Read the excerpt from ship's chronometer from hms beagle. nigel thrift explains: the chronometer, an exceptionally accurate clock, meant that gradually an ever more accurate measure of time became possible, and that of course worked through other things in the nineteenth century to produce ever more standardized time. a good example of that is the railway, where standard time based on the meridian was first applied by the great western railway in 1840 and gradually that standard time became general. macgregor mainly engages the reader through the use of a(n) anecdote. description. opinion. quotation.