AtDDtA1: Railroad Watch

[David Casseres]

On 1/31/07, Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>    "'Sorry boys,' he frowned, making a show of pulling
> out and consulting his old railroad watch....  an just
> like that, they were off, arriving at the Palmer house
> ..." (AtD, Pt. I, Ch. 3, p. 30)
>
>
> railroad watch
>
> On April 19, 1891, a great train disaster occurred
> that would forever change timekeeping on the railroad.
> Two trains, because of an engineer's faulty timepiece,
> collided near Cleveland, Ohio with 9 casualties.
>
> Following the disaster, a commission was appointed to
> adopt a UNIVERSAL set of timekeeping standards by ALL
> railroads. Precision was now needed in this enormous
> industry.
>
> By 1893, the GENERAL RAILROAD TIMEPIECE STANDARDS were
> in effect. Watches that fit this description became
> known as Railroad watches....
>
> http://www.timemachinewatch.com/history.htm



It's that synchronicity/chronograph theme that P. introduced in M&D.  It was
crucial to ocean navigation and surveying in the 18th century, and again to
railroad timetables in the 19th.  In both cases, the projection of European
Lines onto the rest of the world.
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