68 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Some delay took place in summoning the Intei'national Conference' 

 by the President, in consequence of lengthy correspondence on the 

 subject between the United States Government and the Governments 

 of other countries. In the meantime a decision with respect to the 

 regulation of local time had been anticipated by the railway authori- 

 ties in North America, who adopted the system of , hour standards 

 which had been prominently brought forward as described. 



On November 18th of last year (1883) the new system of regulat- 

 ing railway time on this continent came into operation. There had 

 been several preliminary meetings of railway managers ; the last 

 meeting was a Convention held in Chicago the previous October, 

 and it was then determined immediately to carry out the change. 



Mr. W. F. Allen, the secretary of this Con-vention, who also took a 

 pi-ominent part in effecting the adoption of the change, has given a 

 history of the events leading to it. Upon this gentleman mainly 

 fell the. labour of arranging details, and he executed the difficult 

 duties assigned to him with consummate ability. In the words of 

 the historian, the transition from the old to the new system " was 

 put into effect without any appreciable jar, and without a single 

 accident occurring." According to this authority the first newspaper 

 to advocate some change was the Railroad Gazette for April 2, 1870, 

 and it is claimed that as early as 18G9 Prof. Charles F. Dowd, 

 Principal of Temple Grove Ladies' Seminary, Saratoga Springs, pro- 

 posed a system of meridians based on the meridian of Washington at 

 intervals of one hour, by which railways should be operated, and 

 that an expression of his views was placed in the hands of the Presi- 

 dent of the New York and Canada Railroad. The joroposition ap- 

 pears to have attracted attention in the Travellers' Official Guide of 

 1872. In 1873 it was brought before the Railway Association of 

 America, not now in existence. A committee was appointed to ex- 

 amine into its merits ; they failed to recognize its necessity, and 

 recommended that the question of national standard time for use on 

 railways be deferred until it more clearly appeared that the public 

 interests called for it. 



Mr. Dowd's efforts to introduce a national standard time to meet 

 the difficulties which were being developed wei-e at the time imper- 

 fectly appreciated. He, however, has had the satisfaction of seeing 

 a scheme unanimously accepted, and put in operation, which in 

 essential features does not matex-ially differ from that which J he ad- 



