The Impact of the Telegraph on Public Time in the United States, 1844-1893

Abstract

Telegraph technology permitted, for the first time ever, the almost instantaneous synchronization of one place with another far distant one. This synchronization made the introduction of a uniform national standard time possible. The origins of a specialized time-distribution technology lie in the beginnings of telegraphy and the experimental instruments designed for the U.S. Coast Surveys longitude expeditions in the 1840s and 1850s. By the 1890s the technology had matured from crude beginnings as a specialized scientific tool to become, as an aspect of Western Unions business, the most successful and widely used means of disseminating time to the business community and the general public. © 1989 IEEE