By Rafe Calder
A teenager strapped a Model T engine to a pair of wooden sleds. He added a propeller he had made by hand. His father ordered it taken apart.
The boy in Valcourt
The Canadian Encyclopedia says Joseph-Armand Bombardier was born on 16 April 1907 in Valcourt, Quebec, the eldest of eight children in a farming family. At 13 he built a miniature locomotive using clock mechanisms. At 15, on New Year’s Eve 1922, he made his first full-scale invention: the Model T engine on wooden sleds. The Encyclopedia says his father ordered it dismantled because it was dangerous. At 17 he became an apprentice mechanic, later studied electrical and mechanical engineering in Montréal, and opened a repair workshop in Valcourt.
The B7
In 1935, the Encyclopedia says, he assembled a snowmobile prototype. His sprocket-wheel and track-drive system was patented on 29 June 1937. The same date is given on Wikipedia, which says the B7 model held seven passengers. The Encyclopedia says the B7 launched commercially in 1937 and that about 100 had been sold by 1939. A separate Encyclopedia article on the snowmobile says the B7 was introduced in 1936 and patented in 1937. We give both dates as the sources have them.
Who bought a seven-passenger tracked vehicle? The snowmobile article names doctors, ambulance drivers and priests in remote areas. The Encyclopedia’s biography says rural professionals. The two accounts agree.
The Canadian Encyclopedia says the Muskeg tractor was introduced in 1953 and succeeded commercially.
Ski-Doo
The Encyclopedia says a Ski-Doo prototype was tested in 1958 and the first unit “personally delivered” in 1959. The Encyclopedia’s snowmobile article describes it as a small snowmobile with a lighter engine. Wikipedia says the name began as Ski-Dog. A typographical error in a Bombardier brochure changed it to Ski-Doo, which the company found appealing and easy to trademark.
J.-Armand Bombardier died on 18 February 1964 in Sherbrooke, Quebec. The Encyclopedia gives his death date; Wikipedia gives only the year.
The Musée de l’ingéniosité J. Armand Bombardier is in Valcourt, Quebec. Check the museum’s own site for opening times and current exhibitions.
Reading it
Valcourt is a town where a mechanic’s workshop stayed in the story. Every date above needed a source, and some needed two. That is a fair test for any made object: the object is clear, and the paperwork around it is not.
Roam first. Shop later.