The Custodian of Marvels (37 page)

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 outside 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