TIME, Gentlemen, Please

DITHERING  WITH  LOGIC

There have been two peculiarities in particular over the past three years in my investigation here in the great Time Centre of Spain.

Peculiarity No.1:

Why is the Observatory so reticent about the history of time in Spain during the period of, shall I guess, 1800 to about 1910? - I tried to find out from their web-site - but in 2005 it merely mentioned the start of double summertime in 1918 but not the start of the base GMT+1 time earlier in the century!

The recent article by a local historian Don Francisco Ponce Cordones giving great detail about the origin of the Observatory, did not clear up the problem. That is because he ended it in the air concerning the change in the definition of the “Time Meridian” located in Cadiz - to what he seemed to imply was directly the time meridian of Greenwich (i.e., GMT). The latter is convenient to describe in Spain as being located at Castellon, near Valencia, namely at 0º West.

That in itself raises questions, because, somewhere around the 1910 – 1912 International Treaty period – Spain appears to have followed France in rejecting the direct use of GMT as it was called!
However, the problem, as I see it, is that the transition of the meridian from Cadiz to, say, Salerno in Italy, as required by the use of GMT+1 hours, could well have been very complicated – not a simple, once and for all change in the Spanish Law.

I will leave that problem in the air, to turn to

Peculiarity No.2:

I have previously tried to give a simple explanation as to why the Spanish people seem not to realise that their clockwork earlier in the past showed different times in the day and night for general activities than they have more or less constantly seen during the last 90 years!

I believe that the explanation I gave concerning Sir Arthur Conan Doyle´s use of alibis in London, but no one of repute writing the same details at that time for alibis in Madrid – is too simple to explain such a loss of memory on such a large scale (although, I think that example provides a basis for a logical progression towards the truth?).

What could be conjectured, though, is that the actual timings of daily events in the period described for the clocktime changes above (1800 – 1910?) were extraordinarily jumbled by various changes in the nature of the lawful time on perhaps a number of occasions by the Spanish Government. (I do not know how how many times that happened).

Returning to Peculiarity No.1,  to see if a logical explanation is possible.

  Peculiarity No.1 (Continued):

The possible route that Time Meridians followed politically in Spain since 1800?

1) Initially, when the time was established by the astronomers in Cadiz. Greenwich, and  elsewhere, it was known that it would be necessary somehow to have a standardised time, because the sunclock was both variable and inaccurate, and, also the indicated time changed too much in accordance with the degree of travel in the east – west direction.

2) In 1800 it was only possible for the astronomers to let Madrid know the time by physically sending a clock chronometer by stage coach on a bumpy road. They compromised by informing the observers in Madrid by post the procedure of by how much time the Madrid-observed culmination time should be altered to match the time found by Cadiz. (It should be noted that for some years around 1810 until the defeat of Napoleon, Cadiz was the recognised Capital of Free Spain!).

3) During the 1830´s, the railways were spreading fast. Fortunately, at that time, the electric telegraph made its appearance at the side of the tracks.  To shorten the account, that meant at last that accurate time signals could be sent as required from Cadiz to Madrid.

4) Conjecture No.1, Did the Government in Madrid then require the astronomers to state the time for Madrid - instead of Cadiz ? The Spanish Law had to establish something for Spain, just as the British Government did for the UK (I believe it was 1834) – and there, if you wanted to know the time, you had to ask a policeman!  That required the time on the clocks to be changed on one occasion for everyone in Spain by about 11 minutes. (Midday in Cadiz at 12:11 ).

5) Conjecture No.2, Later, did the Government then follow French insistence on transferring the official meridian from Madrid to PARIS? - Very likely, because the French Academy – of great “Standards for everything” fame was trying to get the World to accept Paris Standards instead of Greenwich. If so, then the astronomers in Cadiz had to calculate the official time in Paris – to add a further change on the clocks for the suffering public – this time the full amount added to the original sun time in Cadiz would be roughly 38 minutes (Paris after all was only different at that time from Greenwich by about 12 minutes). (Midday in Cadiz at 12:38 roughly).

6) Conjecture No.3, Nevertheless, the World refused the French insistence and plumped for Greenwich. Did the Spanish Government first accept that (about 1910?) and require the Cadiz astronomers to calculate for a meridian, at last, at Castellon. That meant hi-jacking the Paris time by a few minutes. (The time for midday in Cadiz would take on a more familiar aspect of the difference of 26 minutes, i.e., 12:26 pretty exactly).

7) Known step, for once!  Because the French refused to comply directly with the use of GMT as stated by Greenwich, they opted instead to use summertime of +1 hour permanently on their clocks (i.e., that near-Berlin time of GMT+1). Possibly for the purposes of international railway safety between the two countries, the Spanish Government ordered the astronomers to put the meridian at the identical position to the French, at Salerno, Italy, 15º East of Greenwich. The luckless public finally reached base with midday at 13:26 at Cadiz. (Later to be used as the basis for the Winter Time in Spain).

8) One more step: (but repeated in 1974)  in 1918 was for Spain again to follow France by imposing double summertime of an additional hour on the clocks in Summer, to the meridian at Istanbul, Turkey at 30º East of Greenwich. The time on the clocks then being changed by a total of 2 hours  26 minutes in Cadiz from the situation in 1800! (Midday in Cadiz in Summer is at 14:26 – a mean value! And mean treatment of the public).
Is it any wonder that the people have lost all recollection of the time for activities in the past?
Once again, I stress that the full story is conjectural – but some of the changes were made!

WHAT DIFFERS IN THE HISTORIAN´S ACCOUNT?

Prior to Step 3) above, Don Francisco Ponce Cordones gives a full account of the founding of the service provided by the astronomers in the Marines Observatory, firstly based in Cadiz City, and then relocated to San Fernando. This is just to mention that his account skipped from the end of the period described in PART 3) to the beginning of PART 6) 3)During the 1830´s, the railways were spreading fast. Fortunately, at that time, the electric telegraph made its appearance at the side of the tracks.  To shorten the account, that meant at last that accurate time signals could be sent as required from Cadiz to Madrid. OMITTED 4) Conjecture No.1, Did the Government in Madrid then require the astronomers to state the time for Madrid - instead of Cadiz ? The Spanish Law had to establish something for Spain, just as the British Government did for the UK (I believe it was 1834) – and there, if you wanted to know the time, you had to ask a policeman!  That required the time on the clocks to be changed on one occasion for everyone in Spain by about 11 minutes. (Midday in Cadiz at 12:11 ). 5) Conjecture No.2, Later, did the Government then follow French insistence on transferring the official meridian from Madrid to PARIS? - Very likely, because the French Academy – of great “Standards for everything” fame was trying to get the World to accept Paris Standards instead of Greenwich. If so, then the astronomers in Cadiz had to calculate the official time in Paris – to add a further change on the clocks for the suffering public – this time the full amount added to the original sun time in Cadiz would be roughly 38 minutes (Paris after all was only different at that time from Greenwich by about 12 minutes). (Midday in Cadiz at 12:38 roughly). Then he plumps for straight to Castellon: 6) Conjecture No.3, Nevertheless, the World refused the French insistence and plumped for Greenwich. Did the Spanish Government first accept that (about 1910?) and require the Cadiz astronomers to calculate for a meridian, at last, at Castellon. That meant hi-jacking the Paris time by a few minutes. (The time for midday in Cadiz would take on a more familiar aspect of the difference of 26 minutes, i.e., 12:26 pretty exactly). BUT, THEN finishes the story prematurely there - leaving out all about GMT+1 and the later addition in Summer to GMT+2 described by me in PARTS 7) and 8). Is it a wonder that I revealed to everyone that the story was incomplete! (I told the simpler version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle´s alibis, to explain the "loss of memory" of the people, but the fuller version is a much more likely explanation!).