Snowblower
This article was originally written and submitted as part of a Canada 150 Project, the Innovation Storybook, to crowdsource stories of Canadian innovation with partners across Canada. The content has since been migrated to Ingenium’s Channel, a digital hub featuring curated content related to science, technology and innovation.
Aug 22, 2017
Media
How did a dairy farmer dream up a snowblower? He reaped his idea from his neighbour’s combine harvester! Tired of struggling to make milk deliveries during snowy Quebec winters, Arthur Sicard designed a machine to collect and blow away snow instead of grain. Thirty years and several advances in automotive technology later, he developed a modified truck that could scoop and throw snow farther than 25 metres. In 1927 Sicard sold his first snowblowers to cities on the Island of Montreal, selling more than 250 machines by the time he died in 1946.
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