On time : how America has learned to live by the clock / Carlene E. Stephens.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: [Washington, D.C.] : Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Behring Center ; [2002]Publisher: Boston : Bulfinch Press Book, [2002]Copyright date: ©2002Edition: 1st editionDescription: 255 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0821227793
  • 9780821227794
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Introduction -- Telling time 1700-1820 -- Mechanizing time 1820-1880 -- Synchronizing time 1880-1920 -- Saving time 1920-1960 -- Expanding time 1960 to the present.
Summary: This volume presents an illustrated history of the ways Americans have measured used, and thought about time over the past 300 years. It showcases unusual timepieces from the Smithsonian Institution's collection such as Helen Keller's pocket watch and the earliest bedside alarm clocks, and brings to life some of the lesser-known characters and events that have shaped the way we think about time today. The author demonstrates how time also shaped our whole concept of American society, and how clever men and women took ideas and created institutions that were (are are) time-driven. This started in the agricultural fields of the earliest settlers, loosely bound to a sundial, then to town bells, to tick-tock clocks, to watches, and now cesium clocks good to one second every 20 million years.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Books Jost Bürgi Library Reading Room TS543.U6 S74 2002 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 31560000045894

Includes bibliographical references (pages 222-248) and index.

Introduction -- Telling time 1700-1820 -- Mechanizing time 1820-1880 -- Synchronizing time 1880-1920 -- Saving time 1920-1960 -- Expanding time 1960 to the present.

This volume presents an illustrated history of the ways Americans have measured used, and thought about time over the past 300 years. It showcases unusual timepieces from the Smithsonian Institution's collection such as Helen Keller's pocket watch and the earliest bedside alarm clocks, and brings to life some of the lesser-known characters and events that have shaped the way we think about time today. The author demonstrates how time also shaped our whole concept of American society, and how clever men and women took ideas and created institutions that were (are are) time-driven. This started in the agricultural fields of the earliest settlers, loosely bound to a sundial, then to town bells, to tick-tock clocks, to watches, and now cesium clocks good to one second every 20 million years.

31560000045894 3770

An illustrated history of the ways Americans have measured, used and thought about time over the past 300 years, 178 color and 50 black and white illustrations

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