Jules Verne’s 1872 novel traded on two remarkable aspects of the modern world. The first, as the title suggests, is the possibility of circling the globe in less than three months thanks to the building of railways and the opening of shipping routes.
The second, more universally felt, is the ability to measure such a journey. Mass production of pocket watches in the late 19th century helped turn time-keeping into a popular pursuit – a tool of coordination and of control.
