| Sir Sandford Fleming (1827-1915) was one of the most prominent Canadian engineers and inventors of his time. He kept this notebook while Chief Surveyor for the Quebec-Halifax Railway, a stage in the building of the Intercolonial Railway. As chief engineer of the coast-to-coast Canadian Pacific Railway, Fleming was in charge of the surveys which proposed the route across the Prairies, referred to as "the fertile belt," and through the Rocky Mountains. He strongly advocated the installation of undersea telegraph cables to link the various parts of the British Empire, played a key role in the adoption of standard time and designed the first Canadian postage stamp, the three-penny beaver, issued in 1851. MG 29 B 1, vol. 83 |