Collection search - Thomas Leopold Willson fonds [textual record, graphic material]

Record information – Brief
1
Thomas Leopold Willson fonds [textual record, graphic material]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

1882-1916, 1975-1977.

Reference:

R1609-0-0-E, MG30-A85

Type of material:

Textual material, Photographs

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

97988

Context of this record:

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Thomas Leopold Willson fonds
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Record information – Details
Fonds includes:

27 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

1882-1916, 1975-1977.

Place of creation:

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent:

40 cm of textual records.
25 photographs b&w.

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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Fonds consists of biographical and personal material concerning Willson's life and work, 1905-1915, 1975-1977, 2 cm; legal and technical agreements relating to patents including notes on experiments, 1887-1915, 8 cm; business and personal correspondence including some letters which are illegible due to fading ink, 1882-1916, 20 cm; published material relating to acetylene, electricity, the International Marine Signal Company, the Newfoundland Products Corporation and related topics, 1891-1915, 10 cm.

The fonds also contains copies of photographs depicting the International Marine Signal Co., Ottawa, Ont.; Ottawa Carbide Co., Lac Meech, Que.; portraits of the Willson family and of Rupert Brooke, 1900-1915.

Provenance:

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Willson, Thomas Leopold, 1860-1915

Additional name(s):

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Roberts, Marian

Biography/Administrative history:

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Willson, Thomas Leopold, 1860-1915 : T.L. "Carbide" Willson, businessman and inventor, was born at Princeton, Ontario, and apprenticed to a Hamilton blacksmith. After patenting an electric dynamo in 1882, he moved to the United States where he invented an electric furnace, and discovered (1892) a means of producing calcium carbide, a substance which gives off acetylene gas when placed in water. Willson patented the process and several devices using acetylene gas, and sold the patents to Union Carbide and others. Returning to Ontario in 1896, he established a number of plants for the manufacture of calcium carbide and acetylene, before turning them over to Canadian Carbide in 1911. In 1906 he established the International Marine Signal Company in Ottawa, selling out to American interests in 1909.

From 1910-1913 he worked at developing a cheap process for producing superphosphate fertilizer. Wishing to obtain capital to construct a hydro-electric project on the Saguenay for large-scale fertilizer manufacture, he mortgaged all his holdings to James Buchanan Duke, the American industrialist and lost all his property to him in 1913. He died in 1915, while trying to arrange financing for a hydroelectric development in Newfoundland.

See: Canadian Encyclopedia, 1985, p. 1945.

Finding aid:

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Textual records (Electronic) The finding aid is a file list with item-by-item lists of agreements, assignments, and loose correspondence. MSS1102 (90: Open)
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000002778.pdf

Photographs: (Other) See photographic inventories, indexes, and caption lists arranged by accession number. FA-500

Additional information:

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General note:

Acquired in 1976 from Mrs. M.S. Roberts of Wakefield, Que.

Availability of other formats note:

Photographs: Copy negatives available: C-53479 to C-53503
Subject heading:

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Inventors - Canada, 1882-1915 International Marine Signal Company, 1891-1915

Inventions - Canada, 1887-1915 Newfoundland Products Corporation, 1891-1915

Patents - Canada, 1887-1915 L.M. Bullier, 1887-1915

Patent suits - Canada, 1887-1915 Lord Kelvin, 1882-1916

Electricity - Research, 1887-1915

Calcium carbide - Research, 1887-1915

Business enterprises - United States, 1887-1915

Science - Experiments, 1887-1915

Business enterprises Canada 19th century
Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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1973-140 NPC

Former archival reference no.:

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MG30-A85
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

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Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [MG30 A 85] 1--4

[Consultation 90 Open]

Finding aid box [FA 1102] 95

[Consultation 10 Closed]

Microfilm reel C-9262--C-9263

[Consultation 90 Open]

Graphic (photo)

[Consultation90 Open]

Terms of use:

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Photographs: No restrictions. Copyright is expired. Credit: Name of photographer / National Archives of Canada / Copy negative no.

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Date modified:: 2024-04-09