Charles F. Dowd

He did not propose their extension to the entire world, which was suggested by the Italian mathematician Quirico Filopanti, and championed by the Canadian engineer Sandford Fleming.

About 1863, he first proposed time zones for United States railways to teenage girls whom he was teaching.

[1][2] Except for meridians based on Greenwich, the system adopted by the railroad industry on 18 November 1883 ignored Dowd's proposal.

The adopted system by William F. Allen, editor of the Traveler's Official Railway Guide, had borders that passed through railway terminals, even some in major cities, like Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Charleston—these formed the border between the eastern and central time zones.

[3] Each of these boundary cities had to adopt one of the two railroad zones or continue to use local mean solar time.