A British traveller could once meet several local hours on his way. Bristol was ten minutes behind Greenwich; Cardiff was thirteen. As long as travel was slow, these gaps were less of an issue than with a growing rail network.
Companies have gradually adopted a common time to make their schedules more consistent. Royal Museums Greenwich recalls that in December 1847, the Railway Clearing House retained Greenwich as a railway reference. The telegraph then helps to transmit time signals.
However, the British legal time is not limited to this decision: Greenwich became the legal reference in 1880. The story is not that of an inventor creating all the spindles of a gesture. It is that of a need for coordination that gradually transforms a local habit into a common rule. A train connects the cities; it also ends up bringing their clocks closer together.
What we know
British example dated; rail, time transmission and legal adoption distinguished, without unique origin attributed to all the world's time zones.
To go to the source
References consulted on September 21, 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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