[time-nuts] Setting clocks 100 years ago

[Neville Michie]

Sun dials easily give you time to about 2 minutes. You have to apply  
the equation of time
but that its often given on the sun dial.
A reasonable long case clock would maintain a minute a week, so you  
would need a lot of cloudy weather
to seriously lose track of time.
There was not a need of more accurate time until navigation, railways  
and stage coaches with schedules.
Astronomers had to make their own time standards from star or solar  
observations.
cheers, Neville Michie



On 05/11/2010, at 8:47 AM, iovane at inwind.it wrote:

> This evening I happened to hear the nearby church's bell tolling 10  
> pm, and
> thought
> that 100+ years ago this could have been the "official" time of the  
> town,
> which
> maybe was used by people to set their own clocks (if any). But then I
> wondered,
> who told the priest what time was it? To what extent the clocks of  
> two towns
> were expected to be close to one another? Does anybody know?
>
> Antonio I8IOV
>
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