View in EDS PDF Full Text ePub Full Text

The Clocks Are Telling Lies : Science, Society, and the Construction of Time

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Clocks Are Telling Lies : Science, Society, and the Construction of Time
Description: Until the nineteenth century all time was local time. On foot or on horseback, it was impossible to travel fast enough to care that noon was a few minutes earlier or later from one town to the next. The invention of railways and telegraphs, however, created a newly interconnected world where suddenly the time differences between cities mattered.The Clocks Are Telling Lies is an exploration of why we tell time the way we do, demonstrating that organizing a new global time system was no simple task. Standard time, envisioned by railway engineers such as Sandford Fleming, clashed with universal time, promoted by astronomers. When both sides met in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, to debate the best way to organize time, disagreement abounded. If scientific and engineering experts could not agree, how would the public? Following some of the key players in the debate, Scott Johnston reveals how people dealt with the contradictions in global timekeeping in surprising ways – from zealots like Charles Piazzi Smyth, who campaigned for the Great Pyramid to serve as the prime meridian, to Maria Belville, who sold the time door to door in Victorian London, to Moraviantown and other Indigenous communities that used timekeeping to fight for autonomy.Drawing from a wide range of primary sources, The Clocks Are Telling Lies offers a thought-provoking narrative that centres people and politics, rather than technology, in the vibrant story of global time telling.
Authors: Scott Alan Johnston
Resource Type: eBook.
Subjects: Time--Social aspects--History, Time--Systems and standards--History, Horology--History, Clocks and watches--History, Time measurements--History
Categories: SCIENCE / History, SCIENCE / Time
Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
FullText Links:
  – Type: ebook-pdf
  – Type: ebook-epub
Text:
  Availability: 0
Header DbId: nlebk
DbLabel: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
An: 3030920
RelevancyScore: 1110
AccessLevel: 6
PubType: eBook
PubTypeId: ebook
PreciseRelevancyScore: 1109.74133300781
IllustrationInfo
ImageInfo – Size: thumb
  Target: https://rps2images.ebscohost.com/rpsweb/othumb?id=NL$3030920$PDF&s=r
– Size: medium
  Target: https://rps2images.ebscohost.com/rpsweb/othumb?id=NL$3030920$PDF&s=d
Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: The Clocks Are Telling Lies : Science, Society, and the Construction of Time
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Description
  Group: Ab
  Data: Until the nineteenth century all time was local time. On foot or on horseback, it was impossible to travel fast enough to care that noon was a few minutes earlier or later from one town to the next. The invention of railways and telegraphs, however, created a newly interconnected world where suddenly the time differences between cities mattered.The Clocks Are Telling Lies is an exploration of why we tell time the way we do, demonstrating that organizing a new global time system was no simple task. Standard time, envisioned by railway engineers such as Sandford Fleming, clashed with universal time, promoted by astronomers. When both sides met in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, to debate the best way to organize time, disagreement abounded. If scientific and engineering experts could not agree, how would the public? Following some of the key players in the debate, Scott Johnston reveals how people dealt with the contradictions in global timekeeping in surprising ways – from zealots like Charles Piazzi Smyth, who campaigned for the Great Pyramid to serve as the prime meridian, to Maria Belville, who sold the time door to door in Victorian London, to Moraviantown and other Indigenous communities that used timekeeping to fight for autonomy.Drawing from a wide range of primary sources, The Clocks Are Telling Lies offers a thought-provoking narrative that centres people and politics, rather than technology, in the vibrant story of global time telling.
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Scott+Alan+Johnston%22">Scott Alan Johnston</searchLink>
– Name: TypePub
  Label: Resource Type
  Group: TypPub
  Data: eBook.
– Name: Subject
  Label: Subjects
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Time--Social+aspects--History%22">Time--Social aspects--History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Time--Systems+and+standards--History%22">Time--Systems and standards--History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Horology--History%22">Horology--History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Clocks+and+watches--History%22">Clocks and watches--History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Time+measurements--History%22">Time measurements--History</searchLink>
– Name: SubjectBISAC
  Label: Categories
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SCIENCE+%2F+History%22">SCIENCE / History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SCIENCE+%2F+Time%22">SCIENCE / Time</searchLink>
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=nlebk&AN=3030920
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Classifications:
      – Code: 389.17
        Scheme: ddc
        Type: prePub
    Languages:
      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Time--Social aspects--History
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Time--Systems and standards--History
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Horology--History
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Clocks and watches--History
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Time measurements--History
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: The Clocks Are Telling Lies : Science, Society, and the Construction of Time
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Scott Alan Johnston
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Scott Alan Johnston
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2022
            – D: 11
              M: 01
              Type: profile
              Y: 2022
          Identifiers:
            – Type: isbn-print
              Value: 9780228008439
            – Type: isbn-electronic
              Value: 9780228009634
            – Type: isbn-electronic
              Value: 9780228009641
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: The Clocks Are Telling Lies : Science, Society, and the Construction of Time
              Type: main
ResultId 1