American Reacts to Why Britain Is The Center of The World 

This guy should have done a little research. The Brits weren't just given the honour for GMT. The Brits invented the portable time-piece that enabled global navigation, using a spring instead of pendulum. They were the ONLY nation with reliable navigation, already using GMT until the other nations copied the tech. That's why GMT was acknowledged as the zero meridian by all the other nations.

I thought it was to do with the fact that the Brits, actually been the ones to work out how to ascertain the longitude of any place, quickly and easily. They, ( John Harrison) invented the chronometer for accurate time keeping on board a ship, and the Royal observatory (Neville Maskilin) came up with the chart of astronomical observations to do the same. The chronometer allowed any ship's captain anywhere in the world to be able to know what time it was in London, all he had to do was observe local noon time and work out how many hours, minutes and seconds behind or in front of London time, to work out his ships longitude. Greenwich was chosen as recognition of the fact that without British invention and ingenuity ships would still be piling up on shores left right and centre. Just another simple thing that effects every living soul on this planet bought to you by the British, so next time you board a jet, remember your flying on a British system of navigation and the engines driving it were invented by them to. In today's world its very popular to rag out the British Empire, to tear down statues, but the morons doing it don’t give a thought for their own debt to that very Empire, and the effects that the British Empire has had directly on all of our lives, from penicillin, the end of slavery, the telegraph or television, Insurance or modern banking, the jet engine or radar, it's the British who bought it to you. So if you have a stainless steel pin or plate, you owe the British, if you ever survived an infection thank the British for the antibiotics, never had small pox or cholera thank Britain, and if you're of African descent and free not in slavery, it's the British you should thank for that freedom.

Bh the way, the British invented trains and railways. The Longitude Clock was made by a Brit. Britain made the modern world.

The world had to standardise time to best use the trains that the British gave to you all, you are welcome Joel.

Greenwich Mean Time was first introduced in 1825 and adopted by the railways in Britain in 1847 to standardise the timetables across the country, the conference in 1884 was not about US railway timetables it was the International Meridian Conference which was involved with the much broader consideration of a single meridian point for the world as a whole, whilst the conference was held in the USA it was the British GMT that was adopted so contrary to the American perspective given here Britain gave the world GMT.

As Al Murray told us...." Great Britain is the centre of the world because.... WE put the line there !" JOHN FLAMSTEAD came up with a formula for converting solar time to mean time in1670. That's where we get GMT from. GREENWICH MEAN TIME .

JPS shitting on France is the most British thing he’s ever done. 😂 And JPS saying “oh the US just gave it to the Brits” is the most American thing he has ever done. He truely is the son of two countries.

Let's not forget that John Harrison (a Yorkshire man) invented the very first accurate marine time keeper, before that, people relied on celestial navigation, not very reliable at all. Could you do a reaction to his life story, it's really fascinating 👍👍👍

Of course we all know it's centre and not center ;-)

As a proud Londoner and someone who was born in Greenwich. We were always lead to believe that GMT was the scientific solution to sea navigation and general time from the 1700s onwards. It was not agreed at a conference in 1884. Maybe it was agreed that it was to be the standard from which world wide time was based in 1884, but we had a lot of the pre-eminent thknkers of the time and this group of islands were a major power back then as well. This expanded across the world via our empire at the time as we exported this along with other expertise so the world could catch up.

Nice one Joel. Britain had worked out longitudes and the Greenwich time system and spread it across the globe 150 years before the USA had a navy. (The”New Navy” was created in 1884, I believe.) It was then that USA realised it needed to comply with the British organisation of world time, so called a meeting for important countries to agree with each other about what the world had already been doing for several generations. Thanks for the acknowledgement, USA! 👍

This video is an American trying to claim they did something when it wasn't them. No America didn't give it to Britain. If America had that option they would make themselves the center has they already think they are. Britain and France argued for a long time over this matter and Britain won. The British invented trains and sorting time out was due to us needing it sorted.

Wow Joel, you’re getting the hang of British/Australian sarcasm. “Let’s give it to the Brits.” I love it. Btw Greenwich Mean Time was adopted in 1847.

i think that the creation of the marine chronometer, which made the calculation of global longitude possible being in this country gave some weight to the argument for putting the line here. we also introduced the world to railway timetables by the way.

I've been to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, and did the usual tourist thing of straddling the Prime Meridian, and have the photo to prove it! It was actually a very interesting visit, and I learnt a lot that seems obvious now but wasn't so obvious at the time - such as, how time is measured. If you ever visit the UK again, I'd definitely recommend paying the Royal Observatory a visit.

Erm, not really. This all started with the Longitude Act of 1714. The outcome of which where advancement of maritime chronometers that allowed a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude. Before trains and before the telegraph. That is why Greenwich was chosen, because we were the first to accurately measure longitude, at midday, to the second at Greenwich.

John Flamsteed, (1646-1719) was an English man and the first Astronomer Royal and director of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich from 1675 after he came up with the formula for converting solar time to mean time, and published a set of conversion tables in the early 1670s. Soon after, King Charles II, appointed John Flamsteed as the first Astronomer Royal and he moved into the new Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the name for mean solar time of the longitude (0°) of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England. The meridian at this longitude is called the prime meridian or Greenwich meridian. A need for time tables was soon realised when railways first came into public use. In 1848 George Stephenson (deceased) was called ‘the father of the railways’, though that accolade has been challenged because there were other engineers involved in the development of the world’s first railway system. The most notable was Robert Trevithick, a Cornishman, who in 1803 built the first steam locomotive to run on rails The first railway line in the world dates back to 1825, when George Stephenson connected the towns of Stockton and Darlington in England by rail. Greenwich Mean Time was adopted across the island of Great Britain by the Railway Clearing House in 1847, and by almost all railway companies the following year, from which the term "railway time" is derived. Sir Sanford Fleming, a Canadian engineer, was the first person to propose the use of worldwide time zones back in 1878. His idea was to divide the world into 24 time zones that were each 15 degrees of longitude apart. The reason for this is that the earth rotates 15 degrees every hour, or 360 degrees in 24 hours. There were two main reasons for the choice. The first was the fact that in 1884, the USA had already chosen Greenwich as the basis for its own national time zone system. The second was that in the late 19th century, 72% of the world's commerce depended on sea-charts which used Greenwich as the Prime Meridian

Sir Sandford Fleming FRSC KCMG (January 7, 1827 - July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, and use of the 24-hour clock as key elements to communicating the accurate time, all of which influenced the creation of Coordinated Universal Time.[1] He designed Canada's first postage stamp, produced a great deal of work in the fields of land surveying and map making, engineered much of the Intercolonial Railway and the first several hundred kilometers of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was a founding member of the Royal Society of Canada and founder of the Canadian Institute (a science organization in Toronto).

It had to be Britain or France to make the international date line in the centre of the Pacific where there are no major land masses, so 1 country doesn't have 2 dates to cope with

"the US gave it to us" It wasn't yours to give, it was a decision by all countries involved.

Sorry Joel. You didn't give it to us because if you listen with non-defensive ears we invented the means to understand time. And if we hadn't invented the train this Conference wouldn't have been needed. And it has nothing to do with 'Britain ruled the world' but everything to do with the right inventions.

There was a chap called John Harrison who was entered a competition set by the monarch to create a marine “chronometer” meaning a precision timepiece. Back then pendulum clocks were a very accurate form of timekeeping in stationary clocks. The Elizabeth towers clock uses the pendulum and it’s very accurate. But taking a pendulum clock out to sea was impossible due to the rocky seas. So it was Harrison who created a clock that worked accurately without the need of the pendulum. He had no prior history in horology and was very poor. He was also a perfectionist so it took him a long time to produce a clock he was happy with. Without going into too much detail, his design evolved into things like what you have in the watch I have you, the idea that a mechanical timepiece can keep time without having to be stationary. Timekeeping was crucial to determining longitude and latitude. The Greenwich observatory is fascinating. Full of all things nautical and horological. Boats and sea and clocks and time. The Elizabeth towers mechanics call Greenwich observatory three times a week to make sure the clock is in time with gmt. And that the first strike of Big Ben is on the new hour. All very interesting stuff

What’s great about this is,we tell Joel when to eat and sleep the names in the country Joel….great…Britain 🇬🇧😄😉

I like the fact Britain tells all nations… it’s time to sleep n eat 😂

The Great Western Railway were the fist company to apply a standardised time to to their stations in 1840, 41 years before Chester Arthur became president. "Railway time" was progressively taken up by all railway companies in Great Britain over the following seven years. The schedules by which trains were organised and the time station clocks displayed were brought in line with the local mean time for London or "London Time", the time set at Greenwich by the Royal Observatory, which was already widely known as Greenwich Mean Time.

Greenwich mean time was in the Early 19th century not the late 19th century,it had already been about for over 50 years before this conference I think.

Us Brits also invented trains by the way

Joel what on earth did they teach you in school? I left school fifty four years ago so it is hard to remember when we were taught about Greenwich Mean Time. My best guess is before I went to high school. So about fifty eight years ago. Some of my primary school teachers imparted a lot of general knowledge. I really do like your work.

Another advantage in having the prime meridian at Greenwich is that the international date line along a path where there is little land. This means that the awkward date line doesnt affect many people there. It only affects people when they cross over it.

A very american view; at that time britain ruled 60% of the world and what a conference in the US or the opinions of the French would have been completely ignored. Britain had the technology (i.e. the observatory and the clocks). This was the technical advance of the age. How do you know what time it is on the other side of the world? You need a reliable clock. Finding what time it is is easy; Greenwich times stars crossing the meridian and sets its clocks; nowadays it uses an atomic clock. You know what time it is anywhere by taking a standard clock with you to set time. Without time you dont know where you are at sea; you measure a bright star and see what time it is to find time zone. It was the invention of these standard clocks by Harrison that made Britain the centre of the earth not a committee. Greenwich is well worth visiting. I have a vested interest in that I was born in London on the meridian - winks ;-)

GMT was used by the vast majority of world trade in 1884. So the conference was a "rubber stamp" to finally knock the French out of contention.

Britain discovered longitude! A man names Harrison invented the chronometer, overcoming ship's motion in order to have reliable time, years ahead of other nations, latitude was always easy to find using a sextant but a longitude fix was impossible to find reliably until Harrison' time piece!

Thought you'd seen Al Murray explain why UK is centre of the World!

GMT is also referred to Coordinated Universal Time or UTC. It is also used by the military including the US and is referred to as Zulu time. You may have heard this used in military movie scenes when they confirm the time by saying, mission as confirmed 16:00 Zulu for example.

Britain started GMT for UK in 1880. Chester Arthur called the meeting in DC 1884 to standardise world time to GMT. Sir Sanford Flemming a Canadian had an idea for world standard time originally in 1878 but using 15° zones.

It was voted on by a multi country group... france wanted it to go through paris.. we discovered how to calculate longitude which was very difficukt for years

Hes partly wrong wrong, it wasn't the US. The British gave the world, standardiszation, not only with time because of the trains on the UK but also when it came to products coming out of British factories during the industrialisation.

So, it’s true. OF COURSE! The UK really is the centre of the universe, and I quote ‘King of the Ocean’ Seriously though, very interesting video. Dry presenter. You’re very cheeky this week Joel. Enjoying it ❤

You see, we were so important we didn't have to make people agree that we were the centre of the world, they just knew it was true! Sometimes Ametican maps are centered on the US, but that means Asia is split. If the 0 line went through Washinton, that messy date line would run through a heavily populated continent. One might say the Earth is designed to have Britian at its centre, perhaps God is an Englishman!

Yo JPS! What is going ON?! You are so awesome omg! Me and my bf just love watching you. I was born in Sussex but live in Glasgow. Your love for our weird little island just makes me so happy. Next time you visit us we will buy you a tesco meal deal 😉

Did I hear it wrong? At the beginning he (Johnny Harris) mentioned that the north pole was at 180 degrees latitude? It is of course 90 degrees etc. GPS uses WGS84 (world geodetic system) for the coordinates to match the location on the earth's surface with the calculated position from the GPS. The military time zones refer to GMT or UTC as ZULU time. Time zones have a letter assigned which is in this case a Z. Using phonetics, Z=zulu as in alpha, bravo, charley, etc.

The US didn't just give it to us JP - they knew we already had a very good system in place and they, wisely, thought they'd utilise our talents.

Great Vid. Greenwich Observatory is definitely worth a visit. GMT is also known as Zulu Time, which is the military name and is used primarily in aviation, at sea, and in the armed forces.

before the standardization of railway time, the clocks on the stations had two hour hands one of which shows London time and the other local time in the English west country, the difference was eight minutes I live close to the Greenwich meridian which is a line running down England

Oh dear, this guy (in the video) hasn't done his research properly. It's well documented that GMT was well established before the USA decades later accepted a ratification by other countries, esp. UK who were already using it.

Glad other commenters on here picked up the fact that they completely ignored the Harrison clock in this video that finally enabled longitudinal navigation. If you go to the Greenwich observatory you can see it and many of Harrison’s other clocks.

The natural centre point. Makes Great British sense to me. HI from South Yorkshire England.

It makes me laugh when Americans can't understand why the US isn't the centre (note spelling) of the world. it's like asking why a 4 year old isn't the President. When the meetings were held to discuss matters the USA was just starting to walk unaided. It is obvious that France would not agree that Britain should be the centre due to the ongoing rivalry of the two nations. I don't think that you were near to greenwich when you were in London, and so you probably never walked past the observatory building.

Oh my goodness Joel! What a brilliant explanation. I had no idea how it all worked and he made it so interesting hearing about it all. Why wasn’t I taught this at school, or maybe I was but with a boring uninteresting teacher ( I would think so yes!) 😄 Britain the centre of the world...suits me! 😄👍

This is really spooky. Yesterday I watched the excellent British/ US two part TV dramatisation on DVD called Longitude, about John Harrison and his efforts to solve the problems of navigation by developing the ships chronometer. Michael Gambon and Ian Hart play father and son in the series. I thoroughly recommend it to everyone. ⏱⏱

What an American-centric version of events 😂😂😂😂 that totally leaves out the most important points. The British were the ones that INVENTED trains, who INVENTED Greenwich mean time, and who INVENTED the navigation system for ships. That’s why Britain was chosen as the zero line of longitude.

In 1884 the Greenwich Meridian was recommended as the Prime Meridian of the World. There were two main reasons for this. The first was that the USA had already chosen Greenwich as the basis for its own national time zone system. The second was that in the late 19th century, 72% of the world's commerce depended on sea-charts which used Greenwich as the Prime Meridian. The recommendation was based on the argument that naming Greenwich as Longitude 0º would be of advantage to the largest number of people.

Yes. . .thank you....we had ..a very...Merry Christmas...and looking forward to a new challenging , new year..

There is so much wrong with this video, as covered by others in the comments, but I'm just taking a quick look at my globe and noticing all the OTHER countries that are ALSO at the centre of the world, including a handful in AFRICA, so to imply some sort of racism (why else emphasise the whiteness of the delegates at the conference?!) is absurd. Also, I learned this stuff at age 10 in primary school. Is any of this easy history really such a revelation to Americans? Wow!

GMT began on September 25th, 1676, because of the railway companies' need for accurate timetables . I don't think that in 1884, there was a viable alternative for the rest of the world to adopt when you consider the British empire had territories and protectorates, including hawaii, around the globe. So GMT had been adopted by a good number of countries already.

You obviously did not listen properly JPS. Again. The meeting went to a VOTE of all the nations. The USA did not "Give it to the Brits. The vast majority of the countries did. Not the USA on its own. OK? 😉

Always proud to be British

As Matilda Grobhinde has commented there’s some information missing from this video. The Greenwich Meridian was formally adopted by the British in 1851. Given that the Meridian was important to sea navigation (ships could calculate their longitude by comparing local time against the Meridian to work out how far east or west they were) it was used by the Royal Navy and British merchant shipping. By the time President Arthur proposed a common Meridian, some two thirds of shipping were already using the Greenwich Meridian as the standard. Why Greenwich as opposed to say, Central London? London was an important international port and all ships travelling to or from the docks there would pass Greenwich. The Greenwich Observatory was visible to all shipping and there’s a huge red ball on top of it, which drops at midday. It was therefore easy for vessels to use Greenwich as a reference. Greenwich is also home to the Royal Naval College and is worth a visit when you come to London again.

Joel,Explain to me why America didn’t give the world its time zones,instead of giving it to the Brits.Boy you sure need to learn history.

The meridian line went through my primary schools hall, there was even a line in the floor. At least we knew our clocks were correct.

We learned all this in primary school 🏫. I thought everyone knew about the time zones.

Greenwich was chosen as the prime meridian because the International Date Line, which has to be on the exact opposite side of the world from that meridian, runs through the least possible land area, thus minimising its disruptive effect.

Joel next time you're in London it's well worth taking a trip to Greenwich. The observatory and museum are interesting with spectacular views of London. If you catch a boat from the embankment (by Westminster bridge) you also get some unique views and a guided commentary of all those historic buildings you'll pass by on your way to Greenwich.

The Greenwich Meridian in London. You can be half in the Eastern and half in the Western hemisphere! You have crossed this!

He makes something simple sound complex...in the1880s Britain was easily the largest shipping nation by any measure, had been using GMT for 50 years or so and most of the world's shipping used British charts with the zero over Greenwich as there were very few alternatives - another overlooked fact is that Britain had surveyed the worlds oceans and coastlines long before anyone else had the capability or the wealth to do so. The meeting In the US was just a pound of smoke. In some respects London is still the Head Office of shipping, with most vessels and cargoes insured by Lloyds of London and, I believe, all ships over 100 tons are required to be registered with Lloyds Register and meet their standards of construction and maintenance...

Only an American can get jealous over this 😂

Love the understanding over the French 😃

Ya’ll know that time doesn’t really exist…it’s a concept invented by humans

There is a brass inlaid line you can walk on outside the beautiful building

More American appropriation of history? Britain invented the clock for navigation, thats why time starts in London.

I have nothing to add... just want to comment because I was born in Greenwich and have lived here my whole life. I was both where time beginssssss. Not finished the video yet but in case it doesn’t mention it, there is a big laser always on at Greenwich observatory showing the zero point time line. When I was a kid it was fun to jump from one side to the other pretending your time travelling. There is also a shop in Greenwich called “the first shop in the world” because it’s the nearest shop to the zero point line. Greenwich 100% is not as nice as you would expect it to be from a tourist perspective though... it’s got good things but the way south London has gone has kinda ruined a lot of it

John Harrison came up with Ideas longitude to help with Navigation based time zones, this gave england an advantage in Trade and commerce.

All my life, I’ve realised that the world needs better Geography Teachers.

I enjoyed this...he explained it really well xx

Nadolig Hapus / Happy Christmas from Cymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales 🎄🍾👌🏻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇺🇸

I thought the date line was common knowledge. Joel, do they not teach you this in school? You look so surprised.

Oh dear! What else can you expect.

Merry Christmas and New Year Joel, have a great one. Video was very interesting and educational. I certainly learned alot.

Chester Arthur... is he really not known by the average US middle schooler? We learned at junior prep (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 58-63) that his parents came from N Ireland and that he liberalised US immigration laws. Funnily enough, we didn't learn about this conference he hosted. Just to prove, one's never too old to learn. 🤔

So if you read or watch Jules vernes around the world in 80 days it is written in part about this. There is also some old film about the 13th hour involving a ship crossing the IDL theoretically if you had a fast ship or plane you could have a very long birthday…..

When The Guy said King of the Ocean for some reason Celine Dion started singing My Heart Will Go On! in my Head!

This man...must be a geography teacher..??

You didn't give it to us.. We had it already and were using it..

The zero longitude goes through Greenwich. And Mr Harrison invented the first reliable clock for oceans/marines shipping. This means that shipping navigation could be accurate. It had absolutely nothing to with trains or the lunacy which may have been going in the USA. This was sorted a few hundred years before trains existed. I never cease to be amazed at the ignorance ignorance of Americans to history.

Do not dispute the fact but would dispute the implied relevance. Navigation of the world relied on using the observation of the sun and moon and its position in the sky. This will give you local time. If you have a time device set relative to a start position you can work out your east or west position on land ,sea, or ice. That very accurate spring balanced time device (from1657) later by Harrison (1693-1776) was engineered in the UK and the base noon readings where at Greenwich obsevatory (built 1676) which could confirm exact time astronomically. Also there where tables published which allowed night observations of key stars in the sky to allow North /South position of the observer by recording angle to the horizon at a given time.

The USA wasn’t a superpower back in Victoria’s age. Just because they hosted the conference doesn’t mean they had much influence in the decision.

I doubt you walked past the Greenwich observatory, it's nowhere near central London; it's tucked away to the east.

The uk literally tells you when to have your breakfast j.

The British invented (created) the modern world. Britain was the greatest nation in all history. Greater than the Greeks and the Romans. First modern democracy, first to industrialise, first to create a society devoted to science, etc etc.

Way too simplified... John Harrison, (born March 1693, Foulby, Yorkshire, Eng.-died March 24, 1776, London), English horologist who invented the first practical marine chronometer, which enabled navigators to compute accurately their longitude at sea.

Greenwich mean time east London there is a museum dedicated to this point . You stand on west one foot in the east there is a metal bar outside on the line you can stand on the line

You sound so American, like the man said London had the Observatory

Incidentally, the 0⁰ meridian goes through a house 2 down from me.

I've been to Greenwich weather station and the Cutty Stark ( a big ship) used in the 1800, which is near by, it's very interesting but I wasn't told about this, it makes more sense now they have a weather vane that moves everyday at 12pm it goes up and down a spire and can be seen for miles, there are great views from Greenwich as it looks over London so weather, time and travel are all linked together with GMT, I highly recommend a visit next time your here 👍🤔✌

Explanation of lines of latitude 180 degrees north and 180 degrees south of the equator ??? 🤦🏼‍♂️ (minute 2:29) last time I navigated a ship it was 90 degrees north and south of equator .. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Most medieval world maps were centered on Jerusalem (or Mecca), known as Mappa Mundi. Changing to a Meridian latitude zeroed on London/Paris was not a great change. Especially after the Americas were added

Britain maybe the "Centre" of the Earth, definitely not the "Center."

GMT doesn't change even with daylight saving ... We go to BST (British Summer Time)

"in the late 19th century, 72% of the world's commerce depended on sea-charts which used Greenwich as the Prime Meridian."

The navigation technology invented in Britain was the main reason but still a pretty informative & well presented video. Hope you had a good xmas btw JPS.