Cleveland Abbe
In order to compile his information, Abbe required a time-keeping system that was consistent among the stations. To accomplish this he divided the United States into four standard time zones. He published, in 1879, a paper titled "Report on Standard Time". In 1883, he convinced North American railroad companies to adopt his time-zone system. In 1884, Britain, which had already adopted its own standard time system for England, Scotland, and Wales, helped gather international consent for global time. In time, the American government, influenced in part by his 1879 paper, adopted the time-zone system.
Alaska Time Zone
The Standard Time Act of 1918 authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to define each time zone. The United States Standard Alaska Time was designated as UTC−10. Some references prior to 1967 refer to this zone as Central Alaska Standard Time (CAT) or as Alaska Standard Time (AST). In 1966, the Uniform Time Act renamed the UTC−10 zone to Alaska-Hawaii Standard Time (AHST), effective April 1, 1967. This zone was renamed in 1983 to Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time when the majority of Alaska was moved out of the zone.