May 7, 2011
1:06 p.m.
Does anyone have insight into the dates when standard timezones, based from Greenwich and at 15 degree intervals (as are still used in international waters) started coming into general acceptance or law? Am I correct to assume that the first place to use 'standard time' was Britain in 1847, but that the international acceptance of a 'world' timezone system based on GMT offsets only really started with Sir Andrew Fleming's proposals in 1879? Also, before that, when did 'mean time' as opposed to 'solar time' start coming into general acceptance? I read that it was when accurate mechanical clocks started becoming available in the early 1800s. Anyone have an approximate date for first adoption of mean time by a city?