The Caterpillar Track Story We have all read that the caterpillar track came from Holt who later merged with Best to form the Caterpillar Co. of Peoria. Holt had been experimenting with a chain track design in the first decade of the 1900’s. What is not so well known is that in Grantham, England, the Read More
The Champion Engine In the mid 1880’s, David June of Ohio designed what turned out to be one of the most popular of the early threshing engines, the Champion steam engine. With a vertical boiler mounted between the two rear wheels, it was of a very simple design, although somewhat cumbersome in appearance. The centre Read More
Logos before Political Correctness The city of Brantford sits just across the River Grand in Southern Ontario from the extensive Six Nations Iroquois reserve, one of the largest first nations reserve in Canada. One of the major manufacturers in the city was the Brantford Coach and Body Ltd, one of Canada’s largest semi trailer manufacturers. Read More
Last week, I drove to Kippen, some 40 miles north of London, Ontario where the Sad Iron Engine Show was having its annual get together. Turning into the driveway of this lovely farm, its location marked by an old engine at the entrance, I drove through into a grassed parking area. As I climbed out Read More
In late 1959 I was Chief Engineer for Crane Carrier Canada, manufacturer of heavy duty truck chassis for crane installations. We had just completed our first 8 x 6 crane carrier chassis designed for mounting of a 35 ton crane, and equipped with tandem rear drive axles and tandem front axles, one of which was Read More
James Tudhope was an aggressive industrialist, building a thriving carriage business from that originally founded by his father in 1874. By 1902, the Tudhope Carriage Co. Ltd. factory occupied a full three city blocks in the downtown area of Orillia. A separate company, Tudhope Anderson Co. Ltd. was formed, and used part of the existing Read More
The Koehring Waterous Co. of Brantford, (formerly Waterous Engine Works. Ltd.), had been a major manufacturer of sawmill and wood processing equipment since the mid 1800’s, with such products as de-barkers, shredders and grinders for wood pulping, From the mid 1960’s, they remade the company into a manufacturer of large self-propelled wood harvesters, introducing the Read More
When Peter Adams started his wagon building company in Paris, Ontario in 1863, designs were very basic and relatively simple from an engineering point of view. Demand was such that hundreds were shipped from Paris to Winnipeg in a season and soon Adams was building a new factory to increase production. His wagons Read More
In 1847, after working in a wagon shop in Woodbridge for a couple of years, young English immigrant, John Abell was keen to have his own business. After building his own shop from logs, making his own lathe and tools, he then made himself a steam engine for power and was in business. With Read More
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Southworks factory store outlet mall in Cambridge, Ontario. These fine old stone buildings stand out among many in the old part of Cambridge, formerly known as Galt, around the banks of the Grand River which flows majestically through the city. On the north side of the Read More
