Archive: The Measurement of Time

Misha Glenny presents an archive discussion on how humans have measured time across millennia, from ancient water clocks to modern atomic timekeeping. Guests Kristen Lippincott, Jim Bennett, and Jonathan Betts trace the evolution from celestial observation through medieval mechanical clocks — which served as prayer alarms rather than time-telling devices — to the railway-driven standardization of the 19th century. The conversation culminates with the establishment of Greenwich as the prime meridian in 1884 and the staggering precision of atomic clocks, which can keep time to within a second over 15 million years.