Simplify the following text for a Grade 15 native English-speaking person.
Original: The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte and came into use in the early twentieth century encouraged by an editorial in American Engineer and Railroad Journal ( December 1900 ) .
Simplified: The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte , and came into use in the early twentieth century encouraged by an editorial in American Engineer and Railroad Journal .