Cultural Foundations... HOROLGY

What defines civilization? In my opinion one of the "markers" of a civilization is their observation and tracking of TIME! For 30,000 years different cultures around the world have made "time" one of the primary drivers of their religion, culture, industry & technology, navigation and military strategies.

So for the last 400 years time keeping has been done by clocks and later watches... And, as technology advanced the growth of industry and transportation dictated closer adherence to a standardized measure. Still before electronic communications and atomic time different cities could be on miss matched clocks plus or minus a couple minutes. All of this came into very sharp focus because of a reaction to a tragedy instead of forethought. In 1891.

In 1891 a US Postal Service express train collided with a Toledo passenger train in Kipton Ohio just west of Cleveland. In the investigation Webster C. Ball a Cleveland jeweler was hired to look at the watches used on the railroad line involved. It was found that the conductors watch had stopped four minutes before the wreck. This horrible tragedy lead to the standardization of time keeping under the "Ball Standard". A rigorous testing and certification of a time piece suitable for use in this critical time keeping was offered and later his own watches which became the industry standard. In the "old days" a common business term used to describe a person arriving promptly at the designated time as "ON THE BALL"!

So, you may wonder why mobility guy is talking about watches. I do this because my thirst for learning and my quest for advancement will never stop. And, if you are seeking real knowledge look for revolutionary precedents which lead industry standards. Great watch makers like Elgin were the precursors to the modern production line, each "cottage" industry contributors specialized in what they did and, they became very efficient at painting the dials of machining the case or, loading the movement.... Just like Henry had folks located in one spot and, all they did was bolt on the radiator, as the WORK moved from station to station.

So, standardization has a LOT of benefits and as I expand upon this learning opportunity there will be many more parallels that I will be highlighting. Is there ANY value in what I am studying and wish to share? Well let's put it this way watches went to Quartz drive and battery power 40 years ago! Stay tuned lots more to come on tis subject...

Thank you for reading, please join the discussion!