Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

If you think of the design goals (synchronizing clocks across the train network) and the technology available at the time, the design is actually pretty clever. Knowing the exact second is not important - if the second hand actually completes a whole cycle in only 58 seconds, this is still good enough to be able to see how much of the minute has passed. Having the exact same minute on all clocks is much more important than that - especially since train departure times are usually "on the minute".


What technology wasn't invented by the time this clock was created??? And the design is bad, nothing clever about it, clocks can move their minutes hand to give the necessary indication


What technology wasn't available in 1944 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_railway_clock#Technology) compared to today? Quite a lot...


So name a single time tech and explain how the lack of it didn’t prevent other train station operators having clocks without jumping hands operating even before 1944? (not sure, but think that the minute timetable resolution was pretty universal)




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: