Alberta Inventors and Inventions - Heating and Gas Devices

The inventions of C.L. "Chas" Lehman illustrate a time in Alberta’s past when national and international brand-name household appliances took a second place to locally produced, accessible, working products.

Invented and produced in Edmonton, many of Lehman's heating, gas and plumbing inventions were refinements or adaptations on previous machines that allowed for new uses of existing technology. For example, Lehman's gas heaters for range boilers and furnaces were not great leaps forward in technology, but were cleverly efficient modifications—the inventions both used the same gas heating unit, in different manners. It was this quality of functionality that allowed Lehman to patent so many products and for a number of his inventions to succeed with consumers.

Although Lehman did not invent the water heater, furnace and thermostat, his refinements to these devices were unique enough to warrant Canadian patent protection. His modifications were clever and saved time and money—the inventor claimed that his gas range heater could reduce gas costs by 50 percent. His inventions may not have been adopted widely around the world, but Lehman did use them when manufacturing his own product for the local market.