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AllenRBrady t1_j7bvkb8 wrote

I would consider the possibility that the local government was still using an antiquated system of measuring hours. Prior to the widespread adoption of mechanical clocks, hours were not a fixed length. Dawn to dusk was considered daytime, and dusk to dawn was considered night, and each was divided into 12 hours. The first canonical hour of the day was called Prime, and corresponded to 6am. When the sun was overhead, it was Sext. When the sun set, it was Vespers. The duration between Prime and Vespers was divided into 12 hours, regardless of how long daylight actually lasted. So in the summer, daytime hours were longer than nighttime hours, and in the winter, that was reversed.

That system was dominant throughout Europe until around 1600, when mechanical clocks finally became prevalent enough to replace older options like sundials. It seems possible to me that, by the early 1700s, certain jurisdictions might have still been working out the whole concept that all hours were the same length, and 8pm was daytime in summer and nighttime in winter. It's possible that the ordnance you refer to assumed 8pm was "a short time after sunset", while 10pm was "a long while after sunset, but not yet midnight."

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AllenRBrady t1_j7dim8j wrote

I just wanted to throw in a few calculations to round this theory out a bit. Looking at Mannheim, Germany, I see that the winter solstice this year will have 8 hours and 9 minutes of daylight, and the summer solstice will have 16 hours and 17 minutes. That means the winter night will last 951 minutes, and the summer night only 463. If we divide that into 12 hours, that makes a winter hour as long as 79.25 minutes, and a summer hour as short as 38.58 minutes.

So 8pm in the winter would translate to 158.5 minutes past Vespers (sunset), and 10pm in the summer would mean 154.3 minutes past Vespers. That's pretty consistent. If my speculation is correct, this law is saying you need to carry a light source if you're leaving your house 2.5 (modern) hours after sunset.

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GracefulFaller t1_j7md19z wrote

I know it’s a bit later after this was answered but does the sunset to darkness time change over the course of the year? If it doesn’t then the ordinance using your math would correspond to not too long after darkness they would be required to have a light. Which would make sense.

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jellifercuz t1_j7c2dzf wrote

Thank you, AllenRBrady, for this fascinating time-history.

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Connect_Office8072 t1_j7c2v5u wrote

This is probably the answer. I know that during winter and summer the daylight ‘hours” were much, much shorter.

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contractor_inquiries t1_j7fidzp wrote

Were hours based on position of sun, and thus all different lengths, or roughly the same amount?

Or were they just rough ideas of "chunk of time" and people didn't really think about it too much?

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AllenRBrady t1_j7grp7n wrote

I'm pretty sure that, in Europe at least, the local church or cathedral would be responsible for keeping the official time, and this would primarily be accomplished through the aid of a sundial. So if the sundial were properly calibrated, the daylight hours would have pretty regular.

I would have to assume that nighttime hours, or daytime hours on cloudy days, were often estimations at best. For the most part, the only folks who really cared what time it was were church officials who needed to determine when it was time to hold daily services. Everyone else would have just listed for the church bells.

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th30be t1_j7kyh9y wrote

Dang. What an interesting system. Thanks for that information. I am going to look more into time keeping.

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