, that was one of the biggest advantages of selecting Greenwich, it’s opposite to a very empty part of the Pacific.

[@jeanlind7540]

Greenwich is beautiful, part of London & yet so green. I used to live there & it’s like a really international village, Cutty Sark, Greenwich Park (used to be palace at time of Henry V111).

[@ragetobe]

Henry VIII 😁 use capital i’s.

[@markimpey102]

I was teaching this topic to 12/13 year olds in the UK in the 1970s as part of an introduction to world geography. I seem to remember that it followed a discussion about the distortion involved in the Mercator projection.

[@vallejomach6721]

Exactly, hence why on such maps Greenland often looks to be a similar size to Africa...when of course, Africa is actually about 14 times the size of Greenland.

[@mattbarker1923]

Check out ‘Longitude’ film with Michael Gambon & Jeremy Irons - tells the story of the Harrison clock that tells time consistently and reliably over the seas, it’s a cracking film, and very interesting. Talks about this exactly. All the best from England. Oh and the actual clock is still in Greenwich Observatory to this day.

[@voyeur65]

“Die hard with a vengeance” the baddies question related to 21 out of 42…..Chester Arthur being the 21st president (the school with the bomb was named after him).

[@Simon-hb9rf]

this is one of those topics, the more you look into it the more complicated the answer becomes. Greenwich observatory, time zones, mapmaking conferences, annoying the French and a revolutionary device called a "marine chronometer" are all key parts of why GMT became the standard.

[@suzettewilliams1758]

As Al Murray says, the British invented time 🤣 also gravity.

[@majorlaff8682]

And the toothbrush. Along with thousands of other inventions, like the steam engine. Curiously, they never came up with a steam-engine-driven toothbrush. Maybe at the next Industrial Revolution.

[@hicktoni]

The Germans can’t sit down for their lunch until WE SAY it’s 1:00 p.m.

[@peterscott9137]

Everyone goes on about Newton discovering gravity. But here's the thing. He just discovered it. It was there to be discovered, they even leave it on at the weekends. But, the cat flap. Pure invention, an original thought. The rarest thing on the planet. Something from nothing! Same with the milled edged coin. Didn't exist, then it did. It was not already there to be discovered. ("Douglas Adams")

[@andypammenter8528]

I thought that the Irish invented time, that's why it's called O'clock :-)

[@majorlaff8682]

@@andypammenter8528 O'Course. Dat makes more sense.

[@esclad]

In Die Hard 3, one of the puzzles John Maclane has to solve is "Who was the 21st President". I now always remember it was Chester Arthur :))

[@jayweb51]

I knew about Greenwich Mean Time from school, but not about why it was established; I also knew about the International Date Line, and that's all. I had a fair idea that it had something to do with British exploration, plus the observatory at Greenwich; also Capt.James Cook's visit to Tahiti for the transit of Venus, and subsequent exploration to find Terra Australis(Southern Land) current day Australia.

[@Aberbrothock1]

Absolutely fascinating, I've never been so glued to something.

[@andrewbrumana3226]

Doing a day trip to Greenwich when visiting London is a really cool thing to do. I recommend going to the Victoria Embankment (next to Parliament) and taking a ferry down the Thames to Greenwich. You disembark from the ferry to see the dry-docked Cutty Sark ship (that they named the whiskey after). You can also see the Queen's House, the Royal Navy College, the National Maritime Museum, and the Greenwich Market before going up the hill to the Royal Observatory (and if you're out of shape like me, it kicked my butt!). Once up there, you can go to the museum and learn all about the creation of clocks over time, and how it is needed to plot your location on the earth. You'll also see the old telescopes, etc., but the main attraction is being able to see the Prime Meridian of the world. It's a normal trope to see tourists taking photos whilst straddling the Prime Meridian (yes, I'm guilty).

[@lindyashford7744]

There is also quite a cool pub to visit after you have had a mooch around, and while you are waiting to catch the ferry back. If you miss the darn thing the only choice is a taxi or a bus, through some of the drabbest parts of London south of the river. Best time it well from the clock in the pub, the scenic river route is by far the best. It will drop you back at the embankment from where you can choose a multitude of directions to take on your way to dinner or a night out.

[@raymartin7172]

I have done this. I actually took a cab to North end of the Pedestrian tunnel and walked under the Thames. Emerged by the Cutty Sark and saw HMS Invincible sailing up the Thames. Visited the Royal Observatory, saw Harrison's wonderful chronometers, Spent most of the day in the Royal Naval Museum, had a few drinks with fellow Patrick O'brien fans. Great day out in a city I generally struggle to like.

[@majorlaff8682]

I heard the ship was named after the whisky (not 'whiskey') to help the sailors find their way home after a night on the grog.

[@andrewbrumana3226]

@@majorlaff8682 incorrect. The Cutty Sark ship was already sailing in the 1860’s and the whisky was introduced in the 1920’s. The ship was named after the flowing Scottish undergarment mentioned in an 18th century Robert Burns poem.

[@majorlaff8682]

@@andrewbrumana3226 Sorry, Andrew. You're right, but it was a joke about drunken sailors. As I wrote, 'I heard ...'. When you read those words, never believe what follows. Shall I tell you how Golden Retrievers got their name?

[@marylowrey8911]

GMT is well known in GB of course, but I didn’t know about the international date line. I do know that the Brits sorted out our clocks across the U.K. due to the railway revolution way before the 1880s, so I supposed we bossed the conference due to Britannia not just ruling the waves but inventing the train and the railway. Great video 👍

[@007wildy]

yours is the nearest because it was also the moons affect on tides and were all of these things were happening at the same place and time. You would believe how small and hidden the conservatory is and unknown it is. Sorry can't remember the mans name. I couldn't believe it when I read the 10inx6in plaque said Sanded Time and Longitude and Latitude were worked out there to run threw London.

[@semesamaiyale4793]

I'm sure the train was invented by Scott's

[@ponyboy1664]

​@semesamaiyale4793 the steam engine was.

[@kevin-ud8pc]

@@semesamaiyale4793 George Stephenson from Newcastle

[@jbird4478]

It is very funny to watch someone learn about this. Even if you know about it all, timezones sometimes just create this weird mess of confusion in your head. I can tell you that writing software that deals with this is the stuff of nightmares.

[@skinnyb999]

I learned this when i was 12, surprised this is not taught.. time is one of the most important things we have

[@bengunns]

We needed alot of maps when we were invading, the old Naval College was at Greenwich also, Nelson was there i believe.

[@mattheworford]

Very simplified explanation. There was another line called the rose line from the French. GMT was dominant long before the late 1800s. Again an americo-centric explanation of the world.

[@petersymonds4975]

Hello Steve. I’ve worked for 40 years in telecoms. In the late 60’s I was an apprentice and when I was in the town's largest exchange we had a feed from a London exchange which had a feed from Greenwich. If our customers dialled 80 then they had access to the recording of TIM, the speaking clock. In the early 90’s we still had analogue exchanges I and a colleague both had a 9000 line exchange to maintain, customers dialled 8081 for TIM and it was routed to Cardiff, the big city! The wall clocks and tariff machines were all controlled by a 3 ft long pendulum clock assisted by a 50v electro-magnetic pulse every 10 swings of the pendulum. The two of us in the exchange maintained it by experience and no special training! In the late 90’s I started in new digital units so time was passed down the network via a national atomic clock. We still used to check the system clock to TIM. The system controls all tariff and timing issues.

[@SallyLovejoy]

"At the third stroke, it will be 1p.m. precisely, Pip! Pip! Pip!"

[@streamleazefishhouse]

I think GMT being 0 is both practical and athletically pleasing. You stick the international date line in the middle of a continent that becomes very complicated. Also you don't really want the massive Pacific ocean in the middle of your map because it is of very little use for everyone except oceanographers.

[@streamleazefishhouse]

Just found out via map men. That international date line's odd wobble is to allow easier trading with Australia and Zealand for some pacific islands as it make trading impossible on Friday or Monday because the weekend is in the way. Some it makes sense for them to be on the same day.

[@regularguy3665]

Athletically pleasing?

[@streamleazefishhouse]

@regularguy3665 sorry aesthetically * It means it is more pleasing to the eye "pretty"

[@BrKnOblivion]

@@streamleazefishhouseI think that had been gathered. More's the point, how is it athletically pleasing 😁

[@MrDaiseymay]

I think----those longtitude variations are relatively modern. I think it's to do with how many (if at all) occupants there are on those masses of small Islands, especially in the Pacific. AND, if theres a large group of them , the line goes around them , rather than through them. You can imagine the confusion if a tiny island , with 100 people, was split in two.

[@catherineharrison9441]

Hi Steve, I’m 68 and although I was taught this at school, it was nice to get a refresher lesson 😊

[@cottonlung]

The time difference on either side of this line is 24 hours. So, the date changes as soon as one crosses this line. To avoid any confusion of date, this line is drawn through where the sea lies and not land. Hence, the IDL is drawn in a zig-zag manner.

[@whattiler5102]

The international Dateline is complicated because most nations want to have all their 'territory' in the same time zone rather than part 'today' and the other part 'tomorrow' so they put a box around it.

[@vallejomach6721]

That's part of it, but the shape of the longitudinal lines in general, on those sorts of maps at least, are because they are typically projection maps (basically Earth treated as though it were a cylinder and rolled out to a flat plane...other projections also btw). However, it is therefore a distorted representation. Note how on such maps that Greenland often appears about the same size as Africa...when in reality Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland or Alaska being similar in area to Brazil, when actually Brazil is about 5 times the size. Basically as latitude changes further away from the equator, then the greater the distortion appears on those sorts of maps and thus why lines of longitude have to have those square shapes drawn into them to make it look right. TLDR: mapping a 3D surface to a 2D plane like that results in those longitudinal lines being shaped like that to conform to the shape of the Earth...i.e. an oblate spheroid.

[@matthewjamison]

When Britain first built the Concorde, it was that fast, that you could land in New York from London before you even left. Because of the speed of it & time differences. Literal time travel lol

[@Bikeops2021]

That's what Phil Collins did in 1985, performing at Live Aid on both sides of the Atlantic, at London's Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia's JFK Stadium!

[@matthewjamison]

@@Bikeops2021 nice 1 man

[@ianpunter4486]

A colleague in BBC Film Department was a cameraman on a documentary on Concorde during its development....prior to going into commercial service. He got to fly to Rio and back in rhe same day. Managed a breakfast and a lunch...and home with his family the same day!

[@matthewjamison]

@@ianpunter4486 It was a marvel. Can't wait to see the new they're building.

[@MrYorkieone]

When Britain and France Built Concorde you could set your watch by the sonic boom made by the air France Concorde flying west I think it was to Rio at 1930 just south of the isle of wight

[@ianmetcalfe7389]

As in the video if you live 30 minutes away from a timezone. If your travel time to step over the line was 30 minutes you would arrive there 30 minutes before you even set off on your journey lol. (Assuming your travelling the right direction). So you set off at 2pm travel 30 minutes and arrive at 1.30pm.

[@kuldipbinning1989]

I found out about this in school in the mid 70's. Actually live a few miles from Greenwich. They also shot the movie Thor 2 across the road at the university.

[@markphillips2076]

The UK had their own local time system, but thanks to the UK being first with railways and coming up against issues with different towns being on different times, UK time was unified based on the time at Greenwich I think in 1880, earlier than the conference in the video. So we had some experience of unified time, GMT already being a thing inside the UK. Also we made accurate maps of the whole world's shorelines (handy when you go to war with a country: you know their waters better than their Navy do). So we got the gig of being the centre of the world. Of course the French continue to be stroppy about the whole affair and have their own UTC which they have enslaved the whole of Europe to. Only kidding, UTC is the same as GMT but they couldn't allow themselves to follow The UK, they had to call it something else.

[@leehorrocks5253]

Well, thats the French for you isn't it!

[@ritajames7797]

I recall learning this at primary school aged 10 or 11 in UK. Although, looking at this again, I can quite understand why you would question the lines and how irregular some of them are.

[@paulmidsussex3409]

I worked in Lewes, a town directly to the South of Greenwich and I used to live in the Western Hemisphere but would park my car and to walk to my office in the Eastern Hemisphere. There was a pub called The Meridian next to the marker point.

[@LennonEisenhower]

Good temper is never left to the man who has an inch, so is kindness and love.

[@johnmorris7815]

As many have said, this guy has missed a massive part of the reason, the prime meridian was always in Greenwich as the whole system was devised by the UK for nothing more simple than to establish longitude at see, this followed so many accidents where ships were not where they thought they should be, that the king awarded a prize of 10,000 guineas for anyone who could devise a way to discover longitude at sea. Check out a program called “longitude” for more info.

[@aussie6910]

The craziest part used to be the date line going straight through Kiribati so you got two new years just by going to the other side of the island. Now you have to be in New Zealand on Dec. 31 leave on Jan. 1 & arrive in Fiji on Dec. 31 to have your 2nd new year. Much harder.

[@bogusmogus9551]

You can use it to go back in time too!

[@TheArgieH]

After the finish of the Napoleonic wars the RN fleet did a lot of exploring and cartography. There's a book about it "Barrow's Boys", I think he was Secretary to the Admiralty. If you rule the waves it is as well to know their extent.

[@auroraeventservicesukltd1059]

What’s also interesting to us Brits is something you said near the end of your video. You live near a time change zone. You can travel across the US and time will change as you travel further. For us in the UK no matter where we travel to, the time is always the same no matter where you are in the UK.

[@MrDaiseymay]

John Harrison, a working class Clock maker, Created the first reliable sea board Clock, that accurately told the time at sea. Enabling all Ships Captains to calculate Latitude ,wherever they were at sea. After a disaster, when a Naval ship was destroyed in unchartered shallow sea, and drowning all the crew. The King promised a huge reward to anyone who could solve the longstanding problem, of being able to make a reliable time clock, that would also withstand the movement in rough seas. Although Harrison's Clock won, there was much jealousy and skuldugerry , he had to wait years for his reward, before justice was done, all because of his humble origins .

[@AM-dz2sh]

I LOVE Greenwich - Used to live there.. such a liveable and also tourist friendly borough.. pretty, cool and lots to do! If you ever visit UK and London in particular - grab an uber clipper (Public transport ferry) from Tower of London to Greenwich. You can spend a whole day there! Highly recommend!

[@fayesouthall6604]

Lovely place

[@Sidistic_Atheist]

It's great taking a flight from anywhere and technically arriving before you set off (time wise, of course) Especially now that we can travel across a time zone faster than an hour.

[@Bungle-UK]

When Concorde was still flying you could leave London and arrive in New York before you set off because of the speed of the aircraft and the time difference.

[@socialbutterfly69]

I love timezones . I remember in 2015 i went to Spain from Portugal by ferry. A 15 minute trip but was an hour ahead . There was a bridge in distance that showed half way mark too .

[@ulvsbane]

In the north of Sweden and Finland there's a shared golf course where they hit the ball so hard that it lands an hour later :p

[@adamnewman6846]

The US has 6 time zones 1 of them being almost 20 hours away ( Hawaii)

[@littlenan3576]

It seems reasonable for the people who worked this out to make their home Country the beginning. These people could even be your ancestors. Don't worry America. We love you.

[@Blanny1974]

A beautiful illustration of how time is a manmade construct that doesn't actually exist. Professor Brian Cox did a very interesting programme where he flew towards the setting sun (The opposite direction that the earth is rotating) in a fighter jet, following the equator at the same speed as the rotation of the earth. This meant that he had effectively stopped time for himself. He sped the plane up, making the sun rise again, which meant he was travelling back in time and then slowed it down, making the sun set, which meant that he was travelling forward in time.

[@arlmondgcalcutt6562]

Not only did Harrison invent a marine chronometer 23 years later (1757) a captain in the British navy invented the Sextant - which allowed us to measure the lattiture - thus the horizontal lines

[@catherinewilkins2760]

1670 we put the line in Greenwich, standard time was created. We also created a chronometer that was reliable (Harrison) and compass was also stabilised by use of bars, that reduced interference of metallic equipment on magnetic reading of compass (Flinders). So why not. We also invented the train. It's a rabbit hole, best avoided.

[@AlBarzUK]

‘We’ meaning the British, obvs. I would add that Chester Arthur’s little meeting in the late 1800’s came just after the USA had reinvented the US Navy. This brought his country into the problems of international navigation and the organisation and usage of time that the British had been using for 150 years. By the time of that meeting, practically every nation in the world was already ‘on board’ with the British, albeit reluctantly. So the outcome of the meeting was never important - except to Santa Domingo - and Chester Arthur.

[@HarrySmith-hr2iv]

Also Dr. John Dee (he lived in nearby Mortlake London) designed the navigation tables given to Sir Francis Drake to circum-navigate the world. This was around the year 1560-1570. He is also credited with coining the expression -The British Empire.'

[@mr-dan-coleman]

I work at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, come and visit when you get the chance! Fascinating stuff.

[@jordankelly9206]

I remember sitting in the airport in Wellington NZ on New Years day 2014, I was flying west, home to the UK and another couple in the departure lounge were flying east to American Samoa to re-celebrate New Years.

[@indreduobaite13]

I learned most of this back in 6th grade in geography (I'm from Lithuania) except the history behind it. And then relearned it every few years after that during the class but more in-depth!

[@magdalenaganschinietz2230]

We did in the 7th grade in Germany. Remember this being a big eyes opening moment to me back then.

[@paulmidsussex3409]

When I grew up in England we learned this in History, weirdly back then we learned about smelting iron and forging steel in History, Geography and Science which shows how what a nation thinks is important about itself gets reflected in its education curriculum.

[@DomingoDeSantaClara]

I have to deal with this all the time when I ring family in New Zealand, they are generally 12 hours ahead, but then daylight saving complicates it. When it's winter in the UK, NZ is 13 hours ahead, in the summer its 11 hours, for a few weeks it's 12 hours when one country has changed its daylight saving time before the other one. Thank fuck for Google, I can never keep up.

[@RichWoods23]

DST should just be dropped. I insist the sun be overhead at noon so I can more easily use my watch to find my way home!