Inventor Willson blazed way to new industry
Thomas Leopold Willson was one of Ontario’s most brilliant sons.
Born just outside Princeton, Upper Canada (or Ontario), in 1860 to a struggling farmer, he became a world-class scientist. And while his business acumen was not equal to Thomas Edison’s, he was just as brimming with ideas.
The Willson farm failed for a number of reasons and his father moved the family to Bridgeport, Conn,, to explore an opportunity in manufacturing. That was as unsuccessful as the farming attempt and back to Canada the family travelled, arriving in Hamilton in 1872.
At this point, 12-year-old Thomas was already showing signs of being not just a smart student, but extremely adept with his hands. He started working for a blacksmith, where he built a steam-powered generator. It was one of the first in Canada, but he couldn’t generate interest.
So, he did what a lot of young frustrated Canadian scientists did — he moved south, winding up in New York City at the age of 22. He got a job as an electrical installation inspector and in his free time carried on with his experiments and tinkering. He formed Willson Electric but it didn’t take off — his ideas were too far ahead of their time.
In 1888, Willson was toying with electric furnaces, using them to melt materials and testing how temperatures affected materials.
He moved to North Carolina to pair up with the owner of a cotton mill. In 1891 he formed Willson Aluminum and used the surplus water power at the mill to create electricity.
He was trying to find ways to make aluminum cheaply while exploiting the new electric furnace. It was during one of these attempts, in 1892, that he created calcium carbide.
Calcium carbide, when water drips on it, produces acetylene — used today in welding and cutting torches. Willson had found a way of making this fancy new form of energy in a remarkably cheap way. Sure, a Frenchman made calcium carbide the same year — in a lab. And Willson’s method was easier and cheaper.
One of acetylene’s early uses was for lighting, since it was far brighter than early electric lights. Willson sold his patents to a syndicate that would become Union Carbide and then married his girlfriend, Mary Parks, from Marysville, Calif.
He brought his new wife back to Canada and started the carbide industry here, setting up Willson Carbide Works in St. Catharines in 1895 with the first plant in Merritton.
There was a huge demand for acetylene lighting, which was being installed around the world for street lighting and in buildings and even automobiles and motorbikes. Willson built more facilities in Ottawa, Shawinigan, Que.
Town lighting, marine signalling — Willson turned his mind to many challenges, successfully. He developed a new way of manufacturing fertilizer more cheaply, which made farm production more affordable.
He suffered some business setbacks and moved operations to Newfoundland in the early days of the First World War.
He was in New York City to raise funds for his latest plan to revolutionize Newfoundland’s economic base when he died of a heart attack, in 1915. — Tom Villemaire is a writer based in Toronto and the Bruce Peninsula. Tom@Historylab.ca