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For further information on the company Camions à incendie Pierreville Limitée, please see the authority record for the company Camions Pierre Thibault Inc.

The origin of the Pierre Thibault company can be traced back to 1908 when Charles Thibault worked as a coachbuilder and blacksmith in Sorel, Quebec. Pierre Thibault, son of Charles, pursued his father’s business in St-Robert, Quebec, for several years before moving to Pierreville in 1938. The company signed a considerable number of contracts during the Second World War and grew in size. It incorporated in 1957, becoming Pierre Thibault Canada Limitée. During the 1960s, it grew to become the biggest manufacturer of fire engines in Canada. Its vehicles were purchased throughout Canada, and even in the United States of America, South America, and Jamaica. In 1968, a family dispute following the death of the patriarch, Pierre Thibault, led to a rift between Pierre’s nine sons and a breakup of the family company. The five elder brothers opened a new company, Camions à incendie Pierreville Limitée, in St-François du Lac. This began a period of intense competition between the two companies. The original company, Pierre Thibault Canada Limitée, later suffered bankruptcies and was sold several times before being bought in 1979 by René Thibault, one of the elder brothers and founders of the rival company. With the purchase, Camions à incendie Pierreville Limitée was renamed Camions Pierre Thibault Incorporated. Camion Pierre Thibault Inc. went on to purchase Camions à incendie Pierreville Limitée in 1985 when it entered bankruptcy, bringing the two family businesses together again. Most operations were moved to the factory at St-François. However, also during this time, three of the Thibault brothers had started their own businesses: Guy created Tibotrac in Terrebonne in 1979; Yvon created Phoenix in Drummondville in 1985; and, Charles-Étienne created C.E. Thibault, also in 1985. In 1990, Camions Pierre Thibault Inc. experienced financial difficulties and was bought by three businessmen in association with the Fonds de Solidarité de la Fédération des Travailleurs du Québec (FTQ). The company was renamed NovaQUINTech. The company Phoenix entered bankruptcy and was purchased by NovaQUINTECH in 1992. Two years later NovaQUINTech grew again when it purchased MCI, a manufacturer of buses and renamed that company Nova Bus. In 1995, NovaQUINTech was reorganized as a division of Nova Bus. This company was sold in 1997 to the American company Pierce, putting an end to 90 years of work by a major Canadian company. Today only work to satisfy warranties is undertaken in the factory at Pierreville, carried out by the company Quebec Inc. (9053 2698), the donor of the archives. The older factory at Pierreville was bought in 2000 by one of the grandchildren of Pierre Thibault, Carl, the son of René, who runs with his wife Marie, the fire engine company Camions Carl Thibault Inc.

The Canadian Locomotive Company (CLC) was Canada's oldest, second largest, and second longest lasting locomotive-building company. It was originally known as the Ontario Foundry, established by John Counter and John Honeyman in Kingston, Ontario, circa 1848, and taken over by James Morton in 1854. The company was often referred to as the Kingston Locomotive Works. The company built its first five locomotives for the Grand Trunk Railway over the period 1854-1856. Morton died in 1864 and the company was sold to a group of prominent Montreal investors, who renamed it the Canadian Engine and Machinery Company in 1865. Following a reorganization in 1878, the name was changed to the Canadian Locomotive & Engine Company and the head office was moved to Montreal. However, in 1881 control of the Company was assumed by an influential group of Kingston politicians and businessmen, including William Harty, and it was once again reorganized and the head office returned to Kingston. A new two-story erecting shop was started and heavy machinery was updated. The success of the Company during this period attracted the famous Scottish firm of Dübs & Company, who purchased a controlling interest in 1887. Bankrupt in 1900, the Canadian Locomotive & Engine Company was purchased by former owner William Harty and a different group of partners in 1901, who then renamed it the Canadian Locomotive Company.

For a short period from 1900 to 1904, aside from the railway companies themselves, CLC was the biggest builder of locomotives in Canada. This was the case despite the fact that the International Association of Machinists staged a strike in 1902 that was not effectively settled at CLC until 1906. Montreal Locomotive Works began to outproduce both CLC and the railway companies in 1905. CLC was sold to group of Canadian and British bankers headed by the Aemelius Jarvis in 1911, who started expanding and modernizing the Kingston plant in 1912 and re-named it the Canadian Locomotive Company, Limited. It continued under this name until 1965. The Company carried on with a surge of orders and produced munitions during the First World War. The Federation of Metal Workers went on strike in May 1919, but signed a new contract and were back at work in October of that year. Railway strikes in the United States during the early 1920s slowed production at CLC because they resulted in delays in receipt of raw material, but the Company returned to economic health after 1923. During this decade the company built the first mainline diesel electric locomotive in North America, the CNR 9000. CLC built 1386 steam locomotives for Canadian railways between 1900 and 1929, but with the onset of the Depression in the 1930s, production mostly shut down in Kingston. The Second World War created a surge in locomotive orders again and the Company produced munitions among other war efforts, such as, for example, the training of 100 Royal Canadian Navy boiler makers in CLC’s boiler shop. CLC averaged a production of 84 locomotives a year between 1943 and 1945. The Company was in a good position in the immediate Post-War period, having had sufficient locomotive orders during the war that its plant did not need large scale reconversion. A substantial interest in CLC was purchased by the Baldwin Locomotive Company in 1947. Outright control was purchased in 1950 by Fairbanks-Morse Canada, a subsidiary of the Fairbanks-Morse Company of the United States. While the North American market continued to transition to diesel locomotives, CLC’s participation in Canada’s part of the Colombo Plan for Co-operative Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia saw it build 120 WP 4-6-2 Pacific-type steam locomotives to the Indian Government between 1955 and 1956. Over the course of its existence, CLC built approximately 2709 steam locomotives, as well as a large number of diesel-electric and industrial locomotives, for both domestic and foreign markets.

In 1955, CLC purchased the design assets of industrial locomotive maker Davenport-Bessler Company, which included design assets of the H.K. Porter Company. The company had built 328 diesel locomotives between 1929 and 1955, when diesel orders began to dry up. The company ultimately failed to make a successful transition from steam to diesel locomotive production. Its Fairbanks-Morse opposed-piston designs proved no match in the market place for locomotives built by the Montreal Locomotive Works (a division of the American Locomotive Company) and especially the General Motors Diesel Division located in London, Ontario. The name of the company was officially changed to Fairbanks Morse (Canada) Ltd. in 1965. Attempts were made to build a variety of other equipment, but a strike led to the closure of the plant in 1969. It was demolished in 1971.

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was a private venture incorporated in 1881 for the purpose of constructing and operating a transcontinental railway within Canada. With considerable government assistance, the first transcontinental line was completed on November 7, 1885. Over the following decades the enterprise was very successful developing substantial interests in a wide range of fields including: transportation, immigration, settlement/colonization, exploitation of natural resources, maritime services, and tourism. By the early 20th century the Canadian Pacific Railway Company was the wealthiest and most influential corporate body in Canada.

Like many 19th century railways, Canadian Pacific was a vertically integrated organization that allowed management a high degree of control over all aspects of the company’s supply chain and business affairs. This was particularly important in the development and maintenance of steam locomotive and rolling stock fleets. Steam locomotives were designed to meet the diverse operating requirements of the company which by 1937 was operating close to 38,000 kilometres of track in most regions of Canada. At the same time, railway mechanical departments were under constant pressure to improve the efficiency of the locomotive fleet with respect to fuel consumption and maintenance. This demand for improved operation and efficiency was a constant in steam locomotive design throughout the period.

Under the supervision of the Chief of Motive Power, at headquarters in Montreal, the railway’s Mechanical Department provided engineering and technical expertise for locomotives, heavy equipment, and engineering issues related to other rolling stock. Typically, this involved the design of new locomotives for and technical improvements to the existing fleet. Canadian Pacific’s steam locomotive roster by the mid-1930s listed more than 3000 locomotives. The process of designing a locomotive started with the Chief Mechanical Engineer, who could also be known as the Locomotive Superintendent. In a lot of cases, these men originated from England where they had previous worked in the field. CPR had the following Chief Mechanical Engineers over the era of steam: Kennet W. Blackwell, 1881-1883; Francis Robert Fontaine Brown, 1883-1890; David Preston, 1890-1893; Roger Atkinson, 1893-1901; Edward Averett Williams, 1901-1903; Henry Hague Vaughn, 1904-1915, (A.W. Horsey, Chief Draughtsman); William E. Woodhouse,1915-1918; William Henry Winterrowd, 1918-1921; Charles Henry Temple, 1921-1928; and Henry Blaine Bowen, 1928-1949.

The Chief Mechanical Engineer would work in the drawing room with their assistants, draughtmen and tracers. Engineers and draughtsmen in 1937 numbered around 118, indicating the vast amount of staff within the department.

The Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CPR) was incorporated in 1881. It was originally founded to construct the transcontinental railway in Canada, but diversified its holdings over time to include hotels, shipping lines, airlines, mining and telecommunications. The CPR created its marine transport arm, the Canadian Pacific Railway Steamships Services (CPSS), and purchased three ships that were launched in 1883 for use on the Great Lakes in support of the construction of the railway.

CPSS expanded next into the Pacific by chartering sailing vessels to bring tea and other commodities from China and Japan, the first of which arrived at Port Moody only three weeks after the first regulary scheduled train had crossed the continent. The aim was to avoid sending empty freight cars east after trains delivered their western shipments. The company decided to establish a regular Pacific steamship service after securing the contract from the British Government for mail service between Hong Kong and the U.K. Mail contracts helped subsidize passenger transport, though the CPR’s future business would come to be dependent on the flow of emigrants to Canada. Freight transport was a secondary focus at this time, with passenger ships transporting low volume, high value freight.

In 1889, CPSS placed an order for three 6,000-ton vessels with Naval Construction & Armaments Company of Barrow, UK, for the Pacific route. The ships were the Empress of India, the Empress of Japan and the Empress of China. Canadian Pacific historian George Musk notes “the traffic brought to the railroad by the Pacific Empresses undoubtedly helped to save the Canadian Pacific from the disaster which overtook so many American railroads during the depression years 1893-1895.” (Musk, 1956, pp.3-4).

CPSS built business on new routes by first chartering ships or signing agreements with established steamship lines, and then purchasing or commissioning the construction of its own ships. At first CPSS depended on other companies for North Atlantic crossings, however Canadian Pacific wanted to control the last link in the route from Asia to the UK, and there was political pressure on the company to introduce faster steamships to compete with steamship lines serving ports in the United States. In 1903, CPSS acquired eight passenger and seven cargo liners from the ‘Beaver Line’ of the Elder Dempster Company to begin its Atlantic passenger and freight services. The Allan Line, which at the time held the British mail contract, introduced the first large turbine-driven vessels in North Atlantic service, in 1905. To be competitive, CPSS ordered the passenger liners Empress of Britain and Empress of Ireland and negotiated a half share in the mail contract, in 1906. Gradually the two companies began to cooperate. The CPR bought the Allan Line in 1909 but continued to run it as a separate line until 1915. During this time CPSS attended its first Atlantic Conference. These passenger conferences held between rival companies led to agreements on minimum prices. The outbreak of the First World War put the Conference in abeyance. In 1921, the Transatlantic Passenger Conference continued its work.

Fifty-two ships of the CPSS fleet were made available to the British Admiralty during the First World War. They were used as armed merchant cruisers, transports or cargo carriers. Fourteen ships were lost to enemy action or marine accident during the War and others were sold to the Admiralty. Post-war shortages slowed orders for new liners, but the company bought four German ships that had been seized as reparations.

In 1915 the CPR changed CPSS to a separate operating company within its overall corporate structure called Canadian Pacific Ocean Services Limited (CPOS) with its own Board of Directors. The operating company’s head office was in London, England. The name Canadian Pacific Ocean Services Limited was changed to Canadian Pacific Steamships Limited (CPS) in 1921. The name better reflected all of its marine transport services, including those on the Great Lakes and the lakes and rivers in British Columbia. The company entered into the cruise business the following year when the Frank C. Clark Travel Agency of New York chartered the Empress of Scotland for a cruise to the Mediterranean. CPS launched nineteen ships over this period of expansion in the 1920s despite strong ongoing competition from other companies.

During the Second World War, twenty-two CPS ships were made available to the British Admiralty. They served as troopships, armed merchant cruisers, prisoner of war carriers and passenger liners. Only five of these vessels returned to service. Two of the ships were sold to the British Admiralty, the others were damaged or sunk. CPS staff, including Canadian Pacific Chairman and President Sir Edward Beatty, were loaned to various government departments. Seventy-one of these employees were decorated for their service and 236 died in the war.

In June 1948 CPS headquarters moved from London to Liverpool. CPS did not replace its full fleet of passenger liners after the War and began to implement cost-reducing measures. The growth of air travel made CPS passenger service uneconomical and both ocean passenger and cruise services ended in 1971. The remaining passenger liners were, for the most part, sold to cruise companies.

The focus of the company’s marine transport business shifted entirely to freight. In the early 1960s, the revolution in container shipping had transformed freight handling. CPS chartered its first container vessels in 1963. Whereas the marine shipping service had been seen as a feeder to railway service in the past, in 1968 the company decided to begin operating it as an independent profit centre. The name of the company changed to CP Ships in 1969, while remaining a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific limited, and its headquarters moved from Liverpool back to London. The company ordered and chartered new ships. From the mid-1980s through the 1990s, CP Ships expanded through the acquisition of a number of lines.

With the break up of parent company, Canadian Pacific Limited, CP Ships became a separately traded public company at the end of September 2001. CP Ships was then purchased by TUI AG in 2005 and the name was not used after 2006 when the services were incorporated into TUI AG’s Hapag-Lloyd division. The trademark name, Canadian Pacific Steamships, and the right to use its checkered house flag was acquired by Eyecon Enterprises Inc in 2012, and Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. as an apparel company was incorporated in 2013 (Wikipedia).

The W.W. Whitehead Company was founded in 1901 in Davenport, Iowa, and specialized at first in stationary engines and boilers. They soon began to concentrate on light duty steam locomotives used as switchers. In 1904, the company was renamed the Davenport Locomotive Works. It enjoyed considerable success in manufacturing small steam locomotives for industrial use. The company was reorganized and renamed the Davenport-Besler Corporation in 1933 and its products at the time, apart from railway switchers, included road snow plows, grey iron castings, drop forging, steel hammer forging, as well as steel tank and structural steel work. The company began manufacturing its first gasoline locomotives in 1924 and its first diesel locomotives in 1927. Davenport-Besler contributed to the US Second World War effort by manufacturing locomotives. Their contributions were recognized in 1943 with the Army-Navy black "E" Production Award for Excellence in War Production. After the Second World War, the company began focusing almost exclusively on diesel locomotives. Davenport-Besler acquired the locomotive business from the H.K. Porter Company in 1950. Davenport-Besler was to service all Porter Locomotives in use and build duplicate Porter locomotives. However, Canadian Locomotive Works purchased the locomotive division of Davenport-Besler in 1955, including locomotive designs and parts, inventory, patterns, jigs, tools, and fixtures as well as trade names of both Davenport and Porter locomotives. Davenport-Besler closed its plant in Davenport in 1956.

Edouard Gaston Deville, Surveyor-General, recommended the establishment of a permanent observatory in Ottawa in 1887 (Hodgson, 8). One of the purposes for such an observatory was to have a central location to “store and maintain in proper working order 'a number of fine and expensive astronomical instruments” (Hodgson, 8). In 1890, a first observatory was erected on Cliff Street in Ottawa. It held transit instruments and a 6-inch equatorial telescope, used to determine time and longitude. The situation of this observatory was considered poor and Astronomy Branch staff of the Department of the Interior lobbied for the construction of a National Observatory (Hodgson, 9-10).

Chief Dominion Architect David Ewart designed the Dominion Observatory building in Ottawa, situated on the Agriculture Department's Central Experimental Farm. The building was completed in 1905. At opening, the Observatory had a staff of 31 (Hodgson, 25). The main instrument, a 15-inch refracting telescope, was the largest installed in Canada at that time. William Frederick King, Chief Astronomer for the Department of the Interior, was the Observatory’s first Director.

In 1918, the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Saanich, British Columbia, was opened with a 72-inch telescope to pursue observations beyond the capabilities of the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa.

The Dominion Observatory continued to be responsible for scientific research in astrophysical and allied sciences. The discovery of “Planet X” in 1928 was one of its most significant achievements. The Observatory also addressed problems of everyday application, such as time-keeping. A 28 August 1941 Order-in-Council designated the time established at the Dominion Observatory as official time for Dominion official purposes.

During its existence, the Observatory would report to ever-changing government departments and agencies. In 1936, the Department of the Interior was dissolved and a new Department of Mines and Resources was created. The Observatory reported to its Surveys and Engineering Branch. The change in structure allowed work in seismology and terrestrial magnetism to be consolidated. In 1947, the Dominion Observatories were grouped into one of eight bureaus of the Mines, Forests, and Scientific Services Branch. The Ottawa Observatory consisted of five divisions: Positional Astronomy, Stellar Physics, Terrestrial Magnetism, Seismology and Gravity. In January 1950, after another restructuring, the Observatory began reporting to the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys.

In 1966, the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (EMR) was created and the Dominion Observatory became part of the Mines and Geosciences Group. The 1966-67 Annual Report for EMR describes the Observatories Branch as concerned with two major disciplines - astronomy and geophysics. A new division Astronomy, Ottawa - was created, which comprised the former divisions of positional astronomy and stellar physics. There were also three divisions concerned with geophysics.

The National Research Council (NRC) gained responsibility for the time and solar observation functions of the Observatory in 1970. The site and its equipment were thereafter used primarily for public demonstration. In 1974 the telescope was transferred to the Canada Science and Technology Museum and Mary Grey, one of the last Observatory staff working on the site, joined the Museum staff as head of its Astronomy Division.

H.K. Porter Company was once the largest producer of industrial and narrow gauge locomotives in North America. Henry K. Porter started a machine shop with John Y. Smith in 1866 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They built their first locomotive in 1867 under the company name Smith and Porter. A fire destroyed the plant in 1871 and Smith moved to start a new company in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Arthur W. Bell joined Porter to form Porter, Bell & Company. Bell died in 1878 and the firm was reorganized as H.K. Porter Company. It became a corporation in 1899 and a new plant was opened the following year. Porter died in 1921. H.K. Porter began to produce gasoline and diesel-powered units as the purchase of steam declined, but was forced into bankruptcy at the end of the 1930s, due to decreased demand during the depression. Thomas M. Evans, the company’s largest bondholder, became its President when it was reorganized in 1939. He diversified the company’s production into steel, construction material, and hardware, before transforming it essentially into a holding corporation and selling its rail assets to Davenport-Besler in 1950. The company’s final locomotive is said to have left the erecting floor in 1951. Davenport-Besler was to service all Porter locomotives in use and build duplicate Porter locomotives. However, Davenport-Besler was in turn sold to Canadian Locomotive Works in 1955.

H.K. Porter, Inc. continued to produce industrial equipment and tools through different divisions and subsidiaries after 1955. However, its use of asbestos in locomotives and other products resulted in lawsuits from employees who had suffered long-term health effects. The company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991 and, as part of a reorganization plan, set up the H.K. Porter Asbestos Trust in 1998 to process, liquidate, and pay all claims for which it has legal responsibility. The brand H.K. Porter continues to exist and is owned by Apex Tool Group, manufacturers of hand and power tools.

The Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario (HEPCO) was special statutory corporation established by the Act to Provide for the Transmission of Electrical power to Municipalities of 1906. Prior to its creation, hydro-electric power had developed as a series of solo ventures, private or public stations powering towns or businesses, but forming no common network. These often operated as monopolies, providing poor services at high prices. In response to these practices, the Ontario provincial government recognized in 1905 that electricity should be consider as ‘public good’ rather than commodity. The Commission’s role was to supply the electrical needs of the citizens of Ontario municipalities, and later to rural areas, at the lowest possible cost. Over the course of its history, HEPCO connected Ontario municipalities to its delivery system through the upgrading of local distribution lines and extension of transmission lines. To supply its clients, HEPCO bought power from private companies and acquired or built its own stations. In 1939, the Power Control Act gave the Commission the authority to regulate other electricity generators. The network extended past the borders of Ontario as HEPCO bought power from American-owned utilities and from private hydro producers in Quebec. As the Commission developed its capacity for thermal and nuclear-generated power starting in the 1950s, it became more self-sufficient and even became a net exporter of power. HEPCO was officially renamed Ontario Hydro in 1974 when the six-man commission that governed it was changed to a Board of Directors composed of a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, President, and a number of directors. Ontario Hydro continued to operate the generation and delivery system until deregulation of electricity market in Canada split the corporation in 1999 into two entities: Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to produce energy, and Hydro One to distribute it on the open market. The deregulation ultimately ended the generation and delivery model established with the creation of HEPCO in 1906.

For further information on NovaQUINTech, please see the authority record for the company Camions Pierre Thibault Inc.

Otto Pick and Marie Jakesova were married in 1935 in the province of Bohemia, in the Czechoslovak Republic. Three years later, sensing the threat of war, they immigrated with their son and Marie’s sister to Canada. They began their life in Canada on a farm south of Caledonia, Ontario. The soil was poor and in 1940 the family moved to Streetsville (now Mississauga), Ontario, where Otto worked in machine shops, eventually starting the Tomart Machine Shop on King Street. When the Second World War was over, he returned to his agricultural background and joined the sale group of Greenland Permanent Pastures. In 1947, he decided to start his own company called Otto Pick Agricultural Services. The company initially worked with the supplier Middlesex Seed of London and orders were sent to a customer’s closest railroad station and paid by Cash on delivery (COD). At this time Otto Pick was the only sales representative. The company moved to bigger premises on Yonge Street in Richmond Hill, Ontario, in 1950. A warehouse and mixing equipment were installed in 1952. Sales agents were hired, covering areas in Ontario and Quebec. Marie Pick kept the company books, entering agent orders, noting delivery dates, price, weight, and other order, customer and banking data. Otto Pick died in 1959. Marie and sons Tom and Martin continued the business, changing the company’s name in 1962 to Otto Pick and Sons Seeds Limited. In 1964, the company built a small receiving and cleaning plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The company bought the Southern Ontario Seed Company based in New Dundee, Ontario, in 1966, entering into the seed corn market. It built a warehouse distribution facility in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, in 1969. The following year the company established Pickseed West in partnership with W. Kent Wiley in Albany, Oregon. The company expanded further in the 1980s, acquiring the following interests: the seed division of Maple Leaf Mills (Hogg & Lytle); Roberts Seeds from Agway Inc. (Albany, Oregon); the Canadian assets of AgriBiotech including Oseco Inc. and Rothwell Seeds Inc; Seed Research (Corvallis, Oregon); and Farm Pure Seeds of Nipawin, Saskatchewan. A distribution facility was established in Sherwood Park, Alberta, in 1986, and a warehousing facility in Abbotsford, British Columbia, in 1997. During this period of expansion, the headquarters was moved to Lindsay, Ontario, in 1993. With the acquisitions, the combined revenue made Pickseed Group of Companies the largest forage and turf seed company in Canada and among the top 5 in the world. The Group was sold in 2013 to DLF Trifolium Landboforingers and is now known as DLF Pickseed Canada Inc.

For further information on the company Pierre Thibault Canada Ltée, please see the authority record for the company Camions Pierre Thibault Inc.