Today, the Utah State Quarter Coin with its image of two locomotives remembers the date 133 years ago when the United States and Canada adopted standard time zones for the standardization of railroad schedules.
In 1916, the Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers included the Memoir of William Frederick Allen prepared by Charles A. Hammond, M. Am. Soc. C. E.
The memoir included the contributions of Mr. Allen in developing North American Standard Time Zones to make railway travel and management easier.
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The membership of the American Railway Association is composed of the railroad companies in the United States. Canada, and Mexico, operating 300,000 miles of railway.
The object of the Association is the recommendation of methods for the management and operation of American railways. It has perfected the “Standard Code of Train Rules, Block Signal Rules and Interlocking Rules”; the improvement of Car Service Methods, including the Code of Per Diem Rules looking to increasing the efficient distribution of freight cars; a National Code of Car Demurrage Rules, to facilitate the prompt movement of freight cars; Standard Track Scale Specifications and Rules, and Uniform Rules for the Weighing and Re-Weighing of Carload Freight; the adoption of Standard. Heights for Draw-bars, also of Standard Dimensions for Box Cars and for Rail Sections; and a Bureau for the Safe Transportation of Explosives.
In his capacity as Secretary of the Association, Mr. Allen became intimately acquainted with a large number of railway managers.
The Presidency of the Association has been held successively by different men, from different parts of the country, but the Secretary-ship has been a permanent feature, and his administration of the office has been an important element in the Association’s prosperity, contributing in no small degree to the remarkable success of its efforts in standardizing and improving American railway practice.
Undoubtedly, Mr. Allen’s greatest claim to a world’s gratitude is his monumental achievement in the establishment of the present system of “Standard Time”.
In 1881, the General Time Convention referred to him for solution the difficult problem of working out a standard of time reckoning that would obviate the confusion resulting from the use of the fifty or more local-time standards then prevailing in the United States.
His report was submitted in 1883.
His plan divided the country into five even-hour zones, based on the quadrant meridian (90° west of Greenwich) and the meridians of each 15° east and west of it. The report also provided for an elastic boundary line between the hour zones, instead of a strictly longitudinal division, and in its details fixed every point at which the hour-change was to be made, worked out the method of passing, without confusion, from one hour-standard to the other, adjusted the difference between local and standard time, and embodied every practical provision for placing the system in immediate effect.
The report was unanimously endorsed by the Association, and Mr. Allen was empowered to secure its adoption by the railways.
In this work, he had the co-operation of the Cambridge and the National Observatories.
The change in the operating time-tables of the many different railroads throughout the country was made at noon, eastern time, on Sunday, November 18th, 1883, without delay or disturbance.
For this splendid achievement, pronounced one of the greatest in the history of transportation, Mr. Allen was elected to Honorary Membership in many American and foreign scientific societies, and received, in 1906, from Princeton University, the honorary degree of Master of Science.
The American system of standard time, as devised by Mr. Allen, and successfully inaugurated through his untiring efforts and special facilities for reaching and influencing the railway managements of the country and other interests involved, has now been adopted by all the nations of Europe, by Japan, and by the South American countries-—practically by all the civilized nations of the world.
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Another book, St. Nicholas An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks, published in 1913 included this explanation of time zones:
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The earth turns toward the east, as we all know in seeing the sun rise in the east and set in the west.
Those living in the eastern part of the United States get sunrise, therefore, much earlier than those in the western part.
This difference in time is some three hours, but the earth rolls regularly, which makes the difference in time extend regularly across the United States, so that, strictly speaking, there is a different time for every step westward clear across the continent.
It would, however, not be practical to have such a gradation of time, so it has been found better to make the changes by hours rather than by set gradation, and so to prevent the confusion of having an indefinite number of different times.
Therefore, the United States has been divided into four sections of so-called “Standard Time”— Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Time, and Pacific Time.
Standard Time was adopted in the United States on November 18, 1883.
Eastern Standard Time is used in the section, or zone, through the center of which, from north to south, runs the 75th meridian, while the regions using Central, Mountain, and Pacific Standard Time have for their central line the 90th, 105th, and 120th meridians, respectively.
The line where one zone adjoins another, however, is not rigidly observed, but is regulated somewhat by the convenience of the railroads and by local usage.
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The Utah State Quarter Coin shows with an image of a time zone map produced by William Frederick Allen in the 1880s.
