Voting Station

Sandford Fleming

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Inventor

The Resume

    (January 7, 1827-July 22, 1915)
    Born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, United Kingdom
    Scottish-Canadian surveyor and engineer
    Proposed dividing the globe into 24 time zones and eliminating local times (1879)
    Promoted the International Prime Meridian Conference at which international standard time was adopted (1884)
    Founding member of the Royal Society of Canada (1882)
    Chancellor of Queens's University in Kingston, Ontario (1880-1915)
    Knighted (1897)

Why he might be annoying:

    Despite being considered 'the father of standard time,' he was not the first to propose the idea.
    For example, US railways began discussing the issue in 1870 and adopted four time zones for the country in 1883.
    His proposals to eliminate 'AM' and 'PM' in favor of a 24-hour clock never really caught on outside the military.
    Even less successful were his plans for watches with two dials, one telling 'Cosmic Time' and one local time.

Why he might not be annoying:

    When the Parliament buildings in Montreal were burned down by a mob, he was one of the four men who rescued Queen Victoria's portrait (1849).
    He invented an early version of inline skates (1850).
    He designed Canada's first postage stamp, the 'Threepenny Beaver.' (1851)
    He surveyed the routes for Canada's first transcontinental railroad.
    He paid American Indians on his surveying expeditions the same wages as other employees, which was not typical at the time.
    He successfully advocated for the laying of a trans-Pacific telegraph cable to connect Canada and Australia.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 38 Votes: 52.63% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying