Birth, Kevin K., 1963-

The unsettled clock : the persistence of time pluralism / Kevin Birth. - ix, 222 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm -

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction. What is time pluralism? -- Producing public timekeeping and time pluralism -- A bell for every market : time pluralism in late medieval York -- Cosmopolitan times : time pluralism in Habsburg horology -- Time pluralism and scientists' choices -- Humbuggery and time pluralism : nineteenth-century time gambits -- Time pluralism and current timescales -- Using atoms versus Earth's rotation -- Time pluralism and the leap second problem -- Unsettling the clock.

"The history of timekeeping has always involved choosing or converting between various ways of representing time, a phenomenon called time pluralism. The Unsettled Clock: The Persistence of Time Pluralism explores time pluralism by documenting historical cases and examining its persistence in present. Drawing examples from medieval York, the Habsburg empire of early modern Europe, Renaissance astronomy, legal time in the US and UK before time zones were adopted, and the persistence of time pluralism in current atomic time metrology, this analysis offers a political and historical look into how timekeeping has been shaped, challenged, and manipulated"-- Provided by publisher.

9781836955399 1836955391

CIPO000394150

2026006063

GBC6076905 bnb

300746635 Uk


Time--Systems and standards--History.
Time--Social aspects.
Pluralism.