Virtual Museum Canada

Sir SandFord Fleming - The Knight Of Time

The knight of time

Making time uniform

June1880
Leaving Halifax at 7:00 local time STOP Arriving at 8:00 Toronto local time.


Time standardization table
lens(65 k)

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the accelerated development of railways and trade from coast to coast and throughout the world favoured the appearance of what was called standard time as opposed to solar time.

Train conductor's watch
lens(70 k)

Following Sandford Fleming’s proposal, the planet was divided into 24 sections based on longitude. These are the time zones. Time is the same in every city located in a single section of the globe, and it becomes much easier to know what time it is anywhere in the world.

There is no longer any need to wear a watch with several dials showing local time in various Canadian cities: a uniform way of reckoning time has been established. You simply determine the number of time zones between the two localities, adding one hour for every time zone as you move east or subtracting as you move west.