Activities

Did you know that the development of the railroad made it necessary for the United States to develop standard time? Before the railroads were developed, people worked according to the sun. When the sun came up, it was time to work. When the sun went down, it was time to stop working. People set their clocks according to the sun’s schedule: Towns to the east were ahead of towns to the west, time was set according to when the sun rose.

You can imagine how difficult the matter of time became. Trains had to be on schedule although everyone’s clocks were set to different times. Professor C. F. Dowd of Saratoga, New York, devised a plan to create a standard time. Standard time, he planned, would affect the United States, and the whole world would be involved. Dowd’s plan divided the Earth into 24 time zones of 15 degrees each. The plan went into effect on November 18, 1883, but it wasn’t until 1918 that the official Standard Time Zone Act was approved.

Use this time zone map to answer the following questions: