Time Lord : Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time

by Clark Blaise

The remarkable story of the man who created and then convinced all the nations of the world to adopt a unified standard for telling time.

Standard Time was one of the crowning achievements of Victorian progressiveness and one of the few Victorian innovations to have survived practically unchanged into our era. Few technological inventions have proven to be both as invisible and as important. Today we take it for granted that the world is divided into twenty-four time zones, but before Standard Time was established in 1884, time was an arbitrary measure decided by individual localities. With the advent of continent-spanning railroads and transatlantic steamers, the myriad local times became a mind-boggling obstacle and the rational ordering of time became an urgent priority.

After laboring for years to create a scientific consensus, Sandford Fleming gathered scientific and political representatives from the world's twenty-five independent nations in Washington, D.C., for the Prime Meridian Conference. There, after considerable rancor, delegates agreed to the Greenwich Prime Meridian, the International Date Line, and a single system by which the entire world would measure its longitudes and tell the same time.

In Time Lord , Clark Blaise introduces us to an almost-forgotten figure, who saw the world as a whole and overcame traditional and national objections to the rational accounting of time.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Science, Historical, Canada, World History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Clark Blaise, OC (born 10 April 1940) is a Canadian author.
Born in Fargo, North Dakota, he currently lives in San Francisco, California. He has been married since 1963 to writer Bharati Mukherjee. They have two sons. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, Blaise was also the director of the International Writing Program. While living in Montreal in the early 1970s he joined with authors Raymond Fraser, Hugh Hood, John Metcalf and Ray Smith to form the celebrated Montreal Story Tellers Fiction Performance Group.
In 2009, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contributions to Canadian letters as an author, essayist, teacher, and founder of the post-graduate program in creative writing at Concordia University".

Reviews

[Tim Weakley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one could have been a lot better if the author had actually stuck to his chosen topic ratehr than indulging himself in all of the digressions comparing time to art, and literature. For a book that is billed as being about Sanford Fleming I was really left feeling that Fleming was tangental to what I was reading.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is sort of a biography of Sandford Fleming, the Scotsman-become-Canadian who was a prime mover in the global standardization of time at the turn of the last century. It is more than that as well, the biography being rather sketchy. Employing the occasion, and perhaps needing fill for what would otherwise be a shorter book, author Blaise offers what amount to a series of essays about modernism in literature and the arts, about Victorian culture, about telegraph and the railroads, about cultural relativism--all topics related to time. Indeed, I got the sense that Blaise's heart was much more invested in these excurses than in the task of biography.

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here's a history book I wasn't sure I was going to finish (gasp, shock, "WHAT?!"). Yes, I know, a history book that me, the guy that only reads history, didn't like? And about a Canadian pioneer nonetheless? Well, the book was not fun to read, and not easy to read, and didn't even seem to be about Sanford Fleming after all!

I bought this book a few years back for my mom, thinking she'd like the topic and biographical nature of the book. She still hadn't read it, so I decided to pick it up and give it a go. The book is about Sanford Fleming, a Scottish-Canadian renaissance man whose biggest claim to fame is creating Standard Time (that notion that you can calculate time zones from one single fixed spot on Earth, and the reason Victoria isn't two minutes behind Vancouver). The only problem is...the book isn't really about Mr. Fleming. I mean, it deals with him, and what he did, but it's more about the concept of time and trying to explain time's significance (and the vast differences between pre-1884 understanding of time and post-1884 understanding of time).

The author, Clark Blaise, attempts to spin this narrative about one of Canada's most important global citizens of the age by telling us about his upbringing and what made Fleming the Fleming of Standard Time (most notably what led him to miss a train in Ireland and have his lightbulb moment), but regularly loses the biography to chase down some philosophical concept of time or history of the railway system in Europe, before hammering the reader over the head with just how strongly the two are linked (which, trust me, isn't always obvious). At times (many times) it seems like Mr. Blaise is just trying to show off how much he knows about the world, with literary references, political theory, history, and philosophy all minutely described when attempting to make the point that, for instance, Fleming has been misconstrued at failing in his own railway endeavours (he was in charge of planning and overseeing both the Intercolonial Railway and the CPR (that's him looking over the shoulder of the future Lord Strathcona in the famous Last Spike photograph of 1885). All in all, it's very confusing, takes a long time to get to any significant point about Fleming himself or his work with 'time,' and drops an ending without even mentioning Fleming (the ending is, apparently, about changing morals in American literary society as representative of the change railways brought).

The book was frustrating to read, made me feel I didn't know anything and couldn't understand anything, and, I felt, didn't do justice to Fleming himself. I don't feel I understand the man and his role in creating Standard Time much more than I did beyond the basic facts, and I wouldn't go as far as saying it was a biography. I didn't like this book, and I wouldn't recommend it (unless you're a philosopher or understand these things better than I do).

Oh, and the book didn't even mention that Fleming designed Canada's first postage stamp, a major oversight in my opinion!

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

TOO MUCH INFORMATION! I abandoned this book after only three chapters. The author's writing reminded me of myself in college, having been assigned a paper to research & write, then trying to fill up as much space as possible by adding words and any research that would expand my paper to the required length.

[Diana Ishaqat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to understand how and when did the world agree (or not) on what time it is. Looks like something we got so used to but where did it start from? The book’s introduction is beautiful. I learned a lot throughout reading, but similarly to other readers, there were a lot of other topics (books the author seems to like) and I think we learn about the process but not much about its implementation. Otherwise, it’s a good read.

[Jared Castiglione · Rating 4 out of 5]

Albert Einstein is credited with saying “a man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two is never sure.”

I’ve always liked that quote and I can relate to it both on small and large scales. But something I never thought about was just how new “standard time” is around the globe. Much of this book’s events take place in the years leading up to October of 1884!

This book opened my eyes to so many thoughts and ideas and brought the history of standard time into my consciousness. It could easily be a starting point to years of learning.

There is a lot here and much more than Sir Sandford Fleming’s standard time proposals. The story telling here is nicely paced and builds up to what I, as the reader, expected the entire book to be about. Instead there is a full explanation of the World prior to standard time.

The book centers around several key phrases that are used throughout the story telling. While some reviews make mention of the jagged topics, I found them to be encompassing of the information being presented. They brought a necessary context to the climax. Without, the book would have felt out of place, and, ironically, out of time.

Instead, the author does a good job telling the story and painting the entire picture of all the details of the world climate, during the “decade of time.”

For me, this book was exactly what I needed it to be: historical, well written, evenly paced, and interesting in its delivery.

It’s pretty impressive to witness genius even if not all of it was excepted. I was fascinated to learn about the parts of standard time that were not adopted: “terrestrial time,” or English letters used with numbers to tell time. It’s U-34 as I write this.

“Changing the pace of change”

There is a lot that phrase describes not just around time or how to measure it globally, but about life and the events in our history that alter it so profoundly that everything after it is different.

Imagine paying $500 a year for a subscription to accurate time?!

This book concludes my journey that started with “Around the World in Eighty Days,” and continued with “The Other Log of Phileas Fogg.” The three worked quite well together and I would recommend this book to anyone who has read or plans to read Jules Verne’s masterpiece.

More people should know the name “Sir Sandford Fleming” and his story. And this book is a great way to do both…

[Ellie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This *should* be a good book. At the center its an interesting idea to explore, but it suffers from POOR execution. It lacks the narrative drive of good nonfiction. Jumps time and focus too often and author inserts himself several times awkwardly. Don't bother. I quit halfway.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly a fairly uninteresting meditation on time and how we perceive it. The biographical aspects were minimal and weak.

[Adam Lundy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best historical non-fiction books I’ve ever read, mostly because the author often strays so far from mere reporting of history. He totally plunges the reader into the attitudes of the era. You understand the significance of prevailing attitudes at the time in a way so unrelated to typical, safeguarded, pat answers that historians typically feed you. There’s tons of speculation, most of it candid, most of it playing out like a passionate professor’s discourse on the subject in front of a class in order to get students stoked about the subject content. In that he succeeded

[Hans-Peter Merz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Grossartiges Sujet -total verschenkt!



Die Entwicklung der Weltzeit und die faszinierende Person Sir Sandford Flemings wurden von C. Blaise in einem konfusen Text verwurstet, der nicht weiss, ob er Roman oder Wissenschaftsgeschichte sein will.. Dachte erst, dass der Uebersetzer schuld sei, aber der kann nichts dafuer. Groesste Buchenttaeuschung seit langem.

[Alessandro Fasanaro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non c’è bisogno (o sì?) di ricordare quante cose nel mondo in cui viviamo oggi, fino a quelle che più ci paiono elementari, semplici e fors’anche banali, un tempo non lo fossero affatto, elementari, semplici e banali. Una di queste è il tempo. Sembra uno scherzo, visto che molti di noi arrivano a scegliersi un orologio o un altro da indossare in base all’occasione o al colore degli abiti. Tuttavia il tempo per come lo conosciamo, ovvero quel ticchettìo interiore scandente la nostra quotidianità, non è sempre esistito e non è stato sempre uguale per tutti. Il tempo cosiddetto ‘standard‘ è un concetto nato solo con il processo di industrializzazione occidentale e si è affermato solo negli anni Ottanta del secolo XIX. Suo profeta e realizzatore è stato un signore intriso di solido razionalismo vittoriano unito a una fede presbiteriana, ovvero Sandford Fleming; il ‘signore del tempo‘ del suggestivo titolo del libro. Fu lui a ideare l’unificazione degli orologi mondiali sotto l’unico sistema simboleggiato dal meridiano di Greenwich, compiendo di fatto una delle più grandi innovazioni della nostra storia. Perché, prima che ciò avvenisse, dobbiamo immaginare un mondo in cui ogni Stato (e a volte ogni regione) aveva un proprio sistema orario e una propria concezione di ‘ore‘ e ‘minuti‘; un mondo ben più caotico del nostro, in cui incidenti e disguidi – pensate solo agli orari ferroviari – erano all’ordine del giorno. Si viveva lo stesso, potrebbe dire qualcuno; vero, ma la nuova civiltà industriale non poteva accettare ambiguità sulla data di partenza o di arrivo di un carico di merci.

Scozzese trapiantato in Canada, Fleming non solo pose fine all’anarchia cronologica regnante senza soluzione da più di un secolo ma divenne per la nazione della foglia d’acero un forte testimonial antistatunitense. È in questa veste, purtroppo, che egli sembra interessare a Clark Blaise con grosso smacco per l’obiettività espositiva. Questo libro comunque racconta la sua storia e le sue battaglie scientifiche e diplomatiche, allo stesso tempo presentando un buon quadro del contesto in cui esse ebbero luogo.

‘Il signore del tempo‘ presenta un argomento affascinante, meritevole di profonde riflessioni, ma nel modo sbagliato. Scrittore probabilmente di buon livello ma mai uscito dalla sua nazione per ragioni da ricondursi a un certo provincialismo, Blaise non riesce a mantenere sempre la rotta della scrittura da divulgazione scientifica. La biografia di Fleming, pur rispettabile, viene infatti troppo romanzata e troppe volte lo scrittore esce dal seminato per considerazioni nazionalistiche francamente fuori luogo. Come fuori luogo sono anche parecchie pagine dedicate all’influsso del tempo sulla letteratura: i pensieri su Conan Doyle e Faulkner – autori fra i prediletti di Blaise – potrebbero anche interessare ma poco c’entrano con il discorso del libro e quindi andrebbero veicolati altrove.

Una lettura a tratti piacevole, ma non meritevole di grossa considerazione. Il titolo altisonante suona a vuoto.

“Coll’economizzare il tempo si allunga la vita”
(Antonio Rosmini)

[Deb Montague · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointed in this book. The first third sets up the premise. Life pre the establishment of a Prime Meridian, a point on the globe from which we take our time stamp, was chaotic. As railroads took over mass transportation, that chaos only increased. Enter Sanford Fleming, a Canadian engineer, who had ideas on how to make life better.
The biographical information on Fleming was good but that's only a third of book. The other two-thirds is given over to philosophical musings on time or literary criticism. Occasionally, there would be the sentence tying what the author was musing about back to Fleming. The entire 5th chapter could be removed with little to no change in the book's premise.
I wanted more on the mechanics of how Fleming came to his theories. I wanted more on his family life. He was married. He had children but they are neglected. He was a traveler. How did traveling influence his theories? What did his family think of his travels?
Who were the main antagonists in his life and how did they frame how he presented his theories? He lost his job as chief surveyor of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. I felt the author knew why but decided not to reveal this. Why?
I still don't understand how Fleming came to his theory. And it's a huge cop-out to say, "Well, in the US, they had come to time zones because of the railroad" and then go on without explaining how or why this was decided. Fleming had no influence on this decision. In fact, it feels as if the US decision was directly in opposition to Fleming's ideas. "We're not going to let a Canadian dictate our time."
The 1884 conference which established Greenwich as the Prime Meridian is almost an afterthought in the book. Fleming had ideas but was rebuffed at almost every turn. I don't understand what he was proposing even after reading the book.
The author was the head of the Iowa Writer's Workshop. It feels as if the author wanted to write a philosophical treatise on the nature of time and then a book of literary criticism, but was told those would never sell so he combined them into this. If I read the sections of literary criticism as that, those sections shine. The early part of the book, discussing Fleming's early life and what sort of set him off to study a unifying theory on time is fascinating. That's what I wanted the whole book to be.
I read this on the heels of Dava Sobel's "Longitude," which the author references, as it came out three years before this book. It's hard to take a staid scientific point and make an interesting story about it. Sobel has done that, as have others in this genre. The book is not about Sanford Fleming. It's about time. The author should have picked a theme and stuck with it.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was one weird biography. Digression was the name of the game for this book, so let me digress. I love a certain used book sale, on last day a grocery store bag of books is $5. That leads me to toss in anything that for any reason catches my interest. I'm a Doctor Who fan, this book is called Time Lord. That got it in the bag, though it obviously had nothing to do with Dr. Who.

This was ostensibly a biography of Sanford Fleming. A 19th century Canadian version of . . .well, will Ben Franklin do? Sanford Fleming was an immigrant to Canada (not yet actually Canada) from Scotland. He had some education and some engineering/surveying training. He was a sociable, well liked guy who worked hard. Wasn't at all clear to me how he got these jobs, but he got in good with the power structure of the British in charge of the Canadian territories, and also got in good with the railroad builders. If the author had stuck to traditional biography techniques, this book would have been about 50 pages long, and very very dull. Which is not to say Sanford was dull. He seemed a pretty interesting guy. But the book's not really about him.

The book is about time. Sanford Fleming was integral to establishing a universal world time. Who knew, Greenich Mean Time has not always existed. Sanford was also involved in a lot of other world wide developments and dabbled in all sorts of science and engineering projects. The book was really about how technology changed time, and therefore changed our world and culture. The author digresses into history, philosophy, literature. He spends a lot of time talking about Sherlock Holmes. Which, I loved. There was a page or two where he talked about Ernest Hemingway's use of commas, and how the lack of them showed his representation of a 'new' modern version of time. He spent a lot of time talking about impressionists and how their art related to our culture's changing understanding of time. Faulkner, Joyce, Dreiser, Freud -they all make appearances in this alleged biography of Sanford Fleming. He talks a lot about modernism, what it means, and how the date of when modernism began (if one can if pin it down), keeps moving back.

Many of the reviews I read hated this book because of the digressions. I loved it because of the digressions. Something in Sanford Flemings life and times would remind the author of something else and off we'd go. It did tend to make this a slow read.

[Janta · Rating 1 out of 5]

As several other commenters have mentioned, this book seems to only peripherally be about Sandford Fleming. I was looking forward to learning more about him and his life, but 40 pages in (which, I'll admit, isn't really a fair chance) it's been a lot of ruminations along the lines "but what even IS time, man?". There was a paragraph on page 4 that was all about how time is what makes all children want their parents dead, and all parents want their children to be infants forever. I mean, what? Calm down, dude, you're in your own room.

I did take a peek at the epilogue,titled "The Ghost of Sandford Fleming" which seemed to have nothing to do with anything. In the space of three paragraphs, he goes from being on a plane in 1997, to remembering his childhood time in Miami in 1947 which somehow includes mention of Blaise's father putting coins into a parking meter, "KKK unmasked parades" and white supremacy, which of course segues naturally into a recollection of Jackie Robinson and then bounces back to 1997. Baffling, and utterly unrelated to the alleged subject of the book. Fleming isn't even mentioned in the five paragraphs of the epilogue.

Anyway, if you're in the market for a rather pretentious read about one guy's philosophical ramblings concerning time, literature, and oh yeah, the guy who helped establish the idea of time zones, give this a go, I guess. If you're looking for an actual biography of Sandford Fleming, I think (like me) you'll have to keep looking.

[Andrew Chmyr · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd little book, and yes I knew this wasn't a "Doctor Who" story. I believe this was something I bought from the Science Book Club a rather long time ago. I found this stashed away in my library and was intrigued by the title. (I did think of "Doctor Who".) I looked over some of the reviews of this and was startled at the number of people who started this book and then stopped reading it. So I was sort of prepared for a disappointment, but pressed on anyway.
The first couple of chapters were different from the usual science format as they went into Fleming's background in a rather rambling way. But that didn't bother me it sort of gave some color to the mans life. Also I found out quite a bit about Canada that I didn't know. The ideas behind the creation of Standard Time and the political wrangling in it's creation were interesting (being retired military meant I was well aware of TIME ZULU). The portion of the book I found tedious and made me wonder why the author included it were at the end. The connection between art and time was fuzzy and frankly boring. The chapter that followed it on art and literature was also strange and made me wonder why it was included. The one with Sherlock Holmes was outright weird. (I'm not a member of the 'Baker Street Irregulars' but I am a Holmes fan who resented Blaise messing with the great detective.)
So my reaction to this book. It's being donated to Good Will it's just taking up space in my library I need for something more worthwhile.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book about the importance of time, it sure wastes a lot of it.

When the author was focused on Sir Sandford Fleming, it was good. The man was interesting to follow and his work before the Prime Meridian Conference was impressive and laid the groundwork for his retirement exploits. Even the side stories were able to mostly stay on point when they were interrupting the story, as they often provided a little bit of extra information.
But then the book took a turn like a modern YouTube video, padding the length for no discernible reason. Chapters 8, 9, 11, 12, and the Afterword share nothing of importance. 8 and 9 almost broke me, which would have been a shame as chapter 10 (The Prime Meridian Conference) is what I wanted to read about. I have no interest in Sherlock Holmes as a mid-Victorian hero for a post-Victorian world, how the modernist artists something something something something zzzzzz...., or even that the author met Jackie Robinson. Maybe these stories could go in a different book, but they serve absolutely no purpose except to distract from the reason I picked up the book, as he doesn't show up at all in those parts!

I don't mind detours in the story, I do mind pointless ones that merely bore me to death and almost prevent me from getting where I wanted to get to begin with. This book is akin to being excited to take an art class only to end up doing paint-by-numbers for 2 months. Just skip the book.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aka books we had abt the old house and were maybe a gift. If you gifted it, thanks.

The premise. Sandford Fleming, a Canadian creates time zones because he misses a train.because they don't adhere to a time table. In the 1880s none of the states had the same time zone so PA was in a different time zone than NY.

Fleming creates time zones. It's what we call microhistory. Focusing specifically on a particular issue and its implications, social, political, scientific. Learned enough. He also talks abt trains a lot. My favorite part is how the Moderns as in Faulkner, Woolf bend time. And the impressionists. That was interesting. Unfortunately my interest peaked in that part. And we had a long chapter on the prime meridian and how they tried to decide where it was..

A good pre work book but I feel like I've been reading it forever.

[Ben Lund · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's always interesting to think how kids today will take for granted things that the older generation never had in their childhood. The two that always stick out to me are; the internet, and touchscreen devices. Cell phones are kinda the same, we had cell phones when I was younger, they were the size of a brick and you couldn't stick them in your back pocket, and there was definitely no texting.
All of that to say, it is interesting to travel back to a time where standard time was not the norm. Where catching a train required calculus level's of math to get to the station on time. Blaise lays out the work that was required into forming the world into time zones we have now. It really is a fascinating look at life in the early 1800's and how things have changed.

[SusanA · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love reading history, and especially biography, but man oh man, I could not get through this one, even after two tries months apart. The tangents are longer than the actual story and some of them are just awful. I am interested in the story of this man who standardized time zones, but somebody else has to write it for me to read!

After slogging through part of the book, I raise the white flag.

[T Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

A really good idea for a book suffering from and finally succumbing to a lack of focus. I'm really into books that try to relate the entire universe to their subject, but Blaise tries too hard and reaches too far, often talking about just the idea of MEASURED time instead of international STANDARD time and its absence. Worth skimming if the headline intrigues you, but not worth a deep read.

[Angelica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I ended at page 50 and realized not exactly in my realm of interest. Feel like it could have been presented in a better way because I think the topic has potential to be interesting but maybe I’m just too dumb for it or I need to have a predisposed interest in it.

[Lenore · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really tried to get through this book. The concept of standard time was very interesting - and the thought that before it was set up everyone had different times. But I just couldn't get through it. Sorry.

[Itamar · Rating 1 out of 5]

I abandoned this book a quarter of the way through as it was just a slog.

Jumping between overly flowery, generic descriptions of what time is and how Standard Time changed the world and minute details about the lives of Scots in would-be Canada, it is erratic and boring.

[Cade · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually LOVE this kind of book, and I'm fascinated by time...but I was bored senseless in the 1st 3 chapters and could not finish it. Maybe I'll try again another time, but for now--nope.

[Eric Layton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written and interesting book about an interesting man.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not what I was expecting: much more philosophical than historical.

[Kelly]

This is not for me. I tried but it's too dry. I'm sure it's a good book but I can't read it.

[G Macdonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts out decently enough as a introduction to Sir Sandford Fleming and his efforts to have a universal time standard adopted worldwide but then the author goes off in all sorts of directions at once. Everything from modernism to a healthy dose of English lit is included, which only seems to serve as a way to pad out the basic story. Some interesting points, but in the end I think this should have been separated into a series of essays/articles on time instead of trying to put it all together into a single book.

[Paperclippe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining with some great meditations and welcome references to culture in regards to time, but it does tend to get away from itself. It was much less the biography I expected, much less the logical progression of the development of standard time, and more a collection of musings on what time means and how it affects us, highlighted by the tale of how our modern conception of time came to be in the first place.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

started this book and then misplaced it for about a year before finishing. This may have hampered my enjoyment. I felt there was enough material for an interesting new yorker article, but that it was being stretched to fill a book. Interesting analysis of the effect of time standardization on art in general and literature in particular.