Days Required to Circumnavigate the Globe

Circumnavigation is a good proxy for space / time convergence. Prior to the steamship, circumnavigating the globe would take about one sailing year, a journey greatly delayed by rounding the Cape of Good Hope and the Strait of Magellan. The late 19th and early 20th century provided a series of innovations that would greatly improve circumnavigation, notably the construction of the Suez (1869) and Panama (1914) canals as well as steam propulsion. Circumnavigation was reduced to about 100 days ("Jules Vernes effect") at the beginning of the 20th century and to 60 days by 1925 with fast liner services. The introduction of the jet plane in the second half of the 20th century reduced circumnavigation to about 24 hours.