Blaise: Time Lord

From Scienticity

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Clark Blaise, Time Lord : Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time. London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000. viii + 246 pages.

Sir Sandford Fleming, once the most celebrated Canadian engineer but now receeding into history, is widely called "the father of standard time" because he was the catalyst for the events leading up to the Meridian Conference of 1884, convened in Washington, DC, by President Chester A. Arthur. It was at this meeting that the world was divided into 24 time zones, the International Date Line was fixed, and hours around the world were synchronized all to begin at the same moment. It was a monumental achievement despite being not quite what Sir Sandford had hoped for.

The author gives us all the necessary historical details about Sir Sandford and how the world moved towards standard time, the impetus provided by the difficulty with keeping trains running on time. But he gives us much, much more than that. Blaise writes a vivid portrayal of Victorian attitudes and reactions to science and technology -- particularly their anxiety of speed introduced by raliroads, and how speed shrank distance and created a new need for standardized time. The book is more a series of essays, on the perception of time, its relation to railroad technology, how it was treated in art of the time, and its implications for industrialization and the development of technology. His language tends towards the poetic, which some might find a little slow to read and others will find exhilarating, but which is certainly worth any extra effort required.

Blaise's comprehension of the deep meaning of time's importance to modern society is profound, and he does an excellent job of sharing that understanding. This was one of those rare books that alters my own perspective in significant and welcome ways.

-- Notes by JNS