[tz] Dealing with Pre-1970 Data

[Guy Harris]

On Sep 1, 2013, at 4:38 PM, Lester Caine <lester at lsces.co.uk> wrote:

> But in the absence of a more accurate guide, using the LMT from the centre of a 15 degree zone is the next 'phase', which I've tagged in my own mind as LMTZ. That I think was what Paul was contemplating

Given that, at least in the US, the offsets in the tzdb are, in fact, the LMT from a multiple-of-15 longitude, and have been that since the tzdb was created (at least as far back as 1918; I'd have to see state laws and railroad rules to see whether that's what was used prior to that, but I strongly suspect that's what was used), I'm not sure what there is to contemplate here.

Perhaps *replacing* the current "LMT" lines for zones with a line extrapolating the standardized time offsets indefinitely back into the past might be something worth contemplating.