The Custodian of Marvels
Page 29
The Council of Guardians
The highest agency of government of the Anglo-Scottish Republic. Sixty percent of its membership is appointed. Forty percent is elected by universal suffrage of all men over the age of twenty-one.
The Crown and Dolphin
A public house in London on the crossroads of Cable Street and Cannon Street, outside which John Williams, accused of the Ratcliff Highway Murders, was buried, with a stake driven through his heart. The body was rediscovered during the digging of a new gas pipe. The skull was exhumed and subsequently displayed in the pub.
Cultural Drift
A phrase used to describe the origin of cultural differences between the Kingdom of England and Southern Wales and the Anglo-Scottish Republic.
The cultures of Kingdom and Republic were not dissimilar at partition. But years of priding themselves on their differences caused them to drift apart. In A History of the Gas-Lit Empire, the process is described thus: “How often do we see an unhappy couple changing over time so that each more perfectly manifests the aspect of their character that annoys the other. So it was with the disunited kingdoms of Britain.”
Daylight Saving Time
At 4am on the second Sunday in March, clocks were set forwards one hour throughout the Gas-Lit Empire. They were set back again at 4am on the second Sunday in October. This with the exception of the Kingdom of England and Southern Wales, which used the second Saturday in March to set clocks forward and the second Saturday in October to set them back again. (See also: Twelfth Amendment.)
Department of Constitutional Veracity
A department of the International Patent Office charged with monitoring the organisation’s own compliance with the Great Accord and such amendments as comprised the treaties of its establishment.
It was brought into being under the provisions of the First Amendment, charged with detecting, prosecuting and documenting infringements. Its other duty was the delivery of a comprehensive triennial report to all nations signatory to the Accord.
Whilst its mandate included the imposition of capital punishment, few agents or officials were found guilty through its long history. It handed down death penalties on thirteen occasions, all of those cases falling during the chaos that characterised its final years.
Elizabeth Barnabus
A woman regarded by historians as having had a formative role in the fall of the Gas-Lit Empire. Born in a travelling circus, becoming a fugitive at the age of fourteen, with no inheritance but the secret of a stage illusion, she nevertheless came to stand at the very fulcrum of history.
No individual could be said to have caused the collapse of such a mighty edifice. Rather, it was brought low by the great, the inexorable tides of history. Yet, had it not been for this most unlikely of revolutionaries, the manner of its fall would have been entirely different.
The European Spring
The period of revolutions and utopian optimism in Europe that began with the overthrowing of the French monarchy in 1793 and ended with the execution of the King of Spain in 1825.
The Gas-Lit Empire
A popular, though inaccurate, description of the vast territories watched over by the International Patent Office. The term gained currency during the period of rapid economic and technical development that followed the signing of the Great Accord. It reflected the literal enlightenment that came with the extension of gas lighting around the civilised world. Though ubiquitous, the term Gas-lit Empire was misleading, as no single government ruled over its territories. From its establishment to its catastrophic demise, the Gas-Lit Empire lasted exactly two hundred years.
The Great Accord
A declaration of intent, signed initially by France, America and the Anglo-Scottish Republic in 1821, which established the International Patent Office as arbiter of collective security. Following revolutions in Russia, Germany and Spain, the number of signatories rapidly increased until it encompassed the entire civilised world. The original text is reproduced below. Subsequent amendments extended it to twenty-three pages:
When men of high ideal and pure motive devote themselves to the establishment of an agency and of laws that will surpass the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the nations, it behoves them, out of respect to the opinions of others, to state the cause that impels them so to act.
Whereas some sciences and inventions have manifestly secured and improved the wellbeing of the common man, We hold it self-evident that others have wrought terrible suffering. Never has it been the way of science to separate the seemly from the unseemly. Therefore has the good of all been offered up for sacrifice on the altars of egotism and narrow self-interest. Since the nations have failed to rein in their scientists and inventors, it has fallen to Us to establish, through this Great Accord, a supra-national sovereignty, adequate to the task.
In adding our signatures to this declaration, We are not embarking on a campaign of military conquest; rather it is Our intention to subdue recalcitrant nations through the evident truth of Our cause. But, should any nation rise up against this Great Accord, We hereby pledge to combine all the strength at our disposal into one mighty army and reduce the aggressor to abject submission.
We also pledge to offer up such funds as are necessary for the establishment and maintenance of an International Patent Office, whose task it shall be to secure the wellbeing of the common man. This it shall achieve through the separation of seemly science from that which is unseemly, through the granting or withholding of licences to produce and sell technology, through the arbitration of disputes and through the execution of whatever punishments are deemed fit. In creating an agency of such sweeping powers, We are minded also to put in place the means for its dissolution. Thus, should two thirds of the signatory nations agree, the entire accord will be deemed null, the International Patent Office rolled up and its assets divided equally between all.
With these high aims and clear safeguards established, We, the representatives of the republics of France, America and Anglo-Scotland, together with whatsoever nations may hereafter voluntarily append their names and titles, freely enter into this Great Accord on behalf of our peoples. In doing so, We hold ourselves absolved from all previous alliances and treaties.
Greenwich Meridian
The meridian bisecting the Greenwich Observatory was maintained as the Prime Meridian for cartographers in the Kingdom of England and Southern Wales, due to the exemption of that nation from the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment. Thus, charts produced in London had longitudes offset by 2°20′14.03″ westerly from those produced in all other nations of the Gas-Lit Empire.
International Chronological Network
With the rise of fast air travel, diversity of local timekeeping systems started to became problematic. A passenger boarding an airship in Carlisle could not know when, according to local time, he would be landing in Amsterdam, since the clocks of the Netherlands had no fixed relationship to the ones in Anglo-Scotland.
Thus the International Chronological Network was established, based on the Prime Meridian (see also the Twelfth Amendment). The world’s most accurate clock, designated ICN1, was constructed in the Paris Observatory as the global standard. This became the reference point for ICN clocks in each other signatory nation, which were set a certain number of hours ahead or behind Paris Mean Time. (See also: International Patent Court).
International Patent Court
A monolithic structure built on Fleet Street in London to house the Supreme Patent Court and other subsidiary courts. It was also the home of the clock designated ICN2. (See also: International Chronological Network.)
The land on which the court building rested was ceded by the Kingdom of England and Southern Wales as part of its treaty obligations. It was a self-governing enclave, referred to as the Jurisdiction of the International Patent Office. No commerce was permitted there.
No weapons were allowed within the court building itself, but the nations of the Gas-Lit Empire provided guards to patrol outsid
e it. The task was seen by many as ceremonial, since an attack on the court building was thought impossible. However, the individual soldiers chosen for the honour were the elite of their respective armed forces and sworn to defend the building even unto death. Uniquely, the soldiers of the Kingdom of England and Southern Wales were not permitted to enter the enclave, though they kept guard beyond it.
International Patent Office
The agency established in 1821 and charged with overseeing the terms of the Great Accord. Its stated mission and highest goal was to “protect and ensure the wellbeing of the common man”. This it did through enforcement of International Patent Law.
Agents of the Patent Office had wide powers to investigate, prosecute and punish patent crime by individuals and organisations. Were the Patent Office to have judged any nation guilty, it would have issued an edict calling on all other signatory nations to reduce the transgressor to dust.
The Kingdom of England and Southern Wales
The southernmost nation formed by the partition of Britain following the 1819 armistice.
With its capital and agencies of government in London, it would be easy to mistake it as simply the rump of the older, larger Britain. However, with the rule of the country passing out of the hands of the king and the parliament and into the control of the Council of Aristocrats, it must be regarded as a revolutionary nation in its own right.
London Time
With its opt-out from the Twelfth Amendment, the Kingdom of England and Southern Wales held to the Greenwich Meridian as the basis for timekeeping. Thus it found itself out of step with the peoples of every other nation in the Gas-Lit Empire, who used the Paris Meridian. Kingdom clocks were set nine minutes and twenty-one seconds behind Paris Mean Time. Though inconvenient, the discrepancy was a matter of considerable national pride, symbolising its independence of spirit. (See also: Daylight Saving Time.)
Though an enclave within London, the Jurisdiction of the International Patent Office ran according to the international standard. Its clocks were set with reference to Paris Mean Time.
The Long Quiet
The cessation of open conflict and technological innovation that followed the formation of the Gas-Lit Empire. It was proclaimed by many political philosophers to be the end of history.
With the eye of the International Patent Office watching over them, no nation could attempt to out-develop the others in the technology of killing. The armaments industry had previously been an advocate of war. Now it atrophied. Bound by international treaty, governments could no longer use their armies as a means of enforcing foreign policy. On the social front, technological innovation had previously been a driver of social change. During the Long Quiet, that too was reduced to almost nothing. The Anglo-Scottish Republic embraced this aspect of the Great Accord more vigorously than others. But even in the Kingdom of England and Southern Wales, the least enthusiastic signatory, innovation came to mean the application of mere cosmetic changes. Between 1900 and the year 2000 there were fewer patents filed in London relating to engines than there were to differing designs of clock face.
Ned Ludd
Inspirational figurehead of the Luddite movement which precipitated the British Revolutionary War of 1816-1819. Ned Ludd was posthumously named “Father of the Anglo-Scottish Republic”.
Ned Ludd Day
The annual celebration of Ned Ludd’s life. It takes place on March 21st, though there is no reason to believe this was his actual birthday. It is traditionally marked by the presentation of gifts and the symbolic destruction of models of “unseemly machines” by the head of each household. Bank Holiday in the Anglo-Scottish Republic.
Old Calendar
The Old Calendar (OC) was largely superseded by the New Calendar (NC) on the signing of the Great Accord. Thus, 1821 OC is equivalent to the year 1 NC. Uniquely, the Kingdom of England and Southern Wales continued to use the Old Calendar.
Paris Meridian
The Prime Meridian used to define longitude on maps and charts produced in the Gas-Lit Empire.
Prior to 1824, several different meridians were in common use. The International Meridian Conference was convened in 1823, following the USS Thomas Paine disaster. The Twelfth Amendment was drafted at the conference and brought into law the following year.
Patent Crime
The development or use of any technology deemed “unseemly” by the International Patent Office.
Revolutionary Nations
Those nations established during the European Spring.
The Second Enlightenment
The long period of relative peace that followed the establishment of the Great Accord. Though nations have engaged in border squabbles, imposed trade embargoes on each other and used the economy as a weapon, there has been no pan-European conflict since stalemate and exhaustion ended the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.
The Twelfth Amendment
The 1824 amendment to the Great Accord which standardised the Prime Meridian for signatory nations. From the signing of the amendment, longitude on all charts and maps was recorded as the angular distance east or west from the Paris Observatory. It also established the metric system of weights and measures and the standardisation of timekeeping. (See also: International Chronological Network.)
Unseemly Science
All those sciences and technologies judged by the Patent Office to be deleterious to the wellbeing of the common man. Such judgements are difficult, inasmuch as it is impossible to be certain of the future implications of any invention. Mistakes are minimised through a combination of three factors: a century and a half of case law, the combined wisdom of the patent judges, and the application of the precautionary principle. It is axiomatic that the science of medicine is always for the benefit of the common man. Thus its research can never be regarded as unseemly.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Ed Wilson, Marc Gascoigne, Phil Jourdan, Penny Reeve and Will Staehle, whose input in various forms has been of immense help during the writing and publication of this book. I would also like to thank Terri Bradshaw, Dave Martin, Jacob Ross and all the other members of LWC who gave feedback and encouragement. But my greatest debt of gratitude is to Stephanie, Joseph and Anya, who saw the whole process through from the start and without whose support and patience this book could not have been written.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rod Duncan is a published crime writer. His first novel Backlash was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Dagger, and he has since written three other novels (all Simon & Schuster UK), and had his first screenplay produced. His background is in scientific research and computing, and he lives in Leicester.
rodduncan.co.uk · twitter.com/RodDuncan
[1] As recorded in the Great Zoran manuscript