RRI Live!

Listen to Radio Romania International Live

Railways and Exact Time in the Romanian Space

People nowadays have the exact time at their fingertips, so they are taking it for granted

Railways and Exact Time in the Romanian Space
Railways and Exact Time in the Romanian Space

, 30.08.2021, 14:00

People
nowadays have the exact time at their fingertips, so they are taking
it for granted. We are surrounded by clocks of all kinds, and it is
almost impossible to not know what time it is at any given moment.
However, exact time has its own history. In this case, exact time is
closely tied to the emergence of railways, and is as fascinating as
any other major idea. We are influenced a lot by the most ordinary of
ideas and objects without even realizing it. Exact time and railways
were introduced alongside each other, around the mid-19th
century. Trains
appeared in 1830 in England, and Dorin Stanescu told us that this was
England’s gift to the world:

At
the moment when railways appeared in England, the English found that
they had a problem on their hands. We have to say very clearly that
Europe discovered speed in the mid-19th century. When
railways appeared, traffic was reduced, and railways had a single
track. However, once traffic increased, it brought with it a big
problem, that of synchronizing the clocks on trains, because the
absence of that led to a lot of accidents with a lot of victims.

Eventually,
the English found a solution. Dorin Stanescu told us about it:


The
first solution was proposed in 1840 by English captain Basil Hall,
who suggested that the entire country use the time in London. His
idea was successful initially, but the postal services did not agree.
However, railways proved to be a revolutionary institution in the
19th century, and people quickly understood that this was
the proper solution. The Great Western Railway company, starting in
November 1840, introduced a uniform exact time for its trains. Their
proposal was for the time in London, provided by the Greenwich
observatory, to be used uniformly by railway companies.

The
Romanian space, in a mad rush to modernize and be more like Europe,
adopted quickly everything coming from the West. Dorin Stanescu told
us that the English model was adopted without reservations:

By
1896, railways became a common sight in the Romanian landscape. As
happened everywhere in the world, it brought with it a single exact
time all across the territory, along with a system to synchronize it.
In Romania, they used the English model, setting everyone’s time by
the time in Bucharest. Up until 1890, Romania had only a few tracks
and trains every day, with little danger of accidents. After 1893,
France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary unified their time system, which
also started being adopted in Romania. Adopting the time in
Bucharest, based on the Greenwich mean time, was achieved by two
institutions: the Romanian Railroads and the Romanian Meteorological
Institute. The father of unified time in Romania was Stefan Hepites,
the head of the institute.

Standardizing
time telling was done at first in order to avoid tragedies, then came
introducing standards in institutions. Here is Dorin Stanescu:


In
order to measure time, a special room with a telescope was built in
1892, as in other countries. Stefan Hepites was sent by the
government to Germany to study their system of standardizing time.
One of the initial solutions proposed by Hepites was to announce
standard time every day at noon with a cannon shot. This experiment
was a failure. This happened in 1895. They gave up the practice,
because the cannon could not be heard all across the city. The
solution, introduced in September 1895, was a direct telegraph line
was set up between Filaret Railway Station and the Meteorological
Institute. Every day at noon the institute would transmit the exact
time, which was then telegraphed to every railway stations in the
country. After that, this mechanism was adopted by the postal service
and other institutions of the state. By 1900, the entire country was
tuned in to Bucharest time. This is the moment when they came up with
the slogan: Railway time is the country’s time.

We
asked Dorin Stanescu how telling time with precision changed people’s
lives and the way in which railways functioned:

We
find a lot of mentions about exact time and its impact on everyday
life for Romanians in literature. In some of the first novels, Manoil
and Elena by Bolintineanu, we find information about exact time. Then
we go from Nicolae Filimon’s ‘Old and New Nouveau Riche’ to
Caragiale’s sketches. In 1899, the latter wrote a sketch that centers
on telling exact time.

Railway
stations started putting up clocks for the public, essential staff
were given pocket watches, and trains and railways became a reference
point. Up until 1950, the exact time was provided in the country by
the national railway company, and after that, this mission was
relegated to public radio.

RRI
The History Show Monday, 28 October 2024

Securitate and the KGB parting ways

The most feared institution of the Romanian communist state was the political police known as Securitate, created on the model of the NKVD, which...

Securitate and the KGB parting ways
Vasile Luca
The History Show Monday, 21 October 2024

Vasile Luca

From the end of World War II in 1945 until 1989, the Red Army imposed communist party regimes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. They...

Vasile Luca
Gheorghe Gheorghiu –Dej şi Petru Groza /
The History Show Monday, 14 October 2024

The Romanian Communist Party and the Agrarian Reform

According to the Marxist-Leninist theses about means of production, property had to be common, owned by all those who used it and created added...

The Romanian Communist Party and the Agrarian Reform
Bricul Mircea foto mapn ro @Capitan Gabriel Chiriloiu
The History Show Monday, 07 October 2024

The Romanian military fleet in WWII

The history of the Romanian military fleet begins in the middle of the 19th century, when, after the union of the two principalities of Moldova and...

The Romanian military fleet in WWII
The History Show Monday, 30 September 2024

Ana Pauker

Ana Pauker is one of the most conspicuous figureheads in the history of the communist regime in Romania. Ana Pauker played a crucial part in the team...

Ana Pauker
The History Show Monday, 23 September 2024

Nicolae Titulescu and the Romanian diplomacy in Europe in the 1930s

  The diplomacies of countries that gravitate around the powerful ones, always have the mission of being one step ahead of events. They must...

Nicolae Titulescu and the Romanian diplomacy in Europe in the 1930s
The History Show Monday, 16 September 2024

The early days of BBC’s Romanian-language broadcasting

In the world of radio broadcasting, the BBC needs no introduction. The BBC is one of the landmarks without which the history of radio broadcasting...

The early days of BBC’s Romanian-language broadcasting
The History Show Monday, 19 August 2024

Restored Romanian monuments in Bessarabia

  On March 27, 1918, Bessarabia, stretching between rivers Prut and Dniester, united with Romania after it had been annexed by Russia in 1812...

Restored Romanian monuments in Bessarabia

Partners

Muzeul Național al Țăranului Român Muzeul Național al Țăranului Român
Liga Studentilor Romani din Strainatate - LSRS Liga Studentilor Romani din Strainatate - LSRS
Modernism | The Leading Romanian Art Magazine Online Modernism | The Leading Romanian Art Magazine Online
Institului European din România Institului European din România
Institutul Francez din România – Bucureşti Institutul Francez din România – Bucureşti
Muzeul Național de Artă al României Muzeul Național de Artă al României
Le petit Journal Le petit Journal
Radio Prague International Radio Prague International
Muzeul Național de Istorie a României Muzeul Național de Istorie a României
ARCUB ARCUB
Radio Canada International Radio Canada International
Muzeul Național al Satului „Dimitrie Gusti” Muzeul Național al Satului „Dimitrie Gusti”
SWI swissinfo.ch SWI swissinfo.ch
UBB Radio ONLINE UBB Radio ONLINE
Strona główna - English Section - polskieradio.pl Strona główna - English Section - polskieradio.pl
creart - Centrul de Creație Artă și Tradiție al Municipiului Bucuresti creart - Centrul de Creație Artă și Tradiție al Municipiului Bucuresti
italradio italradio
Institutul Confucius Institutul Confucius
BUCPRESS - știri din Cernăuți BUCPRESS - știri din Cernăuți

Affiliates

Euranet Plus Euranet Plus
AIB | the trade association for international broadcasters AIB | the trade association for international broadcasters
Digital Radio Mondiale Digital Radio Mondiale
News and current affairs from Germany and around the world News and current affairs from Germany and around the world
Comunità radiotelevisiva italofona Comunità radiotelevisiva italofona

Providers

RADIOCOM RADIOCOM
Zeno Media - The Everything Audio Company Zeno Media - The Everything Audio Company