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History of Time Zones and Daylight Saving Time (DST)
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2023-01-17
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Abstract:Before the establishment of time zones in 1883, there were more than 144 local times in North America. The resulting time differences between adjacent towns and cities were not critical when it took days to travel from place to place. With the proliferation of railroads, faster travel became possible across large geographies, and travelers could sometimes arrive at an earlier local time than they had departed. Due to this lack of time standardization, train scheduling proved difficult to coordinate, resulting in missed connections and collisions. As a result, the major railroad companies began to operate on a coordinated system of four time zones starting in 1883.
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[PDF-584.47 KB]
