Using astronomical observations obtained from the new telescope, Langley devised a precise time standard, including time zones, that became known as the Allegheny Time System. Initially he distributed time signals to Allegheny city business and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Eventually, twice a day, the Allegheny time signals gave the correct time via 4,713 miles of telegraph lines to all railroads in the US and Canada. Langley used the money from the railroads to finance the observatory. From about 1868 revenues from Allegheny Time continued to fund the observatory, until the US Naval Observatory provided the signals via taxpayer funding in 1883.