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Transportation
In ventions in transportation in Alberta are captivating for their
ability to trace the changing ways in which a century of Albertans have
gotten around a vast and changing landscape. Patents filed in 1905 and
1906, for instance, provide a snapshot of a time of transition—a patent
filed in 1906 by Ira Sellers of Edmonton for a horse
harness buckle came one year after Ernest Large of
Calgary invented a pneumatic tire for
motor vehicles.
Histo rically, large-scale vehicle manufacturing has not been extensive
in Alberta and, consequently, independent inventors have a larger presence
in the patent record than companies and corporations. Over the century,
therefore, Alberta's independent inventors have produced many ways to
improve the different types of vehicles that Albertan's have needed. Ole Toreson of Bittern Lake, for example, invented a door for grain cars in 1918, while in 1937, Robert
Paterson of Taber invented a means to convert an automobile chassis into a wagon. In 1967, Harvey Nesbitt
of Calgary, invented an oil dipstick illuminator.
In addition to illustrating the changing nature of transportation,
numerous
 transportation inventions have been created to fit the province's
diverse and often challenging ecology. Water transportation accessories,
such as Albert Peterson's 1948 driving device for boats, are joined by inventions designed to alleviate the
problems of winter driving, including George Garson's 1953 patent for a
frost shield assembly.
One of Alberta’s most successful inventors, Bruce Nodwell, patented several
devices related to his Nodwell tracked vehicles, which were originally built in order to
de al with marshy land in northern areas of the province, and which have
since been used for difficult terrain around the world.
Over the last century, inventors have also been fascinated with travel
in Alberta's skies. Alth ough they did not register a patent for their
invention, John, George and Elmer Underwood from Krugerville built a
flying device in 1907 that almost beat out the Wright brothers for a
powered aircraft (although it looked more like a flying saucer than an
airplane). Later, in 1941, Wilfred Brintnell patented a type of aircraft
landing gear, and, in 1957, Peter
Jacobs patented one of Alberta's most famous inventions, a helicopter
training device, called the Jaycopter.
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