Changing Times: Time Zone Changes in Singapore since 1905

About this episode

Kenneth Tay discusses the historical changes to Singapore's time zone since 1905 and the implications of these changes.

Singapore's time zone has been changed at least seven times since 1905, including during the Japanese Occupation when it was synchronised to Tokyo time. Arts librarian Kenneth Tay explains the historical context for the time zone changes, the origins of the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) system, and ways to measure time, including a rare atomic clock in a local laboratory. Kenneth Tay is a librarian with the Arts and General Reference team at the National Library Singapore. He is interested in the histories of global systems such as the internet, logistics and time zones, and where Singapore figures in them. What Kenneth Talked About 03:02 – How Kenneth became interested in time zones 05:09 – Why Singapore changed its time zone in 1982 06:43 – Why Singapore followed Malaysia’s time change 08:13 – Singapore’s experiment with daylight saving time 11:35 – Public reaction to Tokyo time during Japanese occupation 14:05 – Re-colonising time after the war 15:02 – What the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is 23:42 – The time zone change in 1905 26:29 – Difference between UTC and GMT 31:39 – Atomic clocks in the world 35:23 – Whether time is arbitrary or political 38:51 – How research changed…

People in this episode

Guest: Kenneth Tay

Topics covered

• time zones
• history
• Singapore
• Greenwich Mean Time
• Japanese Occupation
• atomic clocks

Keywords

• time zone changes
• Singapore history
• atomic clock
• daylight saving time
• UTC
• GMT
• public reaction
• time measurement

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: National Library Singapore

Books & works: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

Places: Singapore, Tokyo, local laboratory

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