Ruth Belville - the lady who sold time
Ruth Belville sold time. Each day she would set her watch by the
Greenwich clock in London and then charge a fee for the privilege of
looking at her watch.
Belville’s father had established the business in 1836, when such
knowledge was valuable — as railways revolutionized European travel,
individual towns had to abandon their non-uniform local times, reckoned
by the sun, and adopt instead the standard London time that dominated
rail schedules.
For a confusing few years the nation underwent a sort of fugue, with
public clocks displaying both London and local time; a few great clocks
were even fitted with two minute hands...
But by 1880 the British government had finally established a single
standard time for the nation, and when Ruth Belville began selling time
in 1892 she was already an anachronism. Remarkably, she continued until
1940, after the advent of World War II — by which time most of her
clients were clockmakers.
Text and image via the
Futility Closet.
This reminds me that in the 1960s and 1970s there used to be a phone number for getting the "correct time." I called it on numerous occasions, as it was a local call and free, so when setting clocks it was the thing to do.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article!
ReplyDeleteIf you enjoyed it, Elias, you should definitely explore the Futility Closet source, which has lots of similar stuff.
ReplyDelete@TravelerDiogenes: in Ireland we still have a Speaking Clock, which can be called from any phone for a small fee.
ReplyDelete