[tz] Correcting daylight-savings time for central Missouri prior to 1967

Jane Eisenstein softweave at gmail.com
Sat Nov 24 01:08:58 UTC 2018


Growing up in mid-Missouri in the 50’s and 60’s, it was common knowledge that only large cities observed daylight savings time. The rest of the state was mostly farmland and the farmers didn’t want to use daylight savings time.

I only became aware of how uncertain time change history is when I began running across astrology software that uses the tz database. They consistently miscalculate my Columbia, MO August 1950 birth chart due to assuming daylight savings time was in effect. No other astrology software I’ve used has this problem. 

I would like to be part of the solution, but don’t know how to beyond sharing the Doane information.

> On Nov 23, 2018, at 4:41 PM, Zoidiasoft Tech <zoidsoft at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> The Terran Atlas was designed with such warnings in mind.  I’m curious, Jane, if you’ve just discovered how time change history is chaotic?  I had this reaction in 2010 when I confronted the problem as a result of no longer having access to the ACS atlas as a programmer of astrological software but read through all of Paul’s notes in the data portion.  The reality is that it is much worse than most people are aware.  Even now, locally in upstate NY, the Amish are present and form a significant part of the population.  They never observe DST and are on standard time year around.  Most of them have sworn off any form of electricity aynway.  Situations like this are quite common in time change history.
> 
> For instance, the ACS Atlas reports that Tylers Corner, NY has had a different standard than Mexico and Pulaski (depending upon the time of year back in the early 1900’s).  My fathers family knows the residence (the only one at the time) at Tyler’s Corner (the Stock residence) which is a farming family that my father sometimes had dealings with back in the 40’s and 50’s.  He’s still alive and said that he thinks that time was fairly standard in this area across the whole region.  Our family has farmed hundreds of acres in this region since 1809.  But trying to be accurate about time when nobody except the railroads cared is impossible to do.  My guess is that when meetings were set up, they’d say "arrive when you get up”.  The stock residence probably used a wind up clock which will be off by 10 - 15 minutes a day (my father still uses one of those to this day).



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