The Artifact Spotlight page provides brief stories for a selection of artifacts, including new acquisitions, from the CSTM collection.

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Alouette: Flight Ready Satellite

Artifact No.: CSTM 1973.0375
Date: 1961
Source: Defence Research Telecommunications Establishment
(now Communications Research Centre)

In 1962, Canada became the third country, after the USSR and the USA, to have a satellite in orbit. The “Alouette” program began in 1959 in order to carry out scientific tests in the ionosphere. This basic research led to creation of a successful Canadian space and communications program.

The Alouette contained many technical novelties – extremely long-lasting nickel-cadmium batteries, solar panels, transistors and STEM antennae. This was one of two identical satellites readied for flight. It was later used to develop Alouette II.

Blattnerphone

By 1930, advances in electronics allowed the first commercially successful magnetic recorders to be introduced as dictating machines and telephone recorders in Europe and North America. Recording on solid steel media, whether wire or tape, remained the dominant form of magnetic recording outside Germany until about 1950. The Museum has 17 such recorders dating from the 1940s and 1950s. Perhaps most interesting, however, is the Blattnerphone, or Marconi-Stille recorder. This large device, which recorded on steel tape 3 mm wide, was developed in Germany and sold to several radio broadcasters, including the forerunner of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1933.

B7 Snowmobile

Did you know that another type of snowmobile preceded the Ski-Doo -- enclosed and much larger?

The first “snowmobile,” called "B7," was conceived by Joseph-Armand Bombardier, a Canadian, in 1936. It made use of two of his innovations, the sprocket wheel and a rubber-track system. The new vehicle successfully allowed snowbound people in rural or remote communities to travel during winter.

This snowmobile dates back to ca. 1939. It can accommodate up to 7 passengers and was used for rural mail delivery.

Electronic Sackbut

The Electronic Sackbut was designed by Hugh Le Caine at his home studio in Ottawa, Ontario, beginning in 1945 and completed in 1948. In 1954 Le Caine began to work full time on electronic music in a new lab at the National Research Council (NRC). His Sackbut was then brought to the NRC for further development. Of four versions of the Sackbut, this is the oldest model that survives. Le Caine's Sackbut used an entirely different method of sound generation and control – voltage control – a method that later became the standard approach in electronic music. Because it pioneered this technique, the Sackbut is considered to have been the first synthesizer. This technique provides an automatic background voltage that can remain stable or change according to the needs of the user. The performer's physical actions, in changing the positions of keys or knobs, are translated into changes in the pre-existing voltage. These changes in turn are used to affect many different aspects of the sound produced by the instrument.

Race Car

This race car, called the Hubley Bluenose Special, no. 6, was built ca. 1936 by Reginald Hubley assisted by his father. Hubley was a mechanic from Halifax. The race car was assembled using components from various automobile manufacturers and was considered a "big car" in the jargon of the race course, or a sprint car.

Hubley participated in races held in Halifax at the Provincial Exhibition, and won a record number of races with this car. No. 6 is emblematic of the phenomenon of racing cars on short dirt race tracks, popular in Canada in the early days of the automobile until the Second World War and beyond. In 1938, the race car was put into storage until 2003 when it was restored to working condition and returned to the racetrack. This is one of only two racing cars in Canada that survive from before the Second World War. The other remaining example in Canada is not functional. Two other Canadian race cars of the period have been sold to American owners.

Hobby Horse (draisine)

Have you ever seen this type of bicycle that you must push along with your feet?

It is called a draisine or hobby horse, precursor of the modern bicycle invented in 1817 by the Baron Karl von Drais. In Europe, as in North America, the wealthy were quick to latch onto this new craze. This infatuation was short-lived. People began protesting against the draisine, partly because of the accidents it caused. As mockery of the vehicle grew, satirical poems and caricatures were produced, targeting political power and society.

After the hobby horse craze of 1818-1819, interest in the machine seems to have died out almost as quickly as it had begun.

Incandescent Light Bulb

This is one of the first incandescent bulbs manufactured by the Edison Electric Light Co. It is probable that this bulb was used to conduct experiments with electric lighting. The filament is thought to be made of carbonised paper or bristol board, and forms six small coils. On the base of the bulb, someone, perhaps Edison himself, wrote Menlo, N.J., 1878. The bulb came to the Museum from the Ontario Hydro Museum, which had received it from the Science Museum in London, England.

Medical Bag

The medical bag was once a fixture of a family doctor’s standard equipment. It represented a time when doctors visited their patients at home and relied on simple but powerful diagnostic instruments such as the stethoscope. This bag was used by Dr. Henry Hover Wright (1816-1899) of Toronto.

Visitors to the Canada Science and Technology Museum respond to this bag in many ways: some see it as a symbol of how far we have advanced, while others see it as a symbol of what we have lost in the doctor-patient relationship.

Popemobile

What is a ¨Popemobile¨?

It is a motorized vehicle used by the Pope for outdoor public visits at the Vatican or elsewhere in the world. Many versions exist, open-air or enclosed with glass.

This Popemobile is one of the two manufactured in Canada for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Canada in 1984. Surprisingly, they were made by a fire truck manufacturer, Camions Pierre Thibault Inc. The glass cabin allowed the Pope to greet the crowds while being protected by the bulletproof glass. He could also sit to rest.

According to a person in his entourage, the Pope liked the Canadian Popemobile so much that the second one was presented to him as a gift for the Vatican.

Ski-Doo® Snowmobile

Love or hate story?

2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Ski-doo® snowmobile. Joseph-Armand Bombardier was not the first to develop a snowmobile, but his version was the first to be manufactured in large scale production. The Ski-Doo® has had great success. Conceived as a utility vehicle, the snowmobile later became a sports and recreational vehicle. Because of its growing popularity, regulations and specially designed trails became necessary. Even today, some people complain about the roaring noise of this recreational vehicle.

Theratron Junior

In the 1950s, Canada’s nuclear industry combined with medical specialists to produce novel cancer therapies that spread throughout the world. At the University of Saskatchewan, Harold Johns invented a radiation therapy device using radioactive Cobalt 60. At the same time, Roy Errington and his team at Atomic Energy Canada Ltd developed a Cobalt 60 unit which led to the commercial Theratron line of products. The "Junior" sold in countries around the world. Maclean’s Magazine ironically referred to this form of therapy as the “Cobalt Bomb.”

Feature of note: This model displays a strong green colour, characteristic of hospital culture in the 1950s and 1960s. To explore why green was so popular in medicine at this time, visit Artifact Spotlight: The Colour of Medicine at the Museum.

Wood Plane

This hollow and round plane comes from the collection of tools that belonged to Mr. James Anthony. Mr. Anthony, a carpenter, did his apprenticeship in England and came to Canada in 1905. In 1916, after a fire destroyed the Centre Block of Parliament in Ottawa, he was hired as a foreman of the reconstruction crew.

The plane was made by Moseley & Co. in London, England sometime before 1862. When he acquired the plane, Mr. Anthony stamped his name over the names of previous owners Thomas Minors and Fred Wellington. Minors and Wellington were carpenters in Truro, Cornwall (UK); they were some 30 years older than Mr. Anthony, and lived within a few blocks of his home in England.

Electric Motor

There is no doubt that J.J. Wright was a Canadian electrical pioneer. He built the city of Toronto’s first electric generating station. However, the claim that Mr. Wright built and demonstrated Canada’s first electric motor in 1883 remains unproven. No two sources tell the same story; the generalities are the same but the details do not match. Was this truly the first electric motor in Canada?

Determining the “true” story will help document an important event in Canadian technological history and is a current project for museum staff.

Colt’s Armory Printing Press for Braille

This printing press was modified to emboss entire pages of braille at once, allowing for the mass-production of documents. Since braille is read by feeling raised dots, those dots need to all be the same size and height. The press is designed such that the bed and platen are parallel just prior to and during impression which means that the pressure is both strong and the same across both pages. In service until 1982, it was the last such press used by CNIB to print braille.

Notice the John Thompson Press Co. trademark colt which is cast into the two sides of the machine frame.

"Queen Anne weights"

In 1855, the Troy pound (5 760 grains), which had been defined by British legislation in 1824, was replaced by a pound of 7 000 grains — Avoirdupois — the source of the traditional child's conundrum, "when is a pound not a pound?". The Museum's set (1997.0079), made to the new standard, are referred to as the "Queen Anne weights". These were used in Newfoundland from about 1844 to 1936. They were replaced with new standards of unusual shape, just as Newfoundland became a Canadian province in 1949. The new Avoirdupois standard weights (1997.0156) were ordered from de Grave, Short & Co. in London before Newfoundland entered Confederation. They are marked "G IV R 5323 1949" and "St. John [sic] Newfoundland". Although probably intended, when ordered, to become primary standards for Newfoundland, Confederation with Canada in 1949 relegated them to secondary standards.

Albany Cutter

The Albany cutter, one of the most elegant winter horse–drawn vehicles ever designed, was a passenger vehicle for the well–to–do. Named after the New York state city where it was designed, in about 1815, the original design was subsequently modified many times by both American and Canadian carriage makers. Its rounded shape required a high level of craftsmanship. Recently, the Canada Science and Technology Museum acquired an excellent specimen (2004.0023*) in its original condition. The examination and study of both the physical and historical aspects of this specimen was enlightening, since few studies in this field have been done in Canada.

Horton Typewriter

The Horton typewriter was the first visible-typing machine of the type-bar design. This was one of the most important developments in the history of typewriters. Front-strike, visible-typing machines dominated typewriter design in the 20th century until the introduction of word processors and computers rendered the typewriter obsolete. The machine was devised and patented by a Canadian inventor Edward Elijah Horton in 1883. Horton was a journalist with the Toronto Globe and a stenographer in the provincial Court of Appeal in Toronto. The artifact acquired by the Museum is a later improved model patented by Horton in 1887. Horton typewriters are extremely rare with only 5 or 6 known to exist. This is the only one in Canada and all other examples are now in private collections.

RCA CCD chip and Dewar

This CCD chip was acquired by astronomers at Saint Mary’s University for a project to develop a new type of camera for use on telescopes. Because of their sensitivity to low levels of light, Charge Coupled Devices held great promise for astronomers.

In 1979 SMU Dr. Gary Welch and Dr. David DuPuy were awarded a NSERC grant to develop a CCD camera based on a CCD chip. The challenges included:

• cooling the CCD to a constant - 140 C to decrease the dark current (tiny electrical current generated by the chip when powered up but without any light falling on it), and
• developing software to read off, store and manipulate the large volume of data generated.

In less than 10 years CCDs revolutionized astronomy allowing space telescopes like Hubble and planetary probes like Mars Rover to surpass others using traditional imaging technology by hundreds of times in sensitivity. The revolution is as significant as the one begun by Galileo when he turned his telescopes to the sky 400 years ago.

The CCD shown here cost he same as 2 Volkswagen Beetles at the time.