Time Frame: Time tips the scales

How do we measure the passage of time? This very ordinary photograph, taken over 50 years ago, is one way.

It was taken by a British oilman, John Vale, who was working for the on shore oil exploration team from the late 1950s into the 1960s.

This is his room at the company base in Tarif, a place to relax for someone a long way from home.

On the right is a rack of LP records, and above a shelf of singles. The one visible cover is Joan Baez’s second album, released by the American folk singer in 1961, which helps date the image.

To the left is a book case filled with various volumes, including reference books and paperbacks. Everything would have been laboriously transported by ship from England and then across the desert.

Now imagine the life of an oil worker in 2015. His books are on a paperless reader like a Kindle, or perhaps viewed on an iPad app, the same device which holds his music collection, several times larger than the one visible here.

If he wants some new reading material or a new release, this is just a click and a download away.

So this is one measurement of time and progress. The latest iPad Air weights 478 grams. A box of just 10 vinyl records tips the scales at two kilos.

* James Langton