22-07-2024, 08:53 AM
(This post was last modified: 22-07-2024, 08:58 AM by Mike Watterson.)
I remember countdown clocks for BBC schools programs in the early 1960s.
I don't think TV digital clocks were popular, if you mean digits. I don't remember any. At the last the clocks were digitally generated. The combination of mobile phones and Digital TV since the late 1990s & early 2000s meant the end of the TV clock. There used to be a telephone Speaking clock, first in 1933, just a couple of years before electronic TV. Automated from 1937. UK service started in 1936. I'm not sure if it's still running. The Speaking Clock in Ireland ran from 1970 (Local TV only started in reality in 1962, though technically 1961) to 2011, allegedly due to lack of use (by then Eircom was privatised).
The seconds are useless on Digital TV and Digital Radio. However originally clock towers were the only common mechanical clocks and had only an hour hand (no minutes), partially because accuracy was poor and partially people didn't need higher resolution. GB and Ireland mostly had local solar based time before the rise of the railways. GMT (now UTC) was originally referred to as "railway time" by most people.
The Roman Empire bureaucrats invented the day changing at midnight. Most people used dusk-to-dusk, as some religions still do.
I don't think TV digital clocks were popular, if you mean digits. I don't remember any. At the last the clocks were digitally generated. The combination of mobile phones and Digital TV since the late 1990s & early 2000s meant the end of the TV clock. There used to be a telephone Speaking clock, first in 1933, just a couple of years before electronic TV. Automated from 1937. UK service started in 1936. I'm not sure if it's still running. The Speaking Clock in Ireland ran from 1970 (Local TV only started in reality in 1962, though technically 1961) to 2011, allegedly due to lack of use (by then Eircom was privatised).
The seconds are useless on Digital TV and Digital Radio. However originally clock towers were the only common mechanical clocks and had only an hour hand (no minutes), partially because accuracy was poor and partially people didn't need higher resolution. GB and Ireland mostly had local solar based time before the rise of the railways. GMT (now UTC) was originally referred to as "railway time" by most people.
The Roman Empire bureaucrats invented the day changing at midnight. Most people used dusk-to-dusk, as some religions still do.
