The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1884-01-10
The Man Who Brought About the Me-
ridian Scheme.


ridian Scheme.
Are yot able to ride along in q street.
car without reading every s,gn-board in
regular succession? Can YOU pass row
OF posts without instinctivcly counting
them? Ism { there something in your mind
that irrCsiStiblv compels YOU To step on
alternate flaggings, if the make of the
sidewalk pcrmits9 ] knew n man who
took these tendencies for incipicnt in
sanity, and went to n noted authority
for consultation. Going down Broad
way. Yesterday. ] saw q man who step
ped with an odd precision which Sug-
gcsted the questions above given. Not
only were his strides strangely perfect
in regularity. but il was clear that his
course was laboriously calculated He
was walchful for every Ol s;aclc. He
iostlcd nobody. He did not have to
stop at the corrSrs to avoid vehicles. !
called my mltlniOn'S attention To this
singuaritv.
"Hc is running himself on an mag
mary timetable was the reply.
Nv hat Ito YOU mean by that?' said |.
That is William Frederick Allen. the
author of the new time system. He is
an expert in railroad Timetables, and
what YOU see in his gait and movements
is a manncrism gained from his bust
ness" There is going to BE- a "Bcauti-
full SNOW sort of controversy as to the
Authorship of the new timing plan and
| thought it was as we'll to investigate.
My friend was right. Allen is the man.
At desk in big front room at 46
Bond street, Just of the Bowerv, he sits
i, h,,-ip,-- ln,- H., l.,
a Young man whose time is occupied
to an anna ing degree with visitors. with
great sheets of printed figures. with bus
mess by telegraph and telephone and
with an intermnablc round of meSSen-
gers, both going AT his order and com
iug upon CrrandS for others. He is quick
a. Il eat and mcthodcal Is a weaver.
HIS friends say that he was always able
To DO the three things at once, and he
says that of late twice that number of
tn ng> is constantly before him. This
is the man who has given its new stand
ard of time to the country. He is n
good-looking. intelligent man, thirty
81 en- years old. with the spare frame
and pale complexion of man used to
hard srdcntarv work. He wears a suit
OF black. without jcwclry, and tbs and
his cloSc-cut side whiSkerS reaching be-
low his ears gives him the appearance
of a young English divine. He is u
typical Phladelphian, with none of the
dash and show of New Yorker. He
receives n handsome salary, and lives
in a pretty house in one of the suburbs.
He is married and has three children
Many people had given years of study
TO the subject before he took it up, and
he rives credit to each of those who con-
tlibutrd to what has now been conSum-
mated.
The fact of the matter is that the
thing could only be done by Joint action
of the great railroads, and none of those
who studied the subject arranged to
put their plans into practical shape or
to get the ear Of more than one set of
railroad officials al time. Their plans
were Ike the house that a rich sea Cap
tain insisted upon having built just rs
he DIES gned it When it was built, he
found that he had to get out into the
Yard and put up a ladder to get to the
second story. They all forgot to put
the stairs in their plans. Allen is the
permanent Secretary of the Ra lway
Time Convention, and helps to make
and publish the timetables. 1t id not
take him long to find out that there
were tilty-three kinds of time in use,
and that this caused incesSant and Scri-
Gus bother. That was how he came to
look into the matter of standards of
time. He utilized Prof. DoWd's bril-
liant idea of dividing the standards by
even hours, and then he did what Prof.
Dowd would not have thought OF doing,
and cou, dn't have done to save his neck.
He divided the meridianal belts so as to
bring the boundaries ether at the ends
OF the big roads or of their divisions, SO
that no change of time would ever in
terIcre with Il trains crew, but new
time would start where new crews, new
timetables, and, a far rs possible. diff
ferent companies would begin work CO.
incident with the beginning of a new
standard. 1t was nice piece of work,
and required great labor. but when he
GOT it ready he was able to command
the ears of the railroad men. This last
advantage was essential.