Aboard The Boundless: Sandford Fleming

Sandford Fleming is an engineer and a surveyor for the CPR, but he’s probably best known as the inventor of Standard Time.

 

Now that trains were crossing great expanses at great speeds, it became necessary to develop time zones. Before then, time was pretty much up for grabs, decided by every town or region as they saw fit. Fleming divided the entire world up into 24 zones.

 

What’s less well known about him is that he invented something called Cosmic Time, which is the same all over the world. He actually has a special clock which shows Standard Time and Cosmic Time.

 

Cosmic time never catches on -- but one of the interesting things about time zones in The Boundless, is that they’re a bit permeable.

 

Whenever the train passes through a time zone,  there’s a little, shall we say, shimmer. An adjustment. A moment of confusion, maybe just a few second, which makes sleight of hand all the easier.

 

Imagine the possibilities...

 

 

The Boundless: The Last Spike

If you’re Canadian you’ve probably seen this photo.

 

It's 1885 up in Craigellachie, BC. It’s not even a real town. (It’s near Revelstoke.)

 

This is where the tracks coming from the East met the tracks coming from the West, up in the mountains.

 

You can see the workers in the foreground.

 

 

 

The fellow driving the spike is Donald Smith, the President of the CPR. (He actually bent the first spike, and had to do it again. He had a desk job.)

 

Behind him to the left is William Cornelius Van Horne, the General Manager of the railroad and its driving force.

 

To the right of Van Horne, looking like his beard is about to explode is Sandford Fleming, surveyor and engineer.

 

And who is that kid, peeking out to the right of Donald Smith...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I know who he is in real life... but in my next post, I'll tell you who he is in the world of The Boundless...

(The sasquatch? Look very closely. It's hard to see, but it's there...)