The Jersey City news., 1903-12-22
FIXED THE | TIME
South Orange Man Invented
What Is known as
Standard lime.

The name Of William r. Alenl, of
South Orange, will go down in history as
that7of the man who contributed no small
part in rcvolutionizing the country's sys-
TEN Of time, for it was just twenty years
ago hast month that he invented the mod
ern system Of time known as sstandard."
Mr. Allen, who is secretary of the
American Railway Association, with an
office at "a Park Place, New York, lives
in Scotland road. He is member of the
South Orange Field Club and is promi-
nent socially in the Oranges. He has a
vast command Of the details of all
branches of the railway business. He it
was vino worked out the theoretical de-
tails of the system and made it practic-
able. The system has fulfilled all expec-
tations, and from the first day of its use
Strengthened out many tangled railroad
problems. 1t has been adopted by many
foreign countries.
Standard time went into effect on No
vember Is, 1883, and on that day all the
official and most of te official watces in
New York were set back three minutes,
fifty-eight seconds and thirty eight one
hundredths of second. That was the
difference between the old local and the
new Eastern time.
In those days, as now, the time ball on
the Western Union building, at No. 1875
Broadway, was dropped every day, eA-
actly at noon, according to time sent in
from the observatory at Washington 1t
was by this ball that the official change
was made. The change had been an
nounced beforehand. and there was
large crowd i'll the streets. Each man
held his watch and waited for the ball to
drop, nearly four minutes later than it
usually did. Mr.. Allen himself was in
the tower and superintendent the move
ments of those who were about to send
New York backward.
One of the clocks which was looked
upon as an authority in those days was
in the tower of The Tribune building on
Park row. This clock was looked after
by Marty" Kiese and a man named Me-
Cartin, who wound many of the city
Marty" was assigned the task of cor
recting the Tribune clock. Being of
mathematical turn of mind, he did not
find it hard to adjust the three minutes
and fifty-eight seconds, but when 1t came
to figuring up the thirty-eight one hun-
dredths of second Kiese says it was the
hardest job Of his life. McCartin assist
ed in the work to the extent of going out
side, in view of the time ball, with a
watch in his hand and getting the cor
rected time, but he became tangled up
when he got back to Kiese, and the two
had a hard time figuring out where they
ought to set the hands.
Practically all of the principal railroad
companies adopted the new time system
on the day it was innaugurated, and with
very little convenience, too. In many
+
cases it was not necessary to make any
changes in the running schedule of the
trains. 1t is now regarded by men CON
nected with telephone, telegraph and rail
road companies as one of the most val
uable improvements of the century
According to Mr.. Aliens plan, East
ern' time, under which people living in
this section Of the country reckon, be-
comes the true local time of longitude
west, and is good between the lo6gitudes
of 671a and s21a west. s'Central'' time,
one hour later, is the local time between
longitudes 821a and 971a. The ssMoun-
tain time, which is in the West, is still
an hour later, and is the true local time
between the lines of 1121a and 1271a.
TO CURE Al COLD IN ONE DAY