Founders of Engineering: Sir Sandford Fleming

By Jay Shah
1B Mechatronics

As you walk through the Engineering buildings you are bound to see the name Sir Sandford Fleming. It is likely you’ve been seeing it since first year. It is, after all, the name of an important foundation affiliated with Waterloo Engineering – the Sandford Fleming Foundation. So who was he, and why do we honour him to this day?

Sandford Fleming was born in 1827 in Scotland and moved to Canada in 1845. By 1851 he had already made a name for himself as the designer of the first Canadian postage stamp. During his early years in Canada, he was employed as a surveyor for various railway companies, rising in the ranks quickly to become the Chief Engineer of the Northern Railway of Canada. By 1858, Fleming was strongly advocating a coast-to-coast railway that would span what was at the time British North America.

Several years later, once the idea of the railway ripened, Fleming was appointed as the supervising engineer for the surveying of an intercontinental railway. After the Canadian Confederation in 1867, the government needed to build a rail link to the Pacific Ocean; Fleming, being one of the most experienced in railway surveying, was given the task. After this point he became the simultaneous supervisor of both the Intercontinental and Canadian Pacific Railways, a tremendously powerful and demanding position given the scale, intensity, and impact of both railway projects. Fleming was also a strong advocate of safety considerations in design and was well ahead of his time when proposing ideas such as professional development and conduct among engineers.

During his time as supervisor of Canada’s two largest railway construction projects, Fleming saw a need for a single 24-hour clock for the entire world. He proposed this idea and promoted it heavily at major conferences all over the world. A variant of his proposed time system was adopted – what we know of today as Universal Time. By 1929 it was effectively being used among the major countries of the planet.

After he retired, he continued working towards improving Canadian infrastructure and technology. He strongly pushed towards the completion of a telegraph line that would connect all of the British Empire and improve global communication as a whole. Despite the fact that Fleming was not a politician, his involvement and promotion of technology had many profound political impacts. Many landmarks in Canadian and global history might not have been possible without him.

It is for all these accomplishments that we honour Sir Sandford Fleming to this day by naming the Sandford Fleming Foundation after him. The foundation provides support for various competitions, scholarships, awards, and maintains a strong connection with industry and the professional engineering community – to create an enriched academic environment.