What time zone is gmt 8 portable#

The North American zones were named Intercolonial, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. It was inaugurated on Sunday, November 18, 1883, also called 'The Day of Two Noons', when each railroad station clock was reset as standard-time noon was reached within each time zone. For example, the border between its Eastern and Central time zones ran through Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Charleston. The borders of its time zones ran through railroad stations, often in major cities. Allen, the editor of the Traveler's Official Railway Guide. In time, the American government, influenced in part by Abbe´s 1879 paper, adopted the time-zone system. In 1884, Britain, which had already adopted its own standard time system for England, Scotland, and Wales, helped gather international consent for global time. In 1883, he convinced North American railroad companies to adopt his time-zone system. In 1879, he published a paper titled Report on Standard Time. Dowd's system was never accepted by North American railroads.Ĭhief meteorologist at the United States Weather Bureau Cleveland Abbbe divided the United States into four standard time zones for consistency among the weather stations. In 1870 he proposed four ideal time zones having north–south borders, the first centered on Washington, D.C., but by 1872 the first was centered on meridian 75° west of Greenwich, with natural borders such as sections of the Appalachian Mountains. Dowd proposed a system of hourly standard time zones for North American railroads, although he published nothing on the matter at that time and did not consult railroad officials until 1869. Some junctions served by several railroads had a clock for each railroad, each showing a different time. Each railroad used its own standard time, usually based on the local time of its headquarters or most important terminus, and the railroad's train schedules were published using its own time. Timekeeping on North American railroads in the 19th century was complex.

1913 time zone map of the United States, showing boundaries very different from today This standard was known as New Zealand Mean Time. It was based on longitude 172☃0′ east of Greenwich, that is 11 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT. On November 2, 1868, the then British Colony of New Zealand officially adopted a standard time to be observed throughout the colony. Some British clocks from this period have two minute hands, one for the local time and one for GMT. By 1855, 98% of Great Britain's public clocks were using GMT, but it was not made the island's legal time until August 2, 1880. This practice was soon followed by other railway companies in Great Britain and became known as Railway Time.Īround August 23, 1852, time signals were first transmitted by telegraph from the Royal Observatory.

What time zone is gmt 8 portable#

In November 1840, the British Great Western Railway started using GMT kept by portable chronometers. In the 19th century, as transportation and telecommunications improved, it became increasingly inconvenient for each location to observe its own solar time. Main article: Railway time Plaque commemorating the Railway General Time Convention of 1883 in North America The control panel of the Time Zone Clock in front of Coventry Transport Museum

DST is usually used for about half of the year, typically by adding one hour to local time during spring and summer. The UTC offsets range from UTC−12:00 to UTC+14:00, and are usually a whole number of hours, but a few zones are offset by an additional 30 or 45 minutes (such as in India, South Australia and Nepal).Īreas of extreme latitude are more likely to use DST. Some time zones switch between offsets throughout the year due to daylight saving time (DST). Time zones are defined as one or two offsets from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and (if two offsets are used) the days when the offset changes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it is convenient for areas in frequent communication to keep the same time. For other uses, see Time zone (disambiguation).Ī time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. For more time zone lists, see Lists of time zones. For a list of time zones by country, see List of time zones by country. This article is about time zones in general.