The Thorny Problem of Keeping the Internet's Time

An obscure software system synchronizes the network's clocks. Who will
keep it running?

In 1977, David Mills, an eccentric engineer and computer scientist,
took a job at COMSAT, a satellite corporation headquartered in
Washington, D.C. Mills was an inveterate tinkerer: he’d once built a
hearing aid for a girlfriend’s uncle, and had consulted for Ford on
how paper-tape computers might be put into cars. Now, at COMSAT, Mills
became involved in the ARPANET, the computer network that would become
the precursor to the Internet. A handful of researchers were already
using the network to connect their distant computers and trade
information. But the fidelity of that exchanged data was threatened by
a distinct deficiency: the machines did not share a single, reliable synchronized time.

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-thorny-problem-of-ke= eping-the-internets-time

************************** Moderator's Note **************************

I used to work in the same group that handled timing for NYNEX when
I was working on SS7.

The "Timing" engineer had a favorite joke: whenever anyone asked him
what time it was, he'd shrug his shoulders and say "Nobody knows!"

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