Days of Yore: It's About Time, Part 3: Time Travel!

"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important how we lived. After all, Number One, we're only mortal."
   - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

"Speak for yourself, sir. I plan to live forever."
   - Commander William T. Riker
Star Trek: Generations

Just when you think I'm done talking about time, the time comes to keep talking about it. Though the above quote is not technically from a doctor, it is from fictional time travelers who have deep thoughts, so it counts.

This entry will be a bit different from previous posts on time, as it is not about specific kinds of timekeeping devices, per se. It is about concepts related to time, way back in the days before time travel was invented (which includes today, since as far as I'm aware, time travel hasn't been invented yet, except in the sense that we're traveling through time at a normal pace, always forward).

Image by Freepik

Time Zones

As world travelers when I was young, we went back and forth over the ocean several times. US to Hong Kong. Hong Kong to Philippines. Philippines to the US and back and forth a couple times. Manila to Taipei to Seoul to Bangkok and back. Seattle to London (and train to Paris) and back. At that time, our clocks were not connected to the satellite, and we had to change the time on our watches manually when we got to our destination in a different time zone. If we brought other clocks, we had to change those manually as well. Computers were generally too large to bring on a plane, so we didn't have to change the time on those. While as yet, I've never been to places that are a half hour off from the next time zone over (such as Newfoundland and parts of Australia—though both are on my bucket list!), that could complicate things even more!

A few years ago, I had to turn off my cell phone once I got on a plane. These days, I can leave it on, but have to put it in airplane mode until the nice voice on the intercom says we can take it off airplane mode....and then put it back on airplane mode when we start descent. Once I get to my destination in another time zone, presto change-o, the time has magically updated without me having to do a thing! Satellites are pretty awesome. I'm still holding out for the invention of a teleporter, though! Think of all the money that could save in travel expenses!

Wait a minute...if crossing the International Date Line isn't time travel, I don't know what is! Sometimes when traveling from Manila to Seattle, we have arrived in Seattle before the Manila time that we left. Similarly, going the other way, we lose nearly a day. It makes for a very long day or a very short day.

Daylight Savings

"I've just sucked one year of your life away. I might one day go as high as five, but I really don't know what that would do to you, so let's just start with what we have. What did this do to you? Tell me. And remember, this is for posterity, so be honest. How do you feel?"

- Count Rugen, The Princess Bride

In 1936, President Manuel Quezon instituted a new concept in the Philippines called daylight savings. It only made it to 1937. President Ramon Magsaysay tried again in 1954. Those were, naturally, before I was born. After I was born, but before we lived there, President Ferdinand Marcos tried it in 1978 (source). I don't remember any of that, for obvious reasons. What I do remember is when President Corazon Aquino, the nation's first female president (the Philippines is way ahead of us on that!), observed it in the US and thought it would be a great idea to institute it in the Philippines in 1990. It did not go over at all, as most people didn't understand the concept. Schools moved their start times forward an hour because it was "too early for our children to get up." Whenever anyone wanted to schedule something, people had to know if it was DST (Daylight Savings Time) or RT (Real Time), not understanding that DST has nothing to do with make believe. After some time of national confusion, it was abolished. It has never been used since then, though I see on Wikipedia that it has been proposed a few times.

Here in the US, we have gotten used to setting our clocks forward in the spring and back in the fall ("spring forward" and "fall back"). Similarly to traveling between time zones, our cell phones and some clocks make the change automatically these days, but we still have to change some clocks, such as the stove and microwave clock, and any wall clocks that aren't connected to a satellite. Computer clocks change automatically, as does our atomic clock. As for the clock in my car, while it's possible to change it, I usually just mentally subtract an hour during Standard Time when I'm looking at it. Once we spring forward again, it is once again correct. I love that day, despite losing an hour of sleep!

A few years ago, Washington State, along with a few other states, decided to get rid of Daylight Savings, and our governor signed a bill to approve it. Unfortunately, that requires federal approval, and that has gotten bogged down in red tape, so we still have to move our clocks forward and back. Maybe someday the madness will end?

Hmm...maybe we do time travel twice a year, come to think of it! Also, taking into account time zones, it makes computing the time in another time zone that may or may not observe DST more complicated. These days I just google what time it is in another place...but back in the day, we had to remember and calculate the hours...and consider what time of year it was and whether one or both places in question (here and there) observe DST.

Speaking of the clock in my car (a couple paragraphs up...what can I say...ADHD...), I asked on Monday if that clock takes us Back to the Future. Sadly, the answer is NO! Possibly because, while an amazing car, Luke is not a DeLorean. I've never driven a DeLorean (oh wait a minute...scratch that...my TARDIS takes the form of a DeLorean), but maybe more of them do? Unless...during the Standard Time months, I do have to subtract an hour, so maybe it's like going back to the future? 

Speaking of a DeLorean...

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!"

- Dr. Emmett Brown, 1985, shortly before the epic voyage to 2015
Back to the Future

 

Days of Yore: It's About Time, Part 2

"This is it! This is the answer! It says here that a bolt of lightning is going to strike the clock tower at precisely 10:04 PM next Saturday Night! If we could somehow... harness this lightning; channel it into the Flux Capacitor, it just might work. Next Saturday night, we're sending you back to the future!"

- Dr. Emmett Brown in 1955, Back to the Future

Great Scott! It's great to see you again! I'm so glad you came back for SECONDS on my posts about the days of future past! I feel it's important to start blog posts about timekeeping with a quote from a time-travelling Doctor. What we are about to experience is not a comprehensive list of past ways of keeping time (for example, I won't go into the water clock), but it should nevertheless be instructive. Anyway, that's the hope.

Had Marty McFly come to Redmond, WA instead
of Hill Valley, CA on October 21, 2015, he might
have been surprised how similarly I was dressed.

Come along with me as we hop in my DeLorean (that's the form my TARDIS is taking right now, thanks to the chameleon circuit and the flux capacitor that I installed) to remember how people used to tell time. We're going way farther back than Marty McFly went, all the way back to somewhere around 1500 BC. I'm sure you've figured out by now that I wasn't born yet at the time.

Sundial

There were sundials as far back as 1500 BC in Egypt. They have varied in appearance over the years, but in general they have had some sort of vertical pin or post in the middle, called a gnomon. As the earth rotates, the sun casts a shadow on a different part of the sundial, telling the time. This worked pretty well, but could present issues on rainy days and at night. The Greeks and Romans made improvements on them.

Sundial
(this one is more recent than 1500 BC)
Photo by Jagdish Bhatt on Unsplash

Hourglass

Now we're moving forward to around 1300 AD, when people started using the hourglass. It couldn't tell the time, per se, but it was a great way of using the sands of time to mark how much time remained in a given task. Half of it was filled with sand, and you could turn it over and let the sand flow through to the other half. When the other half was full, the hour (or minute, or whatever time it represented) was up.

Photo by SUNBEAM PHOTOGRAPHY on Unsplash

Belltowers

Save the clock tower! Save the clock tower! Mayor Wilson is sponsoring an initiative to replace that clock. 30 years ago, lightning struck that clock tower, and the clock hasn't run since. We at the Hill Valley Preservation Society think it should be preserved exactly the way it is, as part of our history and heritage.

- Clocktower Lady in 1985, Back to the Future

In 1283, a tower in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England gained a new feature. The kids of the day called it a turret clock, and it was driven by weight. Over the years, they were generally used by churches to tell the time, though they also were used elsewhere, such as the real Big Ben in London and the fictional bell tower at City Hall that was built in 1885 in Hill Valley, California. It was struck by lightning in 1955, and as of 2015, still wasn't fixed. (For all the other major changes that Hill Valley underwent between 1985 and 2015, you'd think they could have used some of that money to fix the clock tower?)

Cuckoo Clock

Now we're jumping forward in time to sometime in the 17th Century in Germany's Black Forest. That's where the earliest descriptions of the cuckoo clock happened. It's generally mounted on a wall, and often very fancy. A mechanical cuckoo bird jumps out at determined intervals and sings the song of its people. Thus the reason a cuckoo bird is so named—because of its distinct call. These clocks have a pendulum that sways back and forth.

Photo by Martin Kleppe on Unsplash

Grandfather Clock

My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopped short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering (tick, tock, tick, tock),
His life seconds numbering, (tick, tock, tick, tock),
It stopped short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

So begins the sad tale of my grandfather's clock. He wasn't my grandfather, but it would appear he may have been Henry Clay Work's grandfather, whom he remembered in 1876. His grandfather loved watching the clock as he grew up. It struck 24 when he entered the house with his lovely bride. The clock was more faithful than any people; it just needed to be wound regularly. Eventually, it tolled the sad hour of his death and "stopped, short, never to go again, when the old man died."

As indicated in the song, grandfather clocks are tall and definitely don't fit on a shelf. Like a cuckoo clock, they have a pendulum, though it's much larger than the one on your average cuckoo clock. The pendulum of a grandfather clock is typically in a compartment with a glass front that you can open.

Stopwatch

Like an hourglass, a stopwatch measures time rather than telling it. You can time how long something takes to do. They are generally digital.

Cell Phone

As I'm sure you realized, I generally tell the time on my cell phone these days. I have an alarm clock on it. I can time things with a stopwatch on my phone if I so desire. I can check the time any time I want, provided I have my cell phone with me. We do have wall clocks, and there's a small alarm clock in my bathroom. I don't use the alarm for that one, but it is convenient as my phone isn't always as accessible in there. I can also tell the time on my computer.

For that matter, if you have Twitter, I recommend following @big_ben_clock, which tolls the hour every hour, which is super convenient, as long as you don't mind that it tolls London time.

BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG

— Big Ben (@big_ben_clock) April 3, 2023

Sources

• https://jackmasonbrand.com/blogs/news/how-did-people-tell-time-before-clocks (Disclaimer: While this article is interesting, I do not recommend visiting this website unless you want to be on their mailing list. I had to unsubscribe after receiving an unsolicited e-mail from them following my visit.)
• https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/renaissance-a2cc3971-344e-49db-801f-3a73619829e2
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo_clock
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_clock
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Grandfather%27s_Clock