Technologies of Time : Time Standardization and Response in Britain, 1870-1900

Abstract

Between 1870 and 1900 systems of communication and transportation such as the railway and telegraph presented a new landscape in which discussions about time took place in Britain. The practical issues of railway punctuality, time standardization, and clock coordination contributed to a heightened awareness of clock time. Through their encounters with new technological systems, users found that a multiplicity of clock times existed long after attempts to unite local times began. Values concerning the use of railways and telegraph networks arose through interactions between technological artifacts and users. These trends were widely discussed and appeared in a variety of genres of print material. In addition to examining these issues in newspapers and works of fiction, this research traces the debates through philosophical texts. For a number of late nineteenth-century philosophers, encounters with railways and telegraphs opened up the possibility of reexamining the subjective experience of time.