1. Time Zones A Canadian Invention

2. History  For many years communities across the world set their clocks according to the sun. When the sun was at its highest point it was noon.  During the mid 1800’s, time differences began to pose a problem as communications improved. Time distance or the time it took to get to a given point was shrinking.  Undersea cables and telegraph lines made it easy for Canadians to communicate with other people in the region, in North America, and in Europe, and they had little way of knowing what time it was in other communities.

3.  The Intercontinental railway increased the speed of travel, and between Halifax and Toronto there were five different local times.  Sir Sanford Fleming (a Canadian surveyor, engineer, and scientist) proposed a solution. In 1879, Sanford Fleming suggested that the globe be divided into 24 separate time zones, one for each 15 degrees of Longitude.  Time zones to the East are one hour ahead, and time zones to the West are one hour behind.  His plan was adopted at the 1884 International Prime Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C.