Hi Antonio 170 years ago in the UK the time was beginning to be distributed by telegraph. In the UK the railways were the driving force for this and a universal (countrywide) time. Prior to that all the towns in the UK had a local time ....I dont know where it came from but could be a sundial at a main church. The industrial revolution was also the force behind tower clocks....the factory-owners wanted their workers in on time with no excuses. It probably didnt matter so much in the countryside. Some long-cased clock were remakable accurate for the time and technology. Harrison of the famous marine chronometer started as an amateur by trying and suceeding in improving these. You seee there is nothing new in"time-nuts" :-)) I think he was a carpenter by trade.
There is a very readable book by David Rooney who is the curator of the National Martitime Museum at Greenwich, which charts the life of one Ruth Belville and her daughter who distributed the time the watchmakers in London from the 1840s right up into the 1930s when radio was begining to take over. She carried a calibrated certified chronometer, which was checked at Greenwich each week. "Ruth Belville: The Greenwich Time Lady" by David Rooney ISBN 978-0-948065-97-2 www.nmm.ac.uk/publishing ----- Original Message ----- From: <iov...@inwind.it> To: <time-nuts@febo.com> Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 9:47 PM Subject: [time-nuts] Setting clocks 100 years ago > This evening I happened to hear the nearby church's bell tolling 10 pm, and > thought > that 100+ years ago this could have been the "official" time of the town, > which > maybe was used by people to set their own clocks (if any). But then I > wondered, > who told the priest what time was it? To what extent the clocks of two towns > were expected to be close to one another? Does anybody know? > > Antonio I8IOV > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.