hy We Have Time Zones 时区是怎么来的

Robert McNamara

颜丹 选译

Time zones， a novel concept in the 1800s， were created by railroad officials who held meetings in 1883 to deal with a major headache. It was becoming impossible to know what time it was.

The cause of confusion was simply that the United States had no time standard. Each town or city would keep its own solar3 time， setting clocks so noon was when the sun was directly overhead.

That made perfect sense for anyone who never left town. But it became complicated4 for travelers. Noon in Boston would be a few minutes before noon in New York City. And Philadelphians experienced noon a few minutes after New Yorkers did.

For railroads， which needed reliable5 timetables， this created a huge problem. “Fifty-six standards of time are now employed by the various railroads of the country in preparing their schedules of running times，” reported the front page of the New York Times on April 19， 1883.

Something had to be done， and by the end of 1883， the United States， for the most part， was operating on four time zones. Within a few years， the entire world followed that example.

So its fair to say the American railroads changed the way the entire planet told time.

時区在19世纪还是一个新奇的概念，是由铁路官员创造出来的。他们在1883年召开会议以解决一个重大的难题。而现在已经不可能知道会议是几点召开的了。

造成混乱的原因很简单，就是美国没有时间标准。每个乡镇或城市都有自己的太阳时，所以按照正午太阳直射头顶的时间来设置时钟。

这对那些从未离开过自己所在城镇的人来说很清楚。但对于旅行者来说，情况变得复杂起来。波士顿的正午比纽约市的正午要早几分钟。费城人要比纽约人晚几分钟过正午。

对于需要可靠时间表的铁路部门来说，这导致了一个巨大的问题。”1883年4月19日的《纽约时报》头版报道说：“目前，全国各铁路公司在编制运行时刻表时采用了56个时间标准。”

必须要做些什么了。到了1883年年底，美国大部分地区都采用了四个时区制。几年之内，全世界都效仿了这个范例。

所以可以说，是美国铁路改变了整个地球报时的方式。

The Decision to Standardize6 Time

The development of the railroads in the years following the Civil War only made the confusion over all the local time zones seem worse. Finally， in the spring of 1883， the leaders of the nations railroads sent representatives7 to a meeting of what was called the General Railroad Time Convention.

On April 11， 1883， in St. Louis， Missouri， railroad officials agreed to create five time zones in North America： Provincial， Eastern， Central， Mountain， and Pacific.

The concept8 of standard time zones had actually been suggested by several professors going back to the early 1870s. At first， it was suggested that there be two time zones， set to when noon occurred in Washington， D.C. and New Orleans. But that would create potential9 problems for people living in the West， so the idea finally developed into four “time belts” set to straddle10 the 75th， 90th， 105th， and 115th meridians.

On October 11， 1883， the General Railroad Time Convention met again in Chicago. And it was formally decided that the new standard of time would take effect a little more than a month later， on Sunday， November 18， 1883.

As the day for the big change was coming closer， newspapers published a great number of articles explaining how the process would work.

The shift only amounted11 to a few minutes for many people. In New York City， for example， the clocks would be turned back four minutes. Going forward， noon in New York would occur at the same moment as noon in Boston， Philadelphia， and other cities in the East.

In many towns and cities， jewelers used the event to drum up business by offering to set watches to the new time standard. And though the new time standard had not been sanctioned12 by the government， the Naval Observatory in Washington offered to send， by telegraph， a new time signal so people could synchronize13 their watches.

时间标准化的决定

美国内战之后几年的铁路发展只使得所有使用本地時间的地区的情况更混乱。最后，在1883年春天，美国铁路部门的领导人派代表参加了名为“全体铁路时间大会”的会议。

1883年4月11日，在密苏里州的圣路易斯，铁路官员们同意在北美设立五个时区：省区、东部时区、中部时区、山区时区和太平洋时区。

实际上，早在19世纪70年代初就有几位教授提出过标准时区的概念。起初，有人提议划分为两个时区，分别以华盛顿特区和新奥尔良的正午时间为准。但这会给生活在西部的人们带来潜在的问题，所以这一想法最终演变成了四条横跨第75度、90度、105度和115度经线的“时间带”。

1883年10月11日，“通用全体铁路时间大会”在芝加哥再次召开。该大会正式决定新的时间标准将在一个多月后的星期日，即1883年11月18日生效。

随着大变革日期的临近，各个报纸发表了大量文章，解释这一过程将如何进行。

对于许多人来说，这次变革只相当于几分钟（的改变）。例如，在纽约市，时钟会调慢4分钟。从此，纽约的正午时间和波士顿、费城以及东部其他城市相同。

在许多城镇，珠宝商们通过提供按新的时间标准校准手表的服务来招揽生意。尽管新的时间标准没有得到联邦政府的批准，但华盛顿的海军天文台已经提出通过电报发送一个新的时间信号，以便人们校准他们的手表。

Resistance to Standard Time

It seems most people had no objection14 to the new time standard， and it was widely accepted as a sign of progress. Travelers on the railroads， in particular， appreciated it. An article in the New York Times on November 16， 1883， noted， “The passenger from Portland， Me.， to Charleston， S.C.， or from Chicago to New Orleans， can make the entire run without changing his watch.”

As the time change was set up by the railroads， and voluntarily accepted by many towns and cities， some incidents of confusion appeared in newspapers. A report in the Philadelphia Inquirer on November 21， 1883， described an incident where a debtor15 had been ordered to report to a Boston courtroom at 9：00 on the previous morning. The newspaper story concluded：

“According to custom， the poor debtor is allowed one hours grace16. He appeared before the commissioner at 9：48 oclock， standard time， but the commissioner ruled that it was after ten oclock and defaulted17 him. The case will probably be brought before the Supreme Court.”

Incidents like that showed the need for everyone to adopt the new standard time. However， in some places， resistance continued for a long time. An item in the New York Times the following summer， on June 28， 1884， detailed how the city of Louisville， Kentucky， had given up on standard time. Louisville set all its clocks ahead 18 minutes to return to solar time.

The problem in Louisville was that while the banks adapted to the time standard of the railroad， other businesses did not. So the confusion about when business hours actually ended each day existed for a long time.

Of course， throughout the 1880s most businesses saw the value of standard time. By the 1890s standard time and time zones were accepted as ordinary.

标准时间遇到的阻力

似乎大多数人都不反对新的时间标准，它作为进步的标志被人们广泛接受。尤其是铁路上的旅客，对此表示赞赏。1883年11月16日《纽约时报》的一篇文章指出，“从美国缅因州波特兰到南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿，或从芝加哥到新奥尔良的乘客，全程可以不用再调整手表时间了。”

随着铁路实行时间调整，以及许多城镇的自发接受，一些混乱的插曲出现在了报纸上。1883年11月21日《费城问讯报》的一篇报道说，一位债务人被命令在前一天早上的9：00到波士顿法庭报到。该报总结说：

“按照惯例，可以宽限可怜的债务人一小时。他在标准时间的9点48分出现在官员面前，但该官员裁定他是在10点以后出现的，判定他违约。这个案子可能会被移交到最高法院。”

类似的事件表明，每个人都需要采用新的标准时间。然而，在有些地方，阻力持续了很长时间。接下来的夏天里，在1884年6月28日，《纽约时报》刊登了一篇文章，详细描述了肯塔基州路易斯维尔市是如何放弃标准时间的。路易斯维尔把所有的钟都调快了18分钟回到了他们的太阳时。

路易斯维尔市的问题在于，虽然银行调整为铁路的时间标准，但其他企业却没有。因此，人们在很长一段时间里都对每天的工作时间到底什么时候结束而感到困惑。

当然，在整个19世纪80年代，大多数企业都看到了标准时间的价值。到了19世纪90年代，标准时间和时区已经普遍被人们接受了。

Time Zones Went Worldwide

Britain and France had each adopted national time standards decades earlier， but as they were smaller countries， there was no need for more than one time zone. The successful adoption of standard time in the United States in 1883 set an example of how time zones could spread across the globe.

The following year a time convention in Paris began the work of designating time zones worldwide. Finally， the time zones around the globe we know today came into use.

The United States government made the time zones official by passing the Standard Time Act in 1918. Today， most people simply take time zones for granted and have no idea that time zones were actually a solution18 raised by the railroads.

時区走向全球

英国和法国早在几十年前就各自采用了全国时间标准，但由于它们是较小的国家，因此不需设定多个时区。1883年美国成功采用了标准时间，这为时区如何走向全球树立了榜样。

第二年，巴黎的一个时间会议开始制定全球时区。最终，全世界开始使用我们今天所知道的时区。

美国政府于1918年通过了《标准时间法案》，制定了官方时区。今天，大多数人认为时区的存在是理所当然的，并不知道时区实际上是铁路公司提出的一个解决问题的方案。

（英语原文选自：thoughtco.com）