The Day of Two Noons

The Day of Two Noons, a fascinating exploration of the division of the earth into 24 different time zones, will be virtually presented from 6-7:30 pm Thursday, April 24. The Zoom presentation is being hosted by the Global Village Museum of Arts and Cultures. Tim Orr, the 1st Vice President of Denver’s Chapter 21 of the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors, will explain how all the clocks in the United States were reset at a single time on a single day, resulting in the paradox called The Day of Two Noons.

“Before the coming of railroads and even faster transportation, local time as determined by the sun was plenty accurate for almost everyone’s needs,” said Orr. “But when we started traveling at high speeds, the ‘local time’ at the starting point could be very different from the ‘local time’ at the destination. The railroads especially had a terrible problem. How could schedules be figured out and published when local time might change 50 times from starting point to destination?”

The presentation is in conjunction with the Museum’s Main Gallery exhibit, It’s About TIME, which runs through May 24. The exhibition is funded in part by the City of Fort Collins’ Fort Fund.

Tickets to the presentation are $10 per Zoom registration, and reservations are required by 5 pm Tuesday, April 22, at globalvillagemuseum.org. Registrants will receive the Zoom link the day before the program.