|
J.-A. Bombardier: Inventor of the
“snowmobile”
Joseph-Armand Bombardier was born in Valcourt (Québec, Canada) in
1907. As a young boy, he demonstrated a remarkable aptitude with everything
mechanical, disassembling and reassembling all mechanisms that he got his hands
on. He manufactured his own operational toys, such as models of locomotives,
boats or cannons mounted on wheels for the great pleasure of his brothers. He
also worked on life-sized vehicles, fixing up the ‘irreparable’
motor of his father’s Ford to propel a car of his own design. Later, he
remounted the motor on a sled to create the first “snowmobile”
and managed to drive it on the snow. His father, scared of this dangerous
‘machine’, ordered its immediate dismantlement!
Years later, after an apprenticeship in a garage and night-school
courses in mechanics and electrical engineering, he came back to work on the
snowmobile. During the winter of 1934, his two-year-old son died of peritonitis
because the weather was so bad and they couldn’t get him to a hospital
in time for treatment. After this tragic episode, Joseph-Armand decided to
dedicate all his efforts to elaborate a vehicle capable of overcoming rural
isolation during the Canadian winter.
One year later, he invented a new snowmobile with a caterpillar
track system suitable for all kinds of snow conditions. He was granted the
first patent for the revolutionary track traction system incorporating a
toothed wheel covered in rubber, and a rubber and cotton track that wraps
around the back wheels. As early as 1937, he started producing a
seven-passenger snowmobile propelled with a Ford V-8 engine. The so-called B-7
and its successor, the B-12, were produced until 1951 and used for many
purposes, such as ambulances, Canadian post vehicles and winter school
buses.
Bombardier also dreamed up a smaller version, like a scooter (the
“autoneige miniature”). A number of manufacturers had similar
ideas and produced different types of vehicles competing in North America and
the territories of the arctic zone. In the 70s, there were over a hundred
snowmobile manufacturers. However, Bombardier was the first to successfully
market the product on the basis of patents granted in Canada in 1960 and in the
United States in 1962.
In 1968, the American Ralph Plaisted successfully travelled up to
the geographic North Pole. The expedition was counting on the best experts, but
above all they were equipped with the Ski-Doo®2 SUPER Olympic 300 cc model. The
Ski-Doo® produced by Bombardier was so highly capable in all snow conditions
and extreme weather that only three modifications were made to the commercial
vehicles: the addition of a gas reservoir, the shortening of the seat for more
storage space, and the insertion of metal studs in the rubber track to increase
traction on ice …
List of
J. Armand Bombardier's Patents
1937
Canadian patent for the “snowmobile”
1960
Canadian patent for the “autoneige miniature”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowmobile
|
