Glenn Cole writes:

> Gary Jackson writes:
>
>  > Having had my interest piqued by this discussion, I peeked at TZTAB.  Is
> it
>  > true that Newfoundland is half an hour off from the rest of us (or vice
>  > verse)?
>
>  An AT&T book I was given quite some time ago--which listed the country
>  codes and many city codes for long-distance dialing--also showed the
>  time zones.  Some areas were even off by 15 or 45 minutes.
>
>  I *think* this is AT&T Worldwide Calling Guide, available for free;
>  order at
>          < http://www.att.com/traveler/offers/att/ >
>
>  The "World Time Zone Map" I just found at
>          < http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/faq/docs/world_tzones.html >
>
>  shows at most half-hour offsets.

Prior to railroadization (a neologism if I ever heard one) of the US and the
attendant telegraph lines that followed, every city and town in the US kept
their own time, based on solar noon.

Using the sun as a guide, every 15 degrees longitude is one hour of solar
travel (360 circumferential degrees divided by 24 hours), thus towns only a
few tens of miles apart east or west would be offset by only a minute or two.

The advent of high-speed transportation -- and even higher speed
communications -- in the late 19th Century changed all that. It became far
more convenient to have everyone within a (more or less) 15 degree
longitudinal zone share the same time.

Now with the arrival of world-wide instantaneous communications, there may be
good reason to have only time zone, world-wide. If that ever comes to pass, I
would strongly vote for making Hawaii "standard time." I would very much like
to be able to arrive at work at high noon, rather than eight in the morning,
as I must now.

Wirt Atmar