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Knights of the Steel Rails
Sir Sandford Fleming - (1827-1915)
Inventor and scientist Sandford Fleming was born in Scotland. He came to Canada as a teenager. In April 1871, Fleming was put in charge of planning a route for the railway that would cross Canada. Over 4,000 km had to be surveyed and mapped. His recommendation of using the Yellowhead Pass was not used for the Canadian Pacific Railway, but the Pass was used by the Canadian Northern Railway and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.
Yeah Canada!
As chief engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway, Sir Sandford Fleming became interested in how to schedule the trains. Time was calculated in each town by checking the sun. When the sun was at its highest, it was noon. Time between places was not accurate. To correct this problem, Fleming developed a system of keeping a standard time over established time zones. Thanks to Fleming, today's system of international standard time was adopted in 1884.
Read More
Sandford Fleming: Railway Builder, by Michael Webb. Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman, ©1993, 28 p. Ages 8 to 12
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