Speaker 1: I guess what mango was that. Well, I remember you
Speaker 1: met my grandfather before he passed away a few years back,
Speaker 1: but I can't remember. Did I ever tell you how
Speaker 1: much he loved clocks and watches. I don't think I
Speaker 1: knew that. I mean I knew they used to go antiquing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so when I was a kid, he ran this small
Speaker 1: flooring business. This was in Huntsville, Alabama, and you know,
Speaker 1: at the front of his shop there he also had
Speaker 1: this collection of antiques and it was kind of like
Speaker 1: its own little antique shop, and he'd sell and trade
Speaker 1: pieces that he'd find. It shows around the Southeast, and
Speaker 1: it was one of my favorite places to be when
Speaker 1: I visited him. I'd either be hiding in the back
Speaker 1: and the rolls of carpet, pretending I was doing something
Speaker 1: really important at this antique roll top desk he kept
Speaker 1: in there. But you know, it always seemed like my
Speaker 1: granddad's favorite things to collect and trade were these old
Speaker 1: clocks and watches. So if you were in the shop
Speaker 1: or at his home and you weren't used to it,
Speaker 1: at the ticking and the chiming of all those clocks
Speaker 1: could just make people crazy. But I always loved it,
Speaker 1: but it was kind of strange because he didn't seem
Speaker 1: to be looking for the fanciest or the most expensive
Speaker 1: watches he could find. He just liked to find ones
Speaker 1: that were interesting to him. He'd sometimes see him wearing
Speaker 1: a watch that you hadn't seen before, and if you
Speaker 1: asked him where he'd gotten it, he'd just say, well,
Speaker 1: your cousin Sam and I liked each other's watches, so
Speaker 1: we just trade it. And it was just kind of
Speaker 1: the way he was. He just liked having him and
Speaker 1: have other people get to experience them as well. But
Speaker 1: you know, my grandfather is obviously not alone in his
Speaker 1: fascination with time pieces and time in general, and the
Speaker 1: way we think about and talk about time has changed
Speaker 1: so much over the years, from the birth of time
Speaker 1: zones to thinking about time travel, to the disputes around
Speaker 1: what official time actually is. They're just so much we
Speaker 1: want to get to today, So let's dive in. Yea,
Speaker 1: Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Speaker 1: Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good
Speaker 1: friend Manges Ticketer and on the other side of the
Speaker 1: soundproof glass showing off his brand new Omega speed Master watch.
Speaker 1: That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know this, Mango, but right there is
Speaker 1: the infamous Moonwatch. Oh my god, Tristess told me like
Speaker 1: twenty times already this morning. That's a moon watch. Such
Speaker 1: a show off. I know the speed Master has been
Speaker 1: like the go to watch for NASA for like, you know,
Speaker 1: ever since, even before the moon landings took place. But
Speaker 1: I do think it's really nerdy and really cool that
Speaker 1: he has one. Well I would probably be sporting it
Speaker 1: too if I had one. But if you're listening, Omega,
Speaker 1: you can always throw us a couple of moon Watches
Speaker 1: our way. So we're we're here, you know how to
Speaker 1: find us, And a little bit later we'll talk about
Speaker 1: exactly why NASA is so big on the speed Man
Speaker 1: Estra brand, as well as the stories behind a few
Speaker 1: other clocks and watches. But you know, before we get
Speaker 1: to the specific timekeepers, I thought we should kick things
Speaker 1: off by talking a little bit about time itself. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's really the thing that drives and defines our lives
Speaker 1: in so many ways, And you think about how off
Speaker 1: and we talk about it, we spend it we save it,
Speaker 1: we waste it, we treasure it. But what even is time?
Speaker 1: I mean, is it an intrinsic part of the universe
Speaker 1: or just something we made up? So I want to
Speaker 1: turn this over to you, man, go and see if
Speaker 1: you can just go ahead and tell us, like, what
Speaker 1: is time? Over to you? Yeah, I'm sure in like
Speaker 1: two minutes I'll be able to get through what time is.
Speaker 1: It could be awesome. I mean, quantum physicists aren't even
Speaker 1: convinced that time exists, so I think it would take
Speaker 1: a little more explaining than we can give it. But uh,
Speaker 1: maybe we should just say it's not a thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that. That might be the answer. End of episode.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I think what they're arguing is more
Speaker 1: that time doesn't exist in the way that we usually
Speaker 1: think about it, you know, as this kind of ever
Speaker 1: moving line that only goes in one direct action, and
Speaker 1: physicists would say time is a little bit more like space.
Speaker 1: All of it just sort of exists at once and
Speaker 1: doesn't actually unfold in this chain of moments, which of
Speaker 1: course is the way we as humans perceive it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe a better answer for people it's
Speaker 1: just like time is the stuff clocks run on, and
Speaker 1: I feel like that feels like a suitable answer. I
Speaker 1: feel like I can get behind that for this episode.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we're more interested in the way
Speaker 1: that humans perceive and talk about time, So we'll probably
Speaker 1: leave relativity and causality for another episode because it's all
Speaker 1: fascinating stuff. But I like your idea of how to
Speaker 1: frame this for today. So one thing I think it's fascinating,
Speaker 1: and it's something you mentioned, is how we experience time
Speaker 1: as a chain of moments. But have you ever stopped
Speaker 1: to think about how long exactly a moment is? You mean,
Speaker 1: like numerically or what I mean. I feel like a
Speaker 1: moment is just like that, just like a snap. That's it.
Speaker 1: That's how long a moment is, isn't it. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: as scientific as that system you've given us sounds like
Speaker 1: it sures out we used to be a lot more
Speaker 1: precise about moments than we are today. In fact, this
Speaker 1: is actually something I hadn't heard before this week. But
Speaker 1: apparently there was once a widely accepted definition for exactly
Speaker 1: how long a moment lasts. And this was true from
Speaker 1: the Middle Ages all the way up through the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1: So this definition was that a moment was precisely one
Speaker 1: hour or about nine seconds one forty Are you joking
Speaker 1: that that seems way too long? I'm telling you, mango,
Speaker 1: a moment. It's just that a moment, just a snap
Speaker 1: of what a moment is. So I actually agree with you.
Speaker 1: I I lean more in that direction. But a moment
Speaker 1: in history is actually like an era, or it could
Speaker 1: be an entire decade of social upheaval, and it can
Speaker 1: really be as long or short as you wanted to be.
Speaker 1: And I think that kind of highlights the disparity between
Speaker 1: our approach to keeping track of time and the way
Speaker 1: we actually think about it. I mean, we we use
Speaker 1: like complex things like the movements of stars and the
Speaker 1: radiation cycles of atoms to establish this sense of accurate timekeeping,
Speaker 1: and then all convinces ourselves that there is such a
Speaker 1: thing as correct time. But you know, for all the
Speaker 1: science and the precision behind those systems, we all still
Speaker 1: perceive and speak about time in an incredibly subjective way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good point, And I do think in a
Speaker 1: really meaningful sense, time is something of a you know,
Speaker 1: more of a social construct, and you forget about moments
Speaker 1: and minutes because we also measure time with concepts derived
Speaker 1: from our socialization. I mean, think about things like work
Speaker 1: days and weekends and being on time or fashionably late.
Speaker 1: I mean, all of these things are ways of marking
Speaker 1: time that we're definitely born from humans living and working together.
Speaker 1: And what's interesting is that because every society is different,
Speaker 1: there actually has a lot of variants out there when
Speaker 1: it comes to perceiving and talking about time. In fact,
Speaker 1: listen to this breakdown of how different cultures view time.
Speaker 1: There was this article from uh Science Daily, and so
Speaker 1: here's what they had to say about it. Different languages
Speaker 1: also embodied different worldviews, different ways of organizing the world
Speaker 1: around us, and time is a case in point. For example,
Speaker 1: Swedish and English speakers prefer to mark the duration of
Speaker 1: events by referring to physical distances for example a short break,
Speaker 1: a long wedding, The passage of time is perceived as
Speaker 1: distance traveled. But Greek and Spanish speakers tend to mark
Speaker 1: time by referring to physical quantities for example a small
Speaker 1: break or a big wedding. The passage of time is
Speaker 1: perceived as growing volume. You know, I always love hearing
Speaker 1: how other cultures handled their spatial metaphors. And you know,
Speaker 1: for instance, I was reading in Scientific American about this
Speaker 1: secluded group of tribes people in Papua New Guinea and
Speaker 1: they're called the yup No, and they live in these
Speaker 1: remote villages way up in the mountains, and they don't
Speaker 1: have any roads, electricity, and of course they interact very
Speaker 1: sparingly with the outside world. But a group of researchers
Speaker 1: visited the tribe a few years back, and they found
Speaker 1: that these tribes people all made the same spontaneous gestures
Speaker 1: when speaking about time. Like, the researchers started filming, ing
Speaker 1: and analyzing these gestures, and what they found was that
Speaker 1: the Yepno people all justtured downward towards the mouth of
Speaker 1: the local river whenever they spoke about the past, and
Speaker 1: whenever they spoke about the future, they actually gestured uphill
Speaker 1: to the river's source. I love stuff like that. I mean,
Speaker 1: we always think of time as being linear, you know,
Speaker 1: like the past is behind you and the future always
Speaker 1: lies ahead. I guess, yeah, But for the Yepno, it
Speaker 1: sounds like the past is at the bottom and the
Speaker 1: futures at the top. So basically time flows uphill in
Speaker 1: their minds from then in a straight line. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to think about what the logic would be behind that, though.
Speaker 1: Do you do you know why that is? Apparently the
Speaker 1: researchers didn't find out for certain, but their best guess
Speaker 1: is that the Yepnos procession at the time comes from
Speaker 1: like the knowledge of their own history, and I guess
Speaker 1: their ancestors came to the region by sea and then
Speaker 1: climbed up the steep mountain valley to where they established
Speaker 1: the village. So it's possibly that the Yepno connects sort
Speaker 1: of that geography and the low lands with the past,
Speaker 1: and think of time is something that travels upward, just
Speaker 1: like they did. H I just think that's beautiful to
Speaker 1: think about and just how different that is because we're
Speaker 1: also used to thinking of time is something we have
Speaker 1: no sway over, and I guess it's kind of nice
Speaker 1: to be reminded that so many things about it actually
Speaker 1: are shaped by our own perspectives. Yeah, that's true. Like
Speaker 1: even once we started using clocks, everyone just set them
Speaker 1: to noon based on when the sun was the highest
Speaker 1: in the sky where they lived, so like one community's
Speaker 1: time would be several minutes off from the time in
Speaker 1: a town just a hundred miles away or so, and
Speaker 1: you know, having a ton of different local times like
Speaker 1: that wasn't that much of a problem at first. You know,
Speaker 1: this was still a time before a rapid communication, rapid transportation,
Speaker 1: you know, so it didn't really matter that different communities
Speaker 1: kept different times. But as human beings began to explore
Speaker 1: and you know, developed new ways to travel, this global
Speaker 1: economy started to form. Suddenly the world found itself needing
Speaker 1: a way to really measure and communicate time with one another.
Speaker 1: And that's really how we wound up with things like
Speaker 1: time zones or Greenwich meantime. All right, so let's talk
Speaker 1: a little bit more about that history. I mean, the
Speaker 1: pivotal moment that you're talking about really started during what
Speaker 1: we would call the Age of Exploration and ran right
Speaker 1: through the Industrial Revolution. For example, here in the US
Speaker 1: that you know, time took a major leap towards standardization
Speaker 1: in the late eighteen hundreds. And when you look at
Speaker 1: why that was, I mean, this was largely due to
Speaker 1: that long distance travel that was finally possible because of
Speaker 1: the rise of railroads, definitely, and the invention of trains
Speaker 1: really changed the way we look at time in all
Speaker 1: sorts of ways. For instance, even though people had tried
Speaker 1: to predict the future for thousands of years, we didn't
Speaker 1: think about the possibility of traveling to the future until
Speaker 1: after the train came along. And once we had a
Speaker 1: machine that could zip across these vast distances, these authors
Speaker 1: like H. G. Wells began to dream machines that could
Speaker 1: travel time as if it were a rail line itself.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's an interesting connection. But yeah, of course,
Speaker 1: railroads also forced people to think practically about time, not
Speaker 1: just creatively. And you think about trying to coordinate train
Speaker 1: schedules across all these different local time I mean, that
Speaker 1: had to have been just this huge headache. And you know,
Speaker 1: so it was November of eighty three that the American
Speaker 1: railroads adopted a standard time system, and it was based
Speaker 1: on the four time zones that we're familiar with today.
Speaker 1: Here there's Eastern, Central Mountain, and Pacific and so the
Speaker 1: clocks within each time zone were to be synchronized. And
Speaker 1: then as a result of that, the railroads only had
Speaker 1: to keep track of these four local times instead of
Speaker 1: the dozens that they were having to keep track of before.
Speaker 1: And that was obviously this big improvement all around, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, apparently a lot of people didn't see it
Speaker 1: that way at first. But I was reading this article
Speaker 1: in Smithsonian, and there were a bunch of cities that
Speaker 1: insisted on keeping their own local time zones for everything
Speaker 1: except train schedules, and others refused to switch over that too.
Speaker 1: You know. Um it was mostly because these cities bristled
Speaker 1: at the idea of railroads kind of up ending their
Speaker 1: established way of doing things, like they just didn't want
Speaker 1: to change. Like, there was this one editorial in a
Speaker 1: Cincinnati newspaper where the author actually proclaimed, quote, let the
Speaker 1: people of Cincinnati stick to the truth as it is
Speaker 1: written by the sun, moon and stars. I mean, that
Speaker 1: is what they do best in Cincinnati. Everybody knows that.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you're right. Though, there was a staunch
Speaker 1: opposition to this change over for years after the time
Speaker 1: zone system was introduced, and so much so that, in fact,
Speaker 1: that the country didn't officially adopted until I think thirty
Speaker 1: five years later, and that was with the Standard Time
Speaker 1: Act of nineteen eighteen. Now, this also established daylight saving
Speaker 1: time for better or worse. Yeah, that's right. But America
Speaker 1: did take another important step towards standard time and years between.
Speaker 1: And in fact, just one year after the railroads introduced
Speaker 1: US time zones, delegates from twenty five other countries gathered
Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. For what was called the UM
Speaker 1: the International Meridian Conference. And during this conference, the delegates
Speaker 1: voted to recognize the Greenwich Meridian in London as this
Speaker 1: common point from which nations would measure time and longitude.
Speaker 1: And so how did they decide on Greenwich Meridian? And
Speaker 1: and I mean you can draw meridians at all different
Speaker 1: points on the globe, of course, So what what made
Speaker 1: this the clear choice? Well, for one thing, a lot
Speaker 1: of countries have been using the Greenwich meridian as the
Speaker 1: prime meridian for decades by the time the conference was held.
Speaker 1: So in England the line had been established as zero
Speaker 1: degrees longitude in eighteen fifty one, and this fixed line
Speaker 1: allowed merchant ships and explorers to keep better track of
Speaker 1: their east west position while at sea. Like they could
Speaker 1: use the position to the sun and stars to get
Speaker 1: an idea of the time on board the ship and
Speaker 1: then compare that to the local time at the prime
Speaker 1: meridian to determine their approximate location. So British sailors started
Speaker 1: traveling with chronometers set to Greenwich time, and soon the
Speaker 1: practice spread to countries all over the world. But even
Speaker 1: though this practice was legitimized at the four Conference, there
Speaker 1: were still some holdouts, you know, just like there were
Speaker 1: when railroads tried to introduce time zones. France in particular
Speaker 1: didn't like the idea of using British time and longitude
Speaker 1: as the world's standard. Instead, they were pushing for Paris
Speaker 1: to be the side of the prime meridian. Of course,
Speaker 1: you know, no one else was really interested in this,
Speaker 1: and the Greenish meridian had already sort of like proven effective,
Speaker 1: so del Gets figured why start over? So how did
Speaker 1: France take that? Did they take the loss sense tried
Speaker 1: or do they pull a Cincinnati and throw a fit? Oh,
Speaker 1: they definitely throw a fit. I mean the French delegates
Speaker 1: if stained from voting at the conference. Uh. They even
Speaker 1: decided to adopt Paris meantime as their national time, but
Speaker 1: eventually they had to switch to Grennish mean time, you know,
Speaker 1: like a few decades later. But even then some people
Speaker 1: in France would refer to g M T as quote,
Speaker 1: the meantime of Paris retarded nine minutes and twenty one seconds.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess that's why we've always said that
Speaker 1: France is really like the Cincinnati of Nations. Yeah, old,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, since you brought up g M T,
Speaker 1: we should probably talk a little bit about what that
Speaker 1: is and how exactly it's determined. Sure, but before we
Speaker 1: get into all that, let's take a quick break. You're
Speaker 1: listening to part Time Genius, and we're talking about mankind's
Speaker 1: many varied attempts to keep time. All right, Mango, So
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about the worldwide impact of the
Speaker 1: Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich mean time. But I'm not done
Speaker 1: with this topic just yet because I'm still a little
Speaker 1: hazy on the specific. So do you have a sense
Speaker 1: of what we're actually referring to when we use these terms. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we always think of the Prime Meridian as an
Speaker 1: imaginary line running around the world, just like we do
Speaker 1: with the Equator, and it definitely is that, But the
Speaker 1: Grenich Meridian is also a physical line. Like there's this
Speaker 1: bronze strip that runs through a courtyard at the Royal
Speaker 1: Observatory in UH in London, and it represents the boundary
Speaker 1: between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. UH so if you
Speaker 1: were to stand with one foot on either side of
Speaker 1: the line, you technically be in two different hymns fears
Speaker 1: at the same time, I mean kind of these days.
Speaker 1: The prime meridian is determined by this complex statistical solution.
Speaker 1: It involves, I think, algorithms and the coordination with the
Speaker 1: International Bureau of Weights and Measurements. It's it's way too
Speaker 1: complicated again into hear, but the basic result is that
Speaker 1: the physical line in the observatory courtyard is actually about
Speaker 1: ten feet off from where the imaginary line is that
Speaker 1: we might go by. Okay, so I see, So I
Speaker 1: get that g MT is based on the local time
Speaker 1: at that position of the prime meridian in Greenwich. So
Speaker 1: that explains the G and the T. But what about
Speaker 1: the M. How do means fit into this whole thing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the mean is just the average that's used when determining
Speaker 1: the accurate time in Greenwich. So the Earth obviously rotates
Speaker 1: at an uneven speed and the average just helps account
Speaker 1: for that. Okay, well, that actually clears up a good bit.
Speaker 1: There is one story that I want to tell here
Speaker 1: while we're on this subject of GMT, because there's the
Speaker 1: belvil that the are you familiar with the Belville family.
Speaker 1: I do know about them. Yeah yeah, So just for
Speaker 1: our listeners, as the family that made a living by
Speaker 1: literally selling time to their neighbors. So, just in case
Speaker 1: you haven't heard this story, it starts with an astronomer
Speaker 1: and a meteorologist. His name was John Delvill and so
Speaker 1: he began working as an assistant at the Royal Observatory
Speaker 1: and Greenwich back in the eighteen thirties. Now, during this time,
Speaker 1: he would always set his pocket watch to the observatories clock.
Speaker 1: And if you think about it, that was a pretty
Speaker 1: awesome job perk because this was the eighteen thirties, so
Speaker 1: it was tough to get the right time if you
Speaker 1: didn't live really close to the observatory and there were
Speaker 1: no radios, no telephones or even telegraphs to communicate that
Speaker 1: time to other parts of London. So unless you had
Speaker 1: access to the observatory, much like John did, you were
Speaker 1: pretty much out of luck and your clocks were likely
Speaker 1: to be off by you know, at least a few minutes.
Speaker 1: And so John looks at this problem and he sees
Speaker 1: this money making opportunity and he starts selling the time
Speaker 1: to a network of subscribers all over the city. Now,
Speaker 1: each week he would get his pocket watch certified at
Speaker 1: the observatory, and then he would set off to visit
Speaker 1: London's clockmakers and shipping companies and even just some ordinary
Speaker 1: citizens who really wanted to know what time it was exactly.
Speaker 1: And so these customers they would pay an annual fee
Speaker 1: for this service, and John would provide this thing for
Speaker 1: like twenty more years until he passed away. It's unbelievable
Speaker 1: that that he thought to make subscriptions for this thing
Speaker 1: is just incredible. But you know what I love about
Speaker 1: the story is how easily it could have ended just
Speaker 1: there right like, Uh, by the time John died, time
Speaker 1: signals were being set by telegraph to anyone who owned one,
Speaker 1: so you know, his weekly visits weren't really necessary anymore.
Speaker 1: But after twenty years of trusting John's pocket watch, many
Speaker 1: of his subscribers couldn't stomach the thought of setting their
Speaker 1: clocks to an untested piece of technology like the telegraph.
Speaker 1: It's almost like in Japan when they put out calculators. Uh,
Speaker 1: people need to have abicus is attached to them so
Speaker 1: that they would double check the work of the calculators.
Speaker 1: But so anyway, they were all these people who were
Speaker 1: desperate to maintain this service they knew and loved, and
Speaker 1: and these loyal customers kept asking John's much younger widow, Maria,
Speaker 1: to carry on the family business. And so she did
Speaker 1: for thirty six years when Maria carried her husband's watch
Speaker 1: all over London. But then when she retired in her
Speaker 1: subscribers still weren't ready to give up the service, so
Speaker 1: they started petitioning for Belleville's daughter Ruth to take up
Speaker 1: this uh business of London's timekeeper. And then she did too. Wow.
Speaker 1: I mean, you think the story might end there, but
Speaker 1: it keeps going. And so even after making these weekly
Speaker 1: rounds for an additional forty eight years, Ruth only stopped
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty because World War Two had made it
Speaker 1: too dangerous to walk the streets. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: think about it, she was eighty six years old. Radios
Speaker 1: had been broadcasting the time for decades at this point,
Speaker 1: but the family business was somehow still lucrative enough for
Speaker 1: her to keep up with it for her entire adult life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's pretty amazing that this family turned
Speaker 1: like this niche service into basically a dynasty, right Like
Speaker 1: it's a multi generational and family business. And it's also
Speaker 1: amazing to me that like the Royal Observatory was just
Speaker 1: down with this arrangement, like they could have shut it
Speaker 1: down at any point, but they just never did. M Well,
Speaker 1: as long as we're doling out credit here, I think
Speaker 1: we should probably pause for a minute to give a
Speaker 1: shout out to Belville's pocket watch, which actually even had
Speaker 1: a nickname. It was Arnold, and it was named after
Speaker 1: the person who made it, and all three Belvils relied
Speaker 1: on this same eighteenth century pocket watch when they were
Speaker 1: making their rounds, and it was a state of the
Speaker 1: art watch when John Delville purchased it nearly a hundred
Speaker 1: years before Ruth's retirement, and after all those intervening decades,
Speaker 1: it continued to provide time accurate to within I think
Speaker 1: a tenth of a second. So it's remarkable when you
Speaker 1: consider how old this watch was. So as a reward
Speaker 1: for such faithful service, Arnold is now enshrine at the
Speaker 1: Clockmaker's Museum in London and it's still display there today.
Speaker 1: So nice work, Arnold. It is amazing that, like when
Speaker 1: you give something a name, it just becomes so much
Speaker 1: more charming, like if you called your toaster Oliver, suddenly
Speaker 1: is a much more toaster. But you know, what's interesting
Speaker 1: about pocket watches like Arnold is that they actually represent
Speaker 1: a tipping point in the history of timekeeping. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's a big deal, but but what do you
Speaker 1: mean exactly? So obviously humans had tried and failed to
Speaker 1: keep accurate time for a long time by this point,
Speaker 1: you know, before we had these mechanical clocks run by
Speaker 1: gears and springs, and early civilizations like Egypt or China
Speaker 1: they developed sundials to track the passage of time. These
Speaker 1: other civilizations created water clocks as to work around, so
Speaker 1: rather than relying on the stars and the sun, you know,
Speaker 1: they used water to steadily drip into a container that
Speaker 1: had these painted lines around the side to mark different
Speaker 1: points in the day. And of course this method had
Speaker 1: its problems too, you know, water freezes and that could
Speaker 1: effectively stop the process. But many of these inconsistencies all
Speaker 1: fell by the wayside with the introduction of these mechanical clocks.
Speaker 1: This system just provide a way more reliable way of
Speaker 1: keeping time, and one that wasn't influenced by changes in
Speaker 1: temperature or lack of light and its mechanical clocks became
Speaker 1: more and more common and more portable. The active time
Speaker 1: keeping almost became more entwined with daily life than ever before. Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean I think I see what you're saying. So
Speaker 1: pocket watches were kind of the breakthrough that allowed the
Speaker 1: average citizen to start keeping track of time in this
Speaker 1: really specific way. I mean, yeah, the old way of
Speaker 1: doing things where most people were just having to keep
Speaker 1: up with morning, noon, and nine. I mean, people could
Speaker 1: now easily gauge, you know, not only the individual hour,
Speaker 1: but down to the minute of the day exactly. Smithsonian
Speaker 1: has this really great article on the history of early timekeeping,
Speaker 1: and there's one part I want to read. It's a
Speaker 1: nice breakdown of the pocket watches impact. It goes like
Speaker 1: this quote. Affordable pocket watches weren't common until the nineteenth century,
Speaker 1: but once they arrived, they quickly invaded the world of commerce.
Speaker 1: When you could time your actions with those of a
Speaker 1: remote trading partner, new styles of just in time commerce
Speaker 1: could merge. Pocket watch wielding conductors meant trains could begin
Speaker 1: to keep regular schedules. Scientists and astronomers could conduct more
Speaker 1: precise experiments. Portable watches even made it easier for lovers
Speaker 1: to conduct illicit affairs by arranging to meet at a
Speaker 1: pre ordained spot in time. But having a watch wasn't
Speaker 1: just about keeping to the clock. It was a cultural marker,
Speaker 1: a performance of punctuality. Every time you pulled out your
Speaker 1: watch conspicuously and in public, you signal to others that
Speaker 1: you were reliable. I mean that's interesting because you never
Speaker 1: really think about how much of a game change or
Speaker 1: portability was for time pieces. But I mean it makes
Speaker 1: sense that it would be. But you know, it's also
Speaker 1: easy to imagine how the pocket watch was kind of
Speaker 1: this springboard to the wrist watch. I mean, pulling one
Speaker 1: of those out of your pocket is easy when you're
Speaker 1: standing still, but it's a different story when you're doing
Speaker 1: something active, like if you're jogging or riding in a
Speaker 1: car or whatever it might be. Yeah, it's obviously much
Speaker 1: easier to take a quick and set your wrist. I mean.
Speaker 1: The problem was that when the first first watches started
Speaker 1: showing up in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they were
Speaker 1: marketed almost exclusively to women. They had leather bands or
Speaker 1: metallic bands, they were small, they had these delicate watch faces,
Speaker 1: and they were primarily worn as jewelries, so men tended
Speaker 1: to shy away from them, and watchmakers came to view
Speaker 1: the idea of strapping a watch gear wrist is pretty silly.
Speaker 1: In fact, there was this one German watchmaker who referred
Speaker 1: to the custom as quote the idiotic fashion of carrying
Speaker 1: one's clock on the most restless part of the body,
Speaker 1: exposed to the most extreme temperature variations. One hopes it
Speaker 1: will soon disappear. I love reading or hearing quotes about
Speaker 1: something like this that are just seems so harmless, and
Speaker 1: people speak so passionately. I think I've heard anybody speak
Speaker 1: so passionately against wrist watches. But obviously this guy didn't
Speaker 1: get his way. So what changed, Well, the turning point
Speaker 1: really came during World War One. Officers started using them
Speaker 1: because it was easier to core NAT attacks with a
Speaker 1: watch on your wrist and it was to like fumble
Speaker 1: in your pockets. So as the war went on, watchmakers
Speaker 1: started rolling out new models with soldiers in mind. They
Speaker 1: had these larger faces, these more prominent numbers to improve legibility,
Speaker 1: and in the end, this manlier take on the wrist
Speaker 1: watch was this huge hit with soldiers millions of whom
Speaker 1: continued wearing them once the war was over, and sales
Speaker 1: figures actually reflect the sea change. Like in a wristwatches
Speaker 1: only account for fifteen percent of all watches made in America,
Speaker 1: but by five the number had risen to eight percent
Speaker 1: of American watches. So clearly all this rebranding paid off. Wow,
Speaker 1: and only what fifteen years that that is amazing. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, since we're on the subject of wrist watches
Speaker 1: as status symbols and how wars can kind of help
Speaker 1: broaden the market for them, I do feel like we
Speaker 1: have to talk about maybe the most famous luxury watch
Speaker 1: of them all, and that is, of course, the Rolex. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's another great wartime story. But before we get to it,
Speaker 1: let's take another quick break. All right, Well, so what's
Speaker 1: the scoop on Rolex and how exactly did it become
Speaker 1: a luxury brand. Well, like you explained, the First World
Speaker 1: War really established the wristwatches new role in combat and
Speaker 1: that's something that carried over into the Second World War
Speaker 1: as well. And the Rolex brand was this especially popular
Speaker 1: choice among British pilots who really considered the Swiss timepieces
Speaker 1: to be the most accurate ones in the world. So
Speaker 1: long before they became status symbols here in the States,
Speaker 1: Rolexes were already treasured abroad for their utility really, and
Speaker 1: you know the only problem was that whenever these British
Speaker 1: pilots were shot down and taken prisoner, their German captors
Speaker 1: always confiscated their watches. So word of this gets to
Speaker 1: the co founder of Rolex and he decides to take
Speaker 1: action on the troop's behalf. So the deal was that
Speaker 1: any British elett who lost their Rolex in the line
Speaker 1: of duty could simply send him a letter explaining the situation,
Speaker 1: and the company would then send out a replacement watch,
Speaker 1: along with a note telling the soldier not to quote
Speaker 1: even think of settlement during the war. So that's a
Speaker 1: really nice gesture. And I guess they were kind of like,
Speaker 1: I use, when they came back to town they could
Speaker 1: get these watches, but realistically, like, how many POWs we're
Speaker 1: going to be allowed to send away for watches from
Speaker 1: these camps. Well, here's what surprising about this whole thing
Speaker 1: is that they were actually thousands of soldiers who responded
Speaker 1: to Rolex's offer. And as for getting the watches behind,
Speaker 1: enemy lines. Apparently there were some German camps that gave
Speaker 1: special privileges to British airmen, including the chance to order
Speaker 1: and keep these watches. So, as you might imagine, this
Speaker 1: proved to be a bad idea for Germany in a
Speaker 1: few different ways. I mean, so for one thing, the
Speaker 1: Rolex program boosted the captured soldiers morale, and after all,
Speaker 1: the guy who had extended the offer to them, Hans Willsdorf,
Speaker 1: was himself a German born expatriot. Now, by allowing soldiers
Speaker 1: to take on these io used that you mentioned, he
Speaker 1: was basically saying, hey, I believe the Allies are gonna
Speaker 1: win this thing, so go ahead and pay me when
Speaker 1: this is all over. That's pretty fascinating and I really
Speaker 1: do love it. You know, it never occurred to me
Speaker 1: that the arrangement could be taken, you know, as this
Speaker 1: vote of confidence, which is really cool. But you said
Speaker 1: the program also led to other problems for the Germans. Well,
Speaker 1: that's definitely true. I mean, some of these replacement Rolex
Speaker 1: has played pretty critical roles in the British escape attempts.
Speaker 1: I mean, for instance, you know the so called Great
Speaker 1: Escape of ninety four. Well, the men who helped dig
Speaker 1: the tunnels, had to covertly disperse the excess soil and
Speaker 1: the prison yard, and so to help them with this,
Speaker 1: some of them were using Rolex watches to time the
Speaker 1: movements of the guards. That's pretty awesome. But if the
Speaker 1: Rolex program was only open to British soldiers, like, how
Speaker 1: did it become such a hot brand in the US? Well,
Speaker 1: that was actually another unexpected benefit from the Rolex war campaign.
Speaker 1: So when American servicemen were overseas, they heard their British
Speaker 1: allies go on and on about how these Rolexes were
Speaker 1: so reliable and how the company had made this amazing
Speaker 1: replacement service for them. And so once the war was over,
Speaker 1: many Americans had this newfound appreciation for these watches. And
Speaker 1: while Rolex had never found much success in the States
Speaker 1: prior to the war, after the war the brand became
Speaker 1: this go to choice for Americans who wanted what they
Speaker 1: saw as a classy wrist watch. Well, speaking of classy
Speaker 1: wrist watches, did you know that the world's first calculator
Speaker 1: watch was sold exclusively through these high end retailers like
Speaker 1: Tiffany and uh Neiman Marcus. That's pretty funny to imagine yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it sounds ridiculous because we mostly think of
Speaker 1: like calculator watches as almost like tacky plastic slabs that
Speaker 1: nerds used to wear in the eighties. But before companies
Speaker 1: like Cassio and Saco took the design mainstream in late
Speaker 1: seventies and early eighties, calculator watches were almost more of
Speaker 1: a luxury item. So I guess if you took the
Speaker 1: timing of that, it does make sense like we were
Speaker 1: still a decade or two away from computers being common
Speaker 1: fixtures in the home. So this idea of having like
Speaker 1: a mini computer, although it's you know, incredibly basic one
Speaker 1: strapped to your risk, probably did seem like a little
Speaker 1: bit of a luxury. But I mean the real question
Speaker 1: is how much were they charging for these things if
Speaker 1: they were being sold at Tiffany of all places. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I was curious about this too, And it turns
Speaker 1: out when the first calculator watches were released in nine
Speaker 1: they were cast in solid gold and they retailed for
Speaker 1: about four thousand dollars, and for reference, at the time,
Speaker 1: a year of tuition at Harvard cost about two hundred
Speaker 1: bucks less than that. So depending on how much do
Speaker 1: you had, you could either attend an Ivy League school,
Speaker 1: or you could wear a tiny computer on your wrist.
Speaker 1: That's a tough choice. I'm not sure which I decide
Speaker 1: on that. Actually I was curious, so I've been using
Speaker 1: my own calculator watch while you're saying, or just my
Speaker 1: computer to check the inflation on that number. So if
Speaker 1: you do the math in today's any that golden calculator
Speaker 1: watch would cost you nearly eighteen thousand dollars. So I
Speaker 1: don't know, Mago. I don't want to hurl any accusations,
Speaker 1: but I think they might have been overcharging just a
Speaker 1: little bit for those things. Yeah, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of folks agreed with you even back then, And it
Speaker 1: took a year or so for the same company to
Speaker 1: come out with what they build as an economy version
Speaker 1: of the calculator watch. These were made of steel instead
Speaker 1: of gold, and the result was that they only cost
Speaker 1: about fifty dollars or you know, right around two dollars
Speaker 1: after inflation and from their competitors drove the price even lower,
Speaker 1: with these cheaper models costing under twenty bucks by the
Speaker 1: early eighties. I like how it's either fifty dollars or
Speaker 1: four thousand dollars. It seems like a little bit of
Speaker 1: a jump there. But all right, Well, before we wrap
Speaker 1: things up for this episode, we did promise at the
Speaker 1: outset that we'd circle back to the infamous moon Watch,
Speaker 1: and I can tell from the white Tristan keeps flashing
Speaker 1: his wrist that he's gonna hold us to that promise. Well,
Speaker 1: lucky for us, there's a story that we both wanted
Speaker 1: to tell anyway, because and off, a lot of attention
Speaker 1: gets paid to Neil Armstrong, and you know, as the
Speaker 1: first man on the Moon, that's certainly warranted. But the
Speaker 1: downside of that focus is that the other lunar pioneers
Speaker 1: tend to get overlooked, including, among others, the Mega speed
Speaker 1: Master a k. The first Watch on the Moon, which
Speaker 1: is just a grave and justice the time pieces everywhere,
Speaker 1: no question. But wouldn't this just take us back to Armstrong.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was wearing a speed Master on the
Speaker 1: Apollo eleven missions, so wasn't his the first watch on
Speaker 1: the Moon? Well that's the thing. The electronic timer and
Speaker 1: the lunar module had malfunctioned during the mission, so Armstrong
Speaker 1: actually had to leave his watch behind before ever setting
Speaker 1: foot on the Moon. So that actually means that while
Speaker 1: buzz Aldren ultimately became the second man on the Moon,
Speaker 1: it was his speed Master that became the first watch
Speaker 1: on the Moon. You know, I bet that continues to
Speaker 1: be like this big consolation for Buzz to be able
Speaker 1: to brag about that. But all right, well, now we
Speaker 1: know why it's called the moon Watch. Let let's back
Speaker 1: up from it and talk about why the speed Master
Speaker 1: was the right watch for the job. And just be clear,
Speaker 1: several watches made it into space before the Speedmaster. Both
Speaker 1: Russians and Americans had used watches in orbit will before
Speaker 1: the Apollo missions, but in order to survive an actual spacewalk,
Speaker 1: NASA knew that the average wristwatch wasn't going to cut it.
Speaker 1: And that was because whichever watch made it onto the
Speaker 1: Moon but not only need to be water and temperature resistant,
Speaker 1: but shockproof and most importantly, capable of withstanding twelve g
Speaker 1: s of acceleration. So to that in an engineer at
Speaker 1: NASA named James Reagan. He was tasked with writing out
Speaker 1: the specs for such a watch and sending them to
Speaker 1: potential manufacturers. According to Reagan, the secrecy and the complexity
Speaker 1: of the lunar landing made the specs nearly impossible to decipher. So,
Speaker 1: as he put it, the watch packs were so nebulous
Speaker 1: that people couldn't even tell what we were going to
Speaker 1: do with them. Yeah, I remember reading that even though
Speaker 1: NASA approached like ten different companies, only for them ever
Speaker 1: actually submitted watches to be evaluated, and those tests went
Speaker 1: on for months. I think, like one of the watches
Speaker 1: was limited because it had this like crack crystal during decompression.
Speaker 1: One had hands of the watch that actually worked in
Speaker 1: the test of it. And in the end, the Mega
Speaker 1: Speedmaster was the only watch to meet all of those requirements,
Speaker 1: and to this day it's still the only watch that's
Speaker 1: ever been flight qualified by NASA. I mean, it's definitely
Speaker 1: an impressive track record, especially when you look at the
Speaker 1: crucial role that the watch has played in later missions.
Speaker 1: For instance, everybody knows how trouble the Apollo thirteen mission was,
Speaker 1: but what a lot of people forget is that the
Speaker 1: crew likely wouldn't have made it back to Earth if
Speaker 1: not for their speed Masters. And you know, they had
Speaker 1: to shut down their computers just to be able to
Speaker 1: save power, and so the crew managed to navigate their
Speaker 1: way home using measurements gleaned from their handwound watches. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you'll sometimes hear the complaint that our increased
Speaker 1: focus on timekeeping has made humans slaves to time. Like
Speaker 1: I feel like you hear this criticism a lot. It
Speaker 1: was a criticism that was leveled at pocket watch is
Speaker 1: and risk watches back in the day, and now we
Speaker 1: hear the same thing about the ever present watches on
Speaker 1: our smartphones or computer screens. But I do think it's
Speaker 1: worth remembering that our session with marking and tracking time
Speaker 1: has also led to tons of positive outcomes. You know,
Speaker 1: it's saved astronauts from and otherwise uncertain doom, and uh,
Speaker 1: it also lets us know when it's time to go
Speaker 1: downstairs and get a big bowl of ramen. So you know,
Speaker 1: having a clock definitely has its benefits. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a that's a pretty important role that it plays.
Speaker 1: But all right, so what do you say we set
Speaker 1: the clock for a fact off and then we can
Speaker 1: go scarf some of those noodles that you're talking about,
Speaker 1: Because now I'm wondering, yes, please, So how about we
Speaker 1: start with the fact about the author of A Brief
Speaker 1: History of Time? Do you know that at Stephen Hawkings
Speaker 1: funeral it was made clear that time travelers were welcome,
Speaker 1: and this was somewhat of a nod to a party
Speaker 1: invitation Hawking at once sent out into as a nine.
Speaker 1: It read quote, you are cordially invited to a reception
Speaker 1: for time travelers hosted by Professor Stephen Hawking, to be
Speaker 1: held in the past at the University of Cambridge Gonville
Speaker 1: at Caius College. I'm sure I said those colleges wrong.
Speaker 1: Hawking had of course already thrown the party back in
Speaker 1: June of that year, and he sent out the invitation
Speaker 1: later to make sure that only time travelers would show up. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: he was left a party alone in a decorated room
Speaker 1: with a banner that read welcome time Travelers. That's a bomber.
Speaker 1: I think that probably would have changed history just a
Speaker 1: little bit of wow. All right, So did you know
Speaker 1: that the times on the boards at Grand Central Station
Speaker 1: are intentionally off by a full minute? Now? This is,
Speaker 1: of course, because it can be dangerous when passengers are
Speaker 1: rushing and end up falling or colliding with each other,
Speaker 1: and this means that the trains are actually pulling out
Speaker 1: of the station a minute after the posted departure times.
Speaker 1: This may seem trivial, but the ideas that those heading
Speaker 1: quickly to a train may relax just a little bit
Speaker 1: know that they're going to get there. And the studies
Speaker 1: actually backed this up because Grand Central actually has one
Speaker 1: of the lowest rates of slips and falls of all
Speaker 1: the major stations in the US. I love that there's
Speaker 1: a measurement of this, but that's pretty impressive. That's it is.
Speaker 1: I think about that every time I go to Grand
Speaker 1: Central from now long. You know, I feel like we
Speaker 1: can't have an episode on time and not talk about
Speaker 1: cuckoo clocks. So I'm here to tell you about the
Speaker 1: world's largest cuckoo clock. It's in Triburg, Germany. The bird
Speaker 1: alone is fourteen feet long and weighs three pounds. The
Speaker 1: pendulum is another twenty six feet and ways two hundred
Speaker 1: twenty pounds. So this is not a petite clock. Right there,
Speaker 1: There's another clock that's trying to edge in for the
Speaker 1: claim to be the largest cuckoo clock in the world.
Speaker 1: It's in Sugar Creek, Ohio. This clock is twenty three
Speaker 1: ft tall and twenty four ft wide, and Guinness has
Speaker 1: yet to declare one of them winners. So I think
Speaker 1: we should just celebrate the fact that there are two
Speaker 1: unbelievably large cuckoo clocks out there. That definitely seems worth celebrating.
Speaker 1: That is funny. I like the idea that Guinness is
Speaker 1: is like ignoring to wait on some even bigger clock.
Speaker 1: They're just not going to pay attention yet. Well, when
Speaker 1: you look at the working hours of the richest Americans
Speaker 1: today versus a few decades back, it's interesting to see
Speaker 1: that the wealthier working much longer now than they used to.
Speaker 1: And that makes the findings from a study out of
Speaker 1: the Anderson School of Management this is a u c
Speaker 1: l A that much more interesting because in a study
Speaker 1: of four thousand people, or a survey of four thousand
Speaker 1: people at various age, employment, and income levels, when people
Speaker 1: were asked whether they would take more money or more
Speaker 1: time if they could get it, about two thirds of
Speaker 1: the people chose money. But the study found that those
Speaker 1: who chose time over money were generally happier people, and
Speaker 1: this was after controlling for various income level. So it
Speaker 1: is pretty interesting to see that. Huh, so I forgot
Speaker 1: to mention as Stephen Hawking factorlier did you know that
Speaker 1: A Brief History of Time was on the London Sunday
Speaker 1: Times bestseller list for an unbelievable two hundred thirty seven
Speaker 1: weeks after it published. And this which is so many
Speaker 1: weeks of people pretending to understand what they were ready,
Speaker 1: that is years. That really is unbelievable. I will say
Speaker 1: I have to admit every time I would see somebody
Speaker 1: holding that book, even though it is a fascinating read,
Speaker 1: you you do have this tendency to look at and
Speaker 1: be like, do you really understand what this book is saying?
Speaker 1: Because I'm not sure I did. But all right, well
Speaker 1: I've got a quick one too. I decided we should
Speaker 1: throw in effect about Cindy Lauper because of her song
Speaker 1: Time after Time. And I didn't realize this, but her
Speaker 1: debut solo album, which was called She's So Unusual, came
Speaker 1: out three and it was the first debut female album
Speaker 1: to have four songs hit the top five on the charts,
Speaker 1: which is unbelievable. So it included Time after Time. And
Speaker 1: of course girls just want to have fun. You know what,
Speaker 1: I have a song fact as well. It's about the
Speaker 1: song time is on my side? You mean like that's
Speaker 1: the that's the Rolling Stones, right, Yeah, that's the one.
Speaker 1: So it was actually first written by Jerry Raggaboy and
Speaker 1: performed by a jazz from bonist Kaiwinde, but then soul
Speaker 1: singer Irma Thomas and of course the Rolling Stones made
Speaker 1: it a song almost everyone knew, and it became the
Speaker 1: Rolling stones first top ten hit in the US. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel like we we both ended up with facts
Speaker 1: that had to do with songs with the word time
Speaker 1: in them. So I've got a challenge for you here, mango,
Speaker 1: What do you say that we have a little bit
Speaker 1: of a back and forth where we have to name
Speaker 1: songs with the word time and the title, and then
Speaker 1: you also have to give the name of the performer
Speaker 1: or performers. What do you say to this? Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: up for this. All right, you go first, Let's see
Speaker 1: how far we can go. Uh if I could turn
Speaker 1: back time with share? Oh I thought that you started
Speaker 1: out with the Share, when I'm gonna start out with
Speaker 1: one that's like equally respectable. Just the song Time of
Speaker 1: course by Hootie and the Blowfish during our high school years.
Speaker 1: UM Summertime by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Nice you
Speaker 1: went a little more sophisticated there. Um for the Longest Time,
Speaker 1: or maybe it's just called the Longest Time by Billy Joel?
Speaker 1: Did anyone really know what time it is? Chicago? Nice?
Speaker 1: Tomorrow is a Long Time by Bob Dylan, One More
Speaker 1: Time by Daft Punk Nice. All right, I've got a
Speaker 1: great one, maybe the best of all time. I've had
Speaker 1: the time of my life, you know from Dirty Dancing? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Who sings that? Wait? Oh no, there's so many other
Speaker 1: songs I could have chosen. Wait, wait, wait, I should
Speaker 1: get credit because nobody knows who's sang this? Right? Was
Speaker 1: it pet Crazy? Yeah? It's a Patrick Swayzy original. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look at up fair Bill Medley and Jennifer Warrens.
Speaker 1: Come on, nobody even knows that that? Why did I
Speaker 1: go with that? But you know what, I'm gonna play
Speaker 1: true to the game and I'm gonna give it to you.
Speaker 1: You you have one today, Congratulations, Thank you so much. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm sure we forgot a lot of terrific facts about
Speaker 1: watches and time and clocks and all of that, and
Speaker 1: we always love hearing those facts from you, so please
Speaker 1: send those to us. Part time Genius at how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. You can also hit us up on
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter, but as always, thanks so much for listening. Yea,
Speaker 1: thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
Speaker 1: of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several
Speaker 1: brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even
Speaker 1: begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel
Speaker 1: Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI mixy
Speaker 1: sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay
Speaker 1: blues Yer is our lead researcher, with support from the
Speaker 1: Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams
Speaker 1: and Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.
Speaker 1: Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard, we
Speaker 1: hope you'll subscribe, and if you really really like what
Speaker 1: you've heard, maybe you could leave a good review for us.
Speaker 1: Do we forget Jason? Jason who