Coordinating time was not an esoteric academic matter, but one driven by the railroads, telegraphs, and financial businesses. And as with most practical matters, inventors sought to patent their inventions. Because Switzerland was a hub for time technology, many such patents were submitted to the patent office of Bern. There, from 1902 to 1909, a reportedly diligent patent officer reviewed all sorts of patents, including some relating to the electrocoordination of clocks. In 1905 the patent officer, Albert Einstein, published the paper On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, which, in
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