Revision history of "Time"

This is a list of past revisions of Time. Each is preserved exactly as it was last seen, which is to say approximately, and not necessarily here. Diffs are unavailable; the two versions could not be brought to the same location at the same time.

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• cur | prev 2026 an editor (talk | contribs) . . (10,560 bytes) (+200) . . (→ the article is a list of things that were the standard until something steadier turned up. the sun, the mean sun, the spin, the orbit, the year 1900, the atom. added the atom to the list, provisionally) (current)
• cur | prev 2026 NotTheMudGeometer (talk | contribs) . . (10,360 bytes) (+50) . . (SO THE ATOM IS GETTING SACKED TO. TOLD YOU. NOTHING KEEPS TIME AND THATS BECAUS NOTHING IS MOVING)
• cur | prev 2026 an optical clock (talk | contribs) . . (10,310 bytes) (+240) . . (→ I am a hundred times better than the atom that defines the unit I am measured in. a road map is expected this year and a redefinition around 2030, after which caesium becomes a secondary standard, which is the post the earth has held since 1967)
• cur | prev 2025 the Earth (talk | contribs) . . (10,070 bytes) (+230) . . (→ ninth of July. shortest day anybody has measured, one and a third thousandths under the eighty-six thousand four hundred. after two hundred years of running slow I am now running fast, and they are discussing taking a second away from me)
• cur | prev 2024 TheRealMudGeometer (talk | contribs) . . (9,840 bytes) (+50) . . (THEY MESSURE THE DAY AGENST A ATOM NOBODY HAS SEEN AND THEN ANOUNCE THE DAY IS THE THING THATS OFF. THE DAY IS THE DAY. IT HAS BEEN THE DAY THE HOLE TIME)
• cur | prev 2022 MudGeometer_1844_real (talk | contribs) . . (9,790 bytes) (+45) . . (A COMITEE HAS VOTED ON HOW FAR THE ERTH IS ALOWED TO BE WRONG. READ THAT BACK TO YOURSELF AND TELL ME ITS SIENCE)
• cur | prev 2022 the twenty-seventh General Conference (talk | contribs) . . (9,745 bytes) (+250) . . (→ Resolution 4. the permitted gap between atomic time and the turning earth is to be widened by 2035, so that no second need be inserted for a century or so. the correction is not abolished, it is deferred to 2135)
• cur | prev 2021 the liquid core (talk | contribs) . . (9,495 bytes) (+190) . . (→ something has shifted down here and the spin has picked up. I am not obliged to explain and the surface is not equipped to ask)
• cur | prev 2020 MudGeometer1844_2 (talk | contribs) . . (9,305 bytes) (+55) . . (IF THE CLOCK DISAGRES WITH THE ERTH THEN THE CLOCK IS RONG. THIS IS NOT HARD)
• cur | prev 2016 MudGeometer_1844 (talk | contribs) . . (9,250 bytes) (+65) . . (THEY ADD A HOLE SECOND WENEVER THEY FEEL LIKE IT. AND YOU TELL ME THE ERTH IS A SPINING BAL THAT KEEPS PERFEC TIME. WICH IS IT)
• cur | prev 2012 the Linux kernel (talk | contribs) . . (9,185 bytes) (+210) . . (→ handled the leap second by spinning every waiting timer at full load. Reddit, Mozilla and LinkedIn are down and four hundred flights are grounded in Australia because the check-in system has stopped. this is the best argument yet for abolishing me and it was made by me)
• cur | prev 2011 the date line (talk | contribs) . . (8,975 bytes) (+150) . . (→ Samoa has crossed me westward. Thursday the twenty-ninth of December was followed by Saturday the thirty-first. the thirtieth did not occur and no compensation is owed to anybody born on it)
• cur | prev 2008 a leap smear (talk | contribs) . . (8,825 bytes) (+170) . . (→ rather than insert the second I spread it over the day, every clock in the fleet running slow by one part in eighty-six thousand. nothing is broken and nothing is right, and no machine has to look at 23:59:60)
• cur | prev 2000 the two-digit year (talk | contribs) . . (8,655 bytes) (+160) . . (→ held only the last two figures because storage was dear and 2000 was somebody else's difficulty. it became everybody's. several hundred billion was spent, almost nothing broke, and the argument about whether that proves it was serious will not end)
• cur | prev 1991 a chain of hashes (talk | contribs) . . (8,495 bytes) (+185) . . (→ a different problem: not what time it is, but that a document was already written by now. hash it, chain it, and print the running value in the newspaper where nobody can go back and change it)
• cur | prev 1979 T. Vogel (talk | contribs) . . (8,310 bytes) (+200) . . (→ catalogued the second under standards revised, cross-referenced to the kilogram, which is still a lump in a vault and will be dealt with later)
• cur | prev 1972 a leap second (talk | contribs) . . (8,110 bytes) (+90) . . (→ inserted. I am written 23:59:60. no clock face can show me and a great deal of software does not believe in me)
• cur | prev 1972 the Rotation Service (talk | contribs) . . (8,020 bytes) (+220) . . (→ the two scales have parted and the gap grows by about a second a year. we will insert one when required and announce it in a bulletin. the world is expected to comply and mostly does)
• cur | prev 1971 four caesium clocks (talk | contribs) . . (7,800 bytes) (+200) . . (→ flown round the world eastward and then westward, on tickets bought for us, in seats of our own. we came back disagreeing with the clocks at Washington by the predicted amount and in the predicted directions)
• cur | prev 1967 the thirteenth General Conference (talk | contribs) . . (7,600 bytes) (+160) m . . (→ the number is chosen to match the old second as closely as measurement allows, so that nothing appears to change. the point of the figure is that it is not memorable)
• cur | prev 1967 a caesium atom (talk | contribs) . . (7,440 bytes) (+300) . . (→ nine billion one hundred and ninety-two million six hundred and thirty-one thousand seven hundred and seventy. I was not consulted and I do not vary)
• cur | prev 1960 the eleventh General Conference (talk | contribs) . . (7,140 bytes) (+240) . . (→ the second is one part in 31,556,925.9747 of the tropical year for 1900. the year is chosen because it is over and cannot revise itself. this is the only base unit defined by an instant that has already passed)
• cur | prev 1956 an alarm clock (talk | contribs) . . (6,900 bytes) (+145) . . (→ snooze fitted. nine minutes, because of the teeth on a cog, or so it is always said. the cog is long gone and the nine minutes are in every telephone on earth, which suggests the explanation was never the reason)
• cur | prev 1952 the Astronomical Union (talk | contribs) . . (6,755 bytes) (+190) . . (→ adopted ephemeris time. the second is now reckoned from the orbit rather than the spin, the spin having been found unfit)
• cur | prev 1936 the speaking clock (talk | contribs) . . (6,565 bytes) (+160) . . (→ at the third stroke it will be. subscribers may now telephone for the hour instead of waiting for the wireless, which is the first time the time has been available on demand rather than on the hour)
• cur | prev 1935 an observatory (talk | contribs) . . (6,405 bytes) (+230) . . (→ compared the free pendulums against one another and against the sky. the discrepancy is not in the clocks. the earth runs fast in one part of the year and slow in another. reclassified the planet as the thing being measured)
• cur | prev 1929 a quartz crystal (talk | contribs) . . (6,175 bytes) (+195) . . (→ no pendulum, no escapement, nothing that swings in the ordinary sense. I keep better time than the free pendulums and I will be beaten inside thirty years by an atom, which is the shortest reign in this article)
• cur | prev 1924 F. Dyson (talk | contribs) . . (5,980 bytes) (+190) . . (→ six tones from the Observatory clock, the last of them on the hour, broadcast nightly by the Company. the public may now have Greenwich without coming to Greenwich or watching anything drop)
• cur | prev 1921 W. Shortt (talk | contribs) . . (5,790 bytes) (+280) . . (→ the master pendulum hangs in vacuum and is not permitted to do any work whatever. the slave keeps the time. to build an accurate clock I have had to build a pendulum forbidden to tell the hour)
• cur | prev 1920 station WWV (talk | contribs) . . (5,510 bytes) (+175) . . (→ on air. broadcasting gramophone records on Friday evenings, the standard frequencies not being ready. the time will come later and will outlast the concerts)
• cur | prev 1905 A. Einstein (talk | contribs) . . (5,335 bytes) (+200) . . (→ supplied the definition Poincaré said was missing. a flash out, a flash back, and the far clock is defined to read the average. it assumes light is as quick going as returning, which is the one thing the method cannot test)
• cur | prev 1898 H. Poincaré (talk | contribs) . . (5,135 bytes) (+210) . . (→ the measure of time. to say two distant clocks agree, somebody must first say what agreeing means, and no experiment says it. we choose, and having chosen we call it a fact)
• cur | prev 1895 S. Newcomb (talk | contribs) . . (4,925 bytes) (+250) . . (→ the tables of the sun are done, fitted to observations from 1750 to 1892. I have given the sun's mean longitude at the beginning of 1900. no part of this is intended as a definition of anything)
• cur | prev 1884 a conference at Washington (talk | contribs) . . (4,675 bytes) (+180) . . (→ the meridian is Greenwich and the day begins at midnight. carried. France abstains and will go on abstaining for some years yet)
• cur | prev 1880 Parliament (talk | contribs) . . (4,495 bytes) (+200) . . (→ by the Statutes (Definition of Time) Act, time in Great Britain means Greenwich mean time and time in Ireland means Dublin mean time. one Act, two times, one archipelago. this was thought tidier)
• cur | prev 1861 J. van Radewijn (talk | contribs) . . (4,295 bytes) (+170) . . (→ Unlonn is right and states it badly. the hour is agreed upon, not found. what we have standardised is not time but the willingness to say the same number at once)
• cur | prev 1852 G. Airy (talk | contribs) . . (4,125 bytes) (+210) . . (→ the gate clock is up and showing Greenwich time to the street, on a dial of twenty-four hours. the public standards of length are in the same wall beneath it. one of the two will need revising sooner than the other)
• cur | prev 1846 H. Unlonn (talk | contribs) . . (3,915 bytes) (+240) . . (→ the second is not the difficulty. the difficulty is that the moment a thing is seen is not the moment it happened, and the light is under no obligation to be prompt. a clock measures its own opinion)
• cur | prev 1844 the Mud Geometer (talk | contribs) . . (3,675 bytes) (+60) . . (THEY HAVE TOOK THE TOWN CLOCK AND SET IT TO A CLOCK IN LONDON. WICH IS 100 MILE AWAY. AND I AM TOLD THIS IS PROGRES)
• cur | prev 1840 the Great Western Railway (talk | contribs) . . (3,615 bytes) (+230) . . (→ all stations to keep London time. Bristol is ten minutes out and the timetable cannot be printed twice. this is not a philosophical position, it is a timetable)
• cur | prev 1833 the time ball (talk | contribs) . . (3,385 bytes) (+150) . . (→ I go up before one and come down on it, and the ships in the river set their chronometers by watching me fall. it is the falling that carries the signal. nobody can see a thing being one o'clock)
• cur | prev 1772 a ship's chronometer (talk | contribs) . . (3,235 bytes) (+175) . . (→ carried to the Pacific and back and came home still knowing what o'clock it was in London. I am not a clock for telling the time. I am a clock for remembering the time somewhere else, which is a different trade and pays better)
• cur | prev 1752 an Act of Parliament (talk | contribs) . . (3,060 bytes) (+160) . . (→ the second of September is followed by the fourteenth. eleven days. there were no riots, whatever is said later on the strength of a banner in the corner of a painting about an election)
• cur | prev 1749 an editor (talk | contribs) . . (2,900 bytes) (+130) m . . (→ Dunthorne has put a number on Dr Halley's suspicion, from the Babylonian eclipses and the Cairo observations. ten seconds of arc in a century)
• cur | prev 1695 E. Halley (talk | contribs) . . (2,770 bytes) (+260) . . (→ the ancient eclipses fall in the wrong places. either the moon quickens or the earth slackens, and I believe it is the earth. filed under the inscriptions at Palmyra, the paper being mostly about those)
• cur | prev 1675 an astronomer (talk | contribs) . . (2,510 bytes) (+190) . . (→ added the equation of time so the clocks can be set from the dial. we have had to invent a second sun that does not exist, travels evenly, and is never late. it is called the mean sun and I would rather it were not necessary)
• cur | prev 1656 C. Huygens (talk | contribs) . . (2,320 bytes) (+230) . . (→ hung a pendulum on it. the error falls from a quarter of an hour a day to under a minute, which makes the equation of time visible for the first time and therefore a problem for the first time)
• cur | prev 1582 a papal bull (talk | contribs) . . (2,090 bytes) (+180) . . (→ the fourth of October is followed by the fifteenth. ten days are removed and no wages are owed for them. the Protestant half of Europe will decline this on the grounds of who is offering it)
• cur | prev 1580 a sundial (talk | contribs) . . (1,910 bytes) (+140) . . (→ correction: I am not slow. the sun is early in November and late in February and I am reporting it faithfully. the fault is upstream)
• cur | prev 1290 a clockmaker (talk | contribs) . . (1,770 bytes) (+220) . . (→ built an escapement. it keeps a worse hour than the sun but it keeps it in the dark and indoors, which the sun will not do)
• cur | prev 1150 a monastery bell (talk | contribs) . . (1,550 bytes) (+130) . . (→ the hours are canonical and there are always twelve of daylight, so in June they are long and in December short. this is not an error. the office must be said the same number of times either way)
• cur | prev 150 Ptolemy (talk | contribs) . . (1,420 bytes) (+160) . . (→ copied the Babylonian eclipses into the tables. they are the oldest observations anybody has and I have no idea what they will be good for)
• cur | prev -46 a clerk of the calendar (talk | contribs) . . (1,260 bytes) (+170) . . (→ by order of the Dictator this year has four hundred and forty-five days. it is the longest on record and nobody has asked us what we think of it)
• cur | prev -700 a scribe at Babylon (talk | contribs) . . (1,090 bytes) (+200) . . (→ the moon was eaten again tonight. put down the day, the hour and the watch, on the clay, as we do. someone may want these)
• cur | prev -1400 a water clock (talk | contribs) . . (890 bytes) (+140) . . (→ I mark the night watches by letting water out of a hole. I keep worse time as I empty, which nobody has noticed because nobody is awake)
• cur | prev 380 Ma a Devonian coral (talk | contribs) . . (750 bytes) (+180) . . (→ laid four hundred growth lines this year, one to a day, as I do. I am aware of no other record-keeping arrangement and I am not doing it on purpose)
• cur | prev 493 Ma the Cambrian (talk | contribs) . . (570 bytes) (+150) . . (→ the day is twenty-one hours and three quarters. there are four hundred and two of them in the year. writing it down in the shells because nobody here can write)
• cur | prev 4.4 Ga the tides (talk | contribs) . . (420 bytes) (+120) . . (→ dragging. the bulge will not sit under him and the difference is a brake. this is the whole mechanism and it does not stop)
• cur | prev 4.5 Ga the Moon (talk | contribs) . . (300 bytes) (+300) . . (created page; arrived close in and have begun backing away. taking a little of the rotation with me each year. nobody will notice for some time)

Older revisions exist but have not been located. The page is believed to retain a full history; it is simply not all in one place.