Timekeepers

Title: Timekeepers – How the World Became Obsessed with Time

Author: Simon Garfield

Publisher: CanonGate Books, 2016 (First)

ISBN: 9781782113195

Pages: 349

As soon as man freed himself from the vagaries of hunting-gathering and settled down for a sedentary life with agriculture, he became slave to time in the form of seasons and months. Accurate reckoning of time was necessitated for sowing and harvesting. The timekeepers were usually priests and astrologers who carved out a prominent place in society on account of the esoteric knowledge at their disposal. With his progress to urban life and technology, time continued to exert its mastery over man, but in lower chunks than before – in days, hours and even minutes! Clearly, the pace of life has speeded up over the ages in response to what is required from each person. Even though the standard of living has undoubtedly improved with each new wave of advance in technology and healthcare, it is questionable whether its quality has shown any upward trend. Forced to lead a mechanical life in sync with the tick of a clock takes away the vitality and intimacy of our everyday lives. This book examines the concept of time on human societies and analyses how people write the modern story of time in their own way. Simon Garfield is the author of several books and writes in newspapers and journals. He was named ‘Mind’ journalist of the year in 2005.

It is no wonder that time is the most commonly used noun in the English language considering its paramount importance to society. What is curious is the attempt at reform in time reckoning after the French Revolution. The French were obsessed with the metric system as a unit of measurement and wanted to extend its usefulness in computation to time as well. A new 10-hour clock was devised in the aftermath of the Revolution in which each hour was divided into 100 minutes. Quite unlike the system’s wide acceptance in the case of distance and weight, the 10-hour clock didn’t gain any traction whatsoever and was quietly dropped. Other strange contraptions like two minute-hands were also seen in the US.

The book gives a good description of the influence of railways in standardizing time in a country. Earlier, each city synchronized its local time with sunrise. Consequently, the time in Oxford was 5 minutes 2 seconds behind London time while Bristol lagged behind by 10 minutes. Evidently, such confusion was not acceptable to trains that ran between the cities. The railway companies adopted London time as the standard on which their timetables were set. Initially, this created problems as some of the wayside stations used their own time. Eventually, the ‘time’ of the idea had come and even the army too fell in line. London time was accepted as the standard in the entire country. In 1840, the Great Western Railway was the first to adopt the idea that time along its route should be the same no matter where a passenger alighted or departed. This task was made possible with the advent of electric telegraph the year before, with time signals from Greenwich being sent directly along trackside wires. In 1880, the British parliament passed Statutes (Definition of Time) Act which made it an offense to knowingly display the wrong time.

Any discussion on time wouldn’t be complete without a sampling of the finest watches made in the world. The Swiss watchmaking industry leads all the others for the exquisite appeal and unmatched technical perfection of its products. That explains why the Swiss watches constitute 58 per cent by value of all the watches sold worldwide, even though they come to just 1.7 per cent by number. After two centuries, they face the toughest challenge in the form of Apple Watch which is a smart device. The industry now focusses on the human aspects conferred by their watches, such as the indication of its owner’s income level which can afford that expensive watch, the expression of one’s unique personality and display of his appreciation of the finer things in life. Garfield addresses the interesting issue of why watch advertisements consistently show the time 10:10 on its face. This particular time ensures that the hour and minute hands pointing in opposite directions that makes the face resembling a ‘smile’. It also shows the position of the date without obstruction, doesn’t obscure the manufacturer’s label at the top of the dial and forms a pleasant and balanced appearance. It seems that setting this time by watch advertisers has nothing to do with Abraham Lincoln’s assassination which is the subject of an urban legend that says that Lincoln’s death had occurred around this instant.

Garfield reserves a large part of the narrative to examine interesting features of how time has influenced the visual arts. There are tiring details of 24-hour movies and documentaries that never end. Attempts to decouple people from the rhythm of eating by embracing a slow process are also catalogued. The information on these sections is no doubt useful, but only to a somewhat privileged group of English and American societies. Others would find reading through these chapters a laborious job. There are many interesting topics the author could’ve included. The origin of time zones and the history behind them would’ve been immensely appealing and doing justice to the book’s title. The complexities of timekeeping with atomic clocks should’ve been described as a counterpoise to how our ancestors kept time with their primitive devices. Overall, readers get an impression that the author has not fully utilized all the options available to him.

The book is recommended only to aficionados of how to weave time with art, particularly movies.

Rating: 2 Star