At the end of the episode Murdoch, Ogden, Crabtree, and Brackenreid discuss where secret government research facilities should be located. Crabtree suggests a desert area. Ogden suggests California. Murdoch suggests New Mexico. Brackenreid suggests Wales. Area 51 in Nevada is very near both California and New Mexico, while the science fiction series Torchwood (2006) is set in Cardiff, Wales.
This episode takes place in 1895.
Immediately after Murdoch sends here off to get two bicycles, the song playing in the gramophone in the next cut is "a bicycle built for two."