2. 24
The Hamilton Plant
Begins to Support
the Booming
Electrical Industry
By 1909, the Foundry Department in A-building was producing large castings for waterwheel generators.
The first order produced by the
new electrical machine shop
in August 1905 consisted of 14
“type C” 75-horsepower motors
for the Grand Trunk Railway.
Horse clippers – circa 1905.
Small motors were used to power a variety of devices
which previously had been manually operated.
The Canadian Westinghouse Company
began manufacturing motors, generators
and other electrical apparatus as soon
as the construction of the new factory
buildings was complete in 1905.
At a Managers’ Meeting in 1907,
Vice President Paul Myler
proudly announced that the
Windsor, Essex and Lake Shore
Railway in Ontario had
successfully begun operation
with a 13,200 volt, single-phase
electrical system, all designed
and built in Hamilton. Myler then reported that
in the four years since the company’s start up,
sales of the Hamilton works had grown from
$1.2 million CAD in 1903 to $3 million CAD
in 1907. Unfortunately, later that same year
a recession resulted in the suspension of orders
for street railway motors and the shop teetered
on the brink of closure. The employee workforce
that had grown to 1,687 by June of 1907
had dropped to 780 by March 1909. In addition,
the traditional 55-hour workweek (10 hours
a day, five days a week and five hours
on Saturday) was cut back to 40 hours
due to the lack of work.
Westinghouse fire brigade – circa 1912.
Electric fans,
introduced in 1907,
appear dangerous
by today’s safety
standards. Since
wall sockets did not
yet exist, appliances
were designed to
screw into overhead
light sockets.
1903-1912
3. 26
By 1910, the Canadian Westinghouse Company manufactured electrical apparatus ranging in size from small motors (foreground)
to huge waterwheel generators for hydro-electric power plants (background).
Wattmeter
Early
Electrical
Apparatus
Voltmeter
1903-1912
Metering system
Oil circuit breaker
Synchronous motor
and DC generator
AC motor
Sales started to recover in mid-1909 and hiring picked up.
By 1911, the workforce had topped the 2,000 mark.
Included in this number were 180 “workwomen.”
The Annual Report of 1909 stated that the plant had
the distinction of manufacturing “the only transforming
and switching apparatus yet produced in Canada for operation
in connection with lines transmitting electrical energy at a
pressure of 110,000 volts, the highest transmission voltage
attempted in any part of the world.” Other industrial products
included induction motors, switchgear, circuit breakers,
watt-hour meters, gas and water meters, AC and DC generators
and electric lamps. Only a small portion of products sold by
the Canadian Westinghouse Company was imported from
the Westinghouse factory in East Pittsburgh.
Following the success of the Niagara Falls project,
hydro-electric utility companies started springing up
across Canada. Large orders for waterwheel generators
were received from the Hydro-Electric Power Commission
of Ontario (now Ontario Power Generation), the Canadian
Power Company and the Shawinigan Water and Power
Company in Quebec.
Sales to heavy industries were also going well. In 1912,
the first completely electrically operated steel mill in the world
was delivered to The Steel Company of Canada (later Stelco)
in Hamilton. In 1913, the factory manufactured the first large
reversing mine hoist to be built in Canada.
Within the first decade of operation, sales offices and
warehouses had been opened in Vancouver, Winnipeg,
Toronto and Montreal, providing outlets for Westinghouse
apparatus across the country. Competition increased as new
companies entered the market. Siemens, an important
player in the European electrical industry, was chartered
in Canada in 1912 and supplied a 500-kW motor generator
for the City of Winnipeg.
4. Advertising
Materials
The Art Nouveau style, in use from the 1880s
to the eve of the First World War, was seen on
public buildings, residences, lamps, wallpaper,
carpeting, advertisements and even brochures
for industrial equipment. Common elements
included elegantly curving vines, floral motifs
and women with long flowing hair and dresses.
5. 29
Making castings in the Foundry Department – circa 1907.
Heavy Production
Load Results in
a Plant Expansion
Company activities, both in volume and physical size
of projects undertaken, were soon exceeding the capacity
of facilities. Manufacturing space for the Air Brake Department
(B-building) doubled in 1907 to 48,000 square feet and
was increased again in 1912 to 90,000 square feet.
The new factory constructed in
1904-1905 to house the Electrical
Department originally comprised
238,000 square feet of manufacturing
space. At this time, electrical apparatus
accounted for only 43 percent of billings.
By 1912, the Electrical Department
had expanded to 408,000 square feet.
Business was booming, generating
85 to 90 percent of the company’s sales.
In 1911, the remaining north half
of A-building was constructed along
with the centre portion of P-building,
M-building, as well as the remaining
north parts of E-building and F-building.
A bridge connected F-building to the
Works Office. The Boiler House was enlarged
with a new smoke stack.
The foundry (A-building), built in 1903, also reached
the limit of its capacity mainly due to the high demand for
air brake castings. To rectify the situation, a 35-acre tract
of land, known as the Chedoke Hollow and located at
the western limit of Hamilton, was purchased in 1912 for
$38,000 CAD. A new iron foundry designed specifically
for air brake castings was constructed on the site. This was
the birth of the Longwood Road and Aberdeen Avenue plants
which came to be known as Plant 2 or the West Plant.
(The original factory was called Plant 1, the East Plant or
the Sanford Avenue plant. The workers, many of whom
had a Scottish background, simply
referred to the Westinghouse works
as “the ‘Hoose.”)
In mid-1913, after 10 years of success-
ful operation, the Canadian Westinghouse
Company, Limited suddenly experienced
a 40 percent drop in its sales brought
on by the general economic depression
that preceded the First World War.
Employment levels, which had risen
to 3,250 by July 1913, dropped to
1,600 by the end of 1916.
During its first decade of operation,
the company had already weathered
two cycles of growth and decline.
This pattern would be repeated throughout the entire
history of Westinghouse / Siemens Westinghouse in Canada.
This broken rotor bar, a common problem at this time,
was sent back to the Hamilton plant for repair – 1905.
Early delivery truck.
Toronto Service Shop – 1943.
Montreal Service Shop – 1943.
After serving four years as an apprentice,
an employee named Thomas Robertson
became a Toolmaker in 1909.
Servicing
Westinghouse
Equipment
In the early days, major projects were installed under
the direction of engineers from the U.S. parent company.
By 1906, the Canadian Westinghouse Company, Limited
had established an Erecting Department. Engineers
located in each district office looked after local field
problems and installations. Foremen and workmen
were sent out by the factory in Hamilton to handle
the work. One armature winder/repair person was
eventually hired for each district and renewal parts
were stocked in each location. Basic repairs and motor
rewinds were completed on small workbenches set up
in the basement of each office. Larger repair jobs
were sent back to the Hamilton plant.
The goals in setting up local repair shops were to provide
prompt customer service, faster turnaround time and
convenient access to renewal parts; to eliminate the high
transportation costs of sending jobs to Hamilton; and
to reduce the disruption caused by pulling foremen and
workers out of the main factory to work at customer sites.
In 1918, with the volume of service work increasing,
the Erecting Department, renamed as the Service Department,
established repair shops in Toronto and Montreal using equipment
discarded from the Hamilton factory. These two shops were
the beginning of a chain of repair shops that would eventually
stretch across Canada.
By 1922, repair shops located in Toronto, Montreal,
Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg and Regina employed
a total of 35 hourly employees. A repair shop was set up
near Kirkland Lake in 1936 specifically to provide service
to the mining operations in the area. By the 1990s,
the Westinghouse Service Division operated in 40 locations
across Canada and employed approximately 500 people.
1903-1912
6. 32
Business Slumps
but Recovers
Through the
War Effort
1913-1922
Aerial view of the Sanford Avenue plant in 1920. Note the Air Brake building in the foreground. K-building, L-building, R-building,
S-building and X-building have not yet been built. The structure located where K-building is today was a maintenance shop.
A bridge connects F-building to the Works Office. Woodlands Park has enough trees to actually be considered a “woodland.”
By the end of the war in 1918, a total of 777 Canadian Westinghouse
employees had served overseas. Of these, 65 had been killed in action.
In the aftermath of the war, the biggest problems facing the company
were the shortages of labour, coal, fuel gas and electricity.
As a result, the workweek was reduced to 50 hours.***
* Now Ontario Power Generation.
** Now Sir Adam Beck–Niagara Generating Station #1.
*** Nine hours five days a week and five hours on Saturday.
In 1919, large orders
were received from the
Hydro-Electric Power
Commission of Ontario*
for 15,000 watt-hour meters,
two 45,500-kilovolt ampere
vertical waterwheel genera-
tors and a bank of single pole
110,000-volt oil circuit breakers
for the Queenston-Chippewa
project in Niagara Falls.**
In 1909, the Canadian Westinghouse
Company designed and manufactured
a device that used electric heat
to brown bread slices. The new
product was called a “Toaster.”
This initial model was followed
in 1916 by the new and improved
“Turnover Toaster.”
On March 12, 1914,
George Westinghouse
passed away. In his hands
was a sketch of the begin-
nings of a new invention
— an electric wheelchair.
He was buried in the
National Cemetery in
Arlington, Virginia.
The George Westinghouse
Memorial was unveiled
in 1930 in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.
On August 4, 1914,
Great Britain declared
war on Germany. As a
member of the British
Commonwealth, this
meant Canada was also at war.
Canadian Westinghouse supplied
the armed forces with howitzer
and shrapnel shells and was
considered one of Canada’s
most important arsenals.
The company also assisted the
National Steel Car Company
by machining parts for
field kitchens and tramway
ammunition cars.
By 1915, electricity had become
increasingly important as the
country geared up to meet wartime
production needs. This meant the
company’s products were in demand
once more. Orders for electrical
apparatus that had been halted
by the outbreak of the war were
released and went into production.
7. 33
1916-Era Generator
is Still Running!
One notable project from this time period was a
rheostat generator set and control panels for the
Silversmith Hydro-Electric Power Station in Sandon,
British Columbia. This power station was built
around 1916 to provide power for the silver mining
operation as well as an aerial tramway and has been
in continuous operation since that time.
The Canadian Westinghouse Company provided
Silversmith with a 200-kW, three-phase AC water-
wheel generator, the generator end of the main shaft,
a 10-kW exciter, a rheostat used by the operator
to manually control the voltage of the generator
and two slate control panels and breakers.
Silversmith Power and Light Corporation has
calculated that the main shaft, manufactured
out of high-grade steel, has made approximately
17.5 billion revolutions. The Westinghouse generator,
complete with all its original parts, has been in
operation for approximately 806,000 hours.
According to the interpretive guide published by
the Silversmith Power and Light Corporation, “It is
reputedly the longest continuously running machine
in Canada.” Today, this unique hydro-electric
power station continues to proudly supply power
to the grid in western Canada and is open
to the public as a historic site.
Demand Increases for
Domestic Appliances
and Lamps
The continuing increase in the availability of electricity
to the general public made its application to household tasks
more feasible. The Canadian Westinghouse Company built
the new and improved “Turnover Toaster” in 1916, the first
low-priced Van-o-phone gramophone in 1917 and the first
electric range in 1921. These were the forerunners of a
complete line of household appliances that would appear
in the 1930s.
By the early 1920s, the iron foundry on Aberdeen Avenue
had been converted into the MAZDA* Incandescent Lamp Works.
The first products were 40-watt, 60-watt and 100-watt
tungsten lamps. By 1921, the factory was producing
8,000 lamps per day.
Early models of toasters were followed, in 1916, by the
innovative “Turnover Toaster” that featured a mechanical
method of flipping over the bread to toast the other side.
Early control panels for power stations
combined beauty with functionality.
*In the early days, each light bulb manufacturer set his own specifications.
Lamp bases and light output ratings varied greatly. In 1909, General Electric
developed a set of standards for tungsten filament light bulbs.
Other companies, including Westinghouse, licenced these new standards,
marketed under the trademark of MAZDA, after Ahura Mazda, “Lord of Wisdom”
and the supreme creator god of life and light in the Zoroastrian religion.
1913-1922
Main lobby
Executive dining room
Auditorium
Reception
Head Office
Canadian Westinghouse
Company, Limited
286 Sanford Avenue North, Hamilton, Ontario
In 1917, a luxurious five-storey office building
was built across the street from the factory to serve
as the head office of the Canadian Westinghouse
Company, Limited. A bridge connected the
Head Office to the factory.
Two additional floors were added in 1929.
The building was sold in 1987 and, sadly,
has remained empty since that time.
8. The tradition of holding a company
summer picnic started in 1901.
Ladies’ baseball team–circa 1920.
Ella Baird, who retired after 20 years of service in 1951
as Director of Nurses and Welfare Services at the West Plant,
was a pioneer in industrial nursing. Starting around 1917,
a staff of nurses, a secretary and a first aid man provided basic
medical care to employees at the East and West Plant locations.
A doctor visited the plants one morning a week in the early days.
By 1941, daily visits from the doctor had became the norm.
The company also created low-cost contributory medical and hospital-
ization plans as well as a disability plan for employees in the 1920s.
Canadian Westinghouse Baseball Club – 1919.
Canadian Westinghouse Company marching band
– circa 1922.
Men’s football team – 1912.
Tool Room picnic, Soper Park, Galt, Ontario – 1950.
Life At Westinghouse
In 1920, a group life assurance plan provided
every employee with a $1,000 life assurance policy.
That same year, a company-paid pension plan was
introduced. Since at this time
pensions were either privately
arranged or only available
to employees of banks
and financial institutions,
this was viewed as a major
milestone in industrial relations.
Recognizing the value of
education, an educational
assistance program was made
available to employees in 1924.
Although paid vacations were
unheard of in the early 1900s,
by 1926, Westinghouse companies were providing
employees who had 10 years of service with one week
of paid vacation and those with 20 years of service with
two weeks of paid vacation.
The high value George Westinghouse placed
on his employees was reflected in the company’s
progressive human relations policies
and employee benefit programs.
In fact, in the latter part of the
19th
century when the six-day
workweek was the rule,
Westinghouse was one of the
first employers to introduce the
half-holiday on Saturday afternoon.
In Canada, Paul J. Myler,
President of the Canadian
Westinghouse Company from 1917
to 1934, continued the company
tradition and became a sponsor
of movements to better the lot
of employees.
In 1904, a lunchroom for office employees was
established at the works. By 1929, the company
was providing cafeteria services for employees
at both of the Hamilton plants.
Tug-of-war at the company picnic – circa 1950.
Through the years, the company has sponsored
a variety of sports activities for employees.
In 2003, employees have the opportunity to
participate in hockey, soccer and golf leagues.
9. 38
The 1920s opened with a flurry
of activity as the company strived
to meet the most immediate
post-war needs. As the demand
for electricity increased steadily
throughout the decade, the terms
“first in the world” and “largest in
the world” were used to describe
many Westinghouse orders.
During this period the company
manufactured waterwheel generators
for many of the country’s
hydro-electric projects. In the 1930s
the company also supplied six
370,000-pound, 22,500-kilovolt ampere
transformers and switchgear for
the Hydro-Electric Power Commission
of Ontario’s Leaside Switching Station
in Toronto, Ontario. These transformers
stepped down the 220,000-volt
power supply that was being transmitted
230 miles from the Paugan Hydro-electric
Dam on the Gatineau River, northeast
of Hull, Quebec.
Machining a waterwheel generator component – circa 1925.
Cutaway view of a Westinghouse
waterwheel generator. Waterwheels
were supplied by companies such as
Dominion Engineering in Montreal
and mated to the generator at site.
In a hydro-electric power station, water from a dam travels
through a penstock. As it flows past the waterwheel turbine
blades, it causes them to spin. The blades are attached to a shaft.
The rotating shaft drives a generator to produce electricity.
Notable generation projects in which
the company figured prominently included
the Queenston-Chippewa Generating Station
of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission
of Ontario at Niagara Falls, Ontario,
the Western Power Company station
in Ruskin, British Columbia and the
Alcoa Power Company Chute à Caron
plant near Arvida, Quebec.
1923-1932
Numerous Large
Capital Projects
Completed Before
the Depression Hits
10. 39
The Marketing of
Domestic Appliances was
Designed to Create Load
Recognizing that it would likely be some time before
the demand for new power plants returned, the company
made extensive preparations for the manufacture and
sale of a complete line of domestic appliances that
would make use of the cheap surplus power that was
now available. As the Depression dragged on, the wisdom
of entering the appliance business was to be justified
many times over. This direct route to consumer spending
helped keep the company afloat until 1938 when orders
involving large apparatus began to pick up.
The first electric ranges to be manufactured in Canada
were produced in 1921. In 1931, the first refrigerators,
featuring 5.5 cubic feet of food storage space, and the
first washing machines were introduced. Families could
purchase these large appliances on credit with consumer
loans provided by the Westinghouse Acceptance Company.
A variety of portable appliances were also offered
for sale to the public. Some products were imported from
Westinghouse in the U.S., but many were manufactured
or assembled in Hamilton.
Important contributions by Westinghouse included lighting
and electrical equipment to operate 11 of the 18 highway
bridges that spanned the canal. Much of this electrical
apparatus is still in use in 2003.
By the end of 1931, strongly affected by the Depression,
the Canadian Westinghouse Company was suffering from
an extremely low volume of orders. Lack of confidence in
the economy, coupled with the reduced demand for power
for industry, meant that the construction of new power
plants ceased. This eliminated the demand for generating
equipment. As unemployment reached unheard of levels
across Canada, consumer spending on radio receivers and
gramophones also decreased.
Early Radio
Manufacturing
On November 2, 1920, in the first scheduled radio
broadcast, Westinghouse’s KDKA radio station transmitted
the results of the Harding-Cox presidential election
from the roof of its building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
KDKA became the first commercial broadcasting station
and, with the sale of radio receivers to the general public,
a new industry was born.
The Canadian operation first entered the radio business
in 1924 with the manufacture of R-3, R-3-A, Regenoflex
and R-10 radio sets. These models were soon followed
by the Aeriola Jr., the first all-Canadian commercial radio
receiver, and the Aeriola Sr., the first model to contain
radio tubes. With the sale of radios booming, the demand
for radio tubes manufactured at the company’s facility
on Aberdeen Avenue increased from 273,000 radio tubes
in 1925 to 742,000 in 1928.
Subsequent models of radios contained new circuits
that provided greater sensitivity and selection between
stations. Short wave improved radio reception another
step and, by 1937, automatic tuning and push button
radios were commonplace.
Many pulp and paper mills were also established or expanded
during this time. Their demand for electrical apparatus
contributed greatly to the output of the Hamilton works.
By 1929, Canadian Westinghouse sales had reached
a record $19.5 million CAD and the company entered 1930
with a substantial backlog which would blunt, for a while,
the effect of the stock market collapse on Wall Street in
October 1929 and the Great Depression that followed.
In 1929, the world’s first main line diesel-electric locomotive
went into service for Canadian National Railways with electrical
equipment designed and manufactured by employees at the
Sanford Avenue plant.
In 1930, construction of the new Welland Canal, which
connects Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, was completed.
Far North
Broadcasts
One important phase of the Westinghouse Electric
and Manufacturing Company’s radio broadcasting
activities was its “Far North Broadcasts,” initiated
through the foresight of George A. Wendt, an employee
of the Canadian Westinghouse Company.
These programs consisted of letters, news reports
and information from employees, relatives and friends
to the people whose lives were spent in small habitations,
for the most part above the Arctic Circle. These Far North
Broadcasts began in the summer of 1923 when receivers
were distributed to the most northern stations of
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, followed by
the Hudson’s Bay Company trading posts and the
missions of the Revillon Frères and the Oblate Fathers.
Transmissions were first made by Westinghouse KDKA
and, subsequently, by other Westinghouse radio stations.
These broadcasts were often the only communication
the people of the far north would receive from the
outside world for six
months of the year.
Photo signed:
“To Skipper G. Wendt,
With deep appreciation.
(Admiral) Rich Byrd
New York City
August 22, 1928.”
1 Electric clock – $18.00
2 Electric hotplate – Retail price unknown
3 The hand vacuum – $19.25
4 Refrigerator – $275.00
5 Whirl-dry vacuum-cup washing machine
and damp dryer – $198.00
6 Electric waffle maker – $13.00
7 Tea samovar – $9.25
8 Tumbler water heater – $9.00
9 Table stove – $12.25
10 Air-o-vac – $66.00
11 Electric ironer – $148.50
12 Vital-aire humidifier – $129.50
13 Sunlamp – $47.50
14 Electric hair-drying comb – $4.20
15 Adjust-o-matic iron – $10.00
16 Vacuum-cup washing machine – $165.00
17 Panel pot percolator – $9.75
18 Flavor zone range – $180.00
The battery-powered
Aeriola Sr., which sold for
$75 CAD, had a wave length
of 190 to 500 metres and
could pick up signals from
the majority of high-powered
Canadian and American
radio stations – 1925.
Designed to Create Load
Recognizing that it would likely be some time before
the demand for new power plants returned, the company
1923-1932
From the
Westinghouse
Store – 1930s
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
9
18
11.
12. 44
Depression Years
Followed by Upswing
in Orders for
the Armed Forces
As difficult as times
were during the
Great Depression,
extraordinary measures
were put in place to
provide work for as many
employees as possible.
Pay-cuts were instituted
and the work that was
available was spread out
over short shifts. Unused
factory equipment was
preserved, ready to be
brought back into service
when sales improved.
Mine hoists built by Canadian Westinghouse could
bring ore from almost a mile underground to the surface
at a speed of approximately 23 miles per hour.
A 5,000-horsepower DC motor was
installed to drive the giant rolling mill
of the Algoma Steel Company,
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario – circa 1940.
Canadian Westinghouse supplied a wide variety of products to support the war effort
including 14 components for the Mosquito tactical bomber.
Manufacturing MAZDA tungsten lamps
in the West Plant on Aberdeen Avenue
– circa 1935.
1933-1942
13. 45
Orders for large
apparatus recover
Finally, in 1938, large apparatus orders started to recover.
By the end of 1939, sales had improved to $11 million CAD.
Two 50,000-kilovolt ampere, 230,000-volt forced oil-cooled
transformers, the largest yet built in Canada, were manufactured
and shipped. A 7,000-horsepower DC mill motor, the largest
in Canada, was supplied to the Steel Company of Canada (Stelco).
Braking Systems for the
“Red Rocket” Streetcars
In the late 1930s, conversion of all North American
rolling stock to a significantly improved braking system
developed by Westinghouse Air Brake Company provided
a needed boost to the air brake business.
In 1936, an important contract was obtained from
the Toronto Transportation Commission* for motors,
controls and braking equipment for the new President’s
Conference Committee (PCC) “Red Rocket” streetcars.
These standardized electric streetcars were designed to be
quieter, faster, better lit and more reliable than previous
models. By the 1950s, with 744 in operation, Toronto had
the largest fleet of PCC streetcars in the world. The last car was
withdrawn from active service in Toronto in December 1995.
With so many men in the armed forces, large numbers
of women stepped in to staff the Westinghouse factories
in Canada and the United States. To encourage women
to apply for factory positions, the Westinghouse Electric
and Manufacturing Company produced the famous
“Rosie the Riveter” poster for the U.S. War Production Effort.
Equipping the
Armed Forces
Canada entered the Second World War on September 10, 1939
and, once again, the Canadian Westinghouse Company had
an important role to play. In fact, for the next six years,
more than 95 percent of the company’s output went to
support the war effort. C.D. Howe, Head of Canada’s War
Supply Board and Department of Munitions and Supply,
reportedly referred to the Canadian Westinghouse Company
as “Canada’s number one war plant.” In order to segregate
work performed for the war effort, the company incorporated
a wholly owned subsidiary called Hamilton Munitions Limited.
War materiel produced included gun barrels, bomb racks,
bomb sights, tail elevators for Mosquito bombers, torpedo
engines, anti-aircraft guns, fuse-keeping clocks, radar
equipment as well as a host of aircraft and naval components.
Electrical products included giant hydro generators, trans-
formers and ignitron rectifiers for the Aluminum Company
of Canada. This equipment made possible the large-scale
production of aluminum needed for manufacturing aircraft
components. As a result, by the end of the war, Canada was
producing 40 percent of the world’s supply of aluminum.
The Lamp-Tube Division, which had started as the
Illumination Division in 1926 to supply street lighting, provided
airport lighting, spotlights, beacon lights, headlights and
electronic tubes for ocean-going vessels. In the midst of all
this activity, the manufacture of fluorescent lamps began.
More than 1,800 Canadian Westinghouse Company
employees went to war. Fifty-seven gave the ultimate sacrifice.
Vertical pump motors for Toronto pumping station – circa 1930.
On the home front,
annual reports for the
war years repeatedly
referred to “acute short-
ages of skilled tradesmen.”
As a result, many unskilled
workers were hired and
trained on the job,
pensioners were called
back from retirement and
women were employed in
unprecedented numbers.
Toronto Transportation
Commission “Red Rocket” streetcar.
3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun barrels manufactured
at the Aberdeen Avenue facility were tested
at the Beach Road proving range.
Burlington
Power Station
circuit breakers
– 1941.
Recognizing that the workforce had changed,
the Westinghouse employees’ magazine pictured
women in overalls and provided instructions
on how to tie a kerchief so that long hair
would not be a safety hazard in the factory.
“Canada’s
number one
war plant.”
* Now the Toronto Transit Commission – TTC.
14. 48
End of the War
and the Start
of Post-War
Development
Like many other
manufacturing companies,
Canadian Westinghouse
experienced some difficulties
immediately after the war as
the plant converted back to
peacetime production while
dealing with material shortages
and labour unrest. By 1947,
however, the country had
entered a period of rapid
expansion that would
carry the company to
never-before experienced
levels of achievement.
In total, between 1946 and 1950,
utility companies across Canada
added more than two million
horsepower of electrical generating
capacity. This represented a 20%
increase in total installed horsepower
in just four years. As a result, shipments
of large waterwheel generators,
transformers and other electrical
apparatus from Canadian Westinghouse
exceeded all previous records.
Westinghouse had a large exhibit at the first Canadian National Exhibition after World War II in 1947.
Above the exhibit can be seen the new company logo that had been adopted in 1944.
In 1943, between 2,500
and 2,800 cheques were
cashed each pay period
at the Barton Street branch
of the Bank of Montreal.
Prior to 1940, wages were
paid in cash.
Installing the rotor of a waterwheel generator at the
Rapides-des-Joachims powerhouse in Quebec – 1950.
In the early 1950s,
switchgear and control
manufacturing were
moved from the
Sanford Avenue plant
to buildings at the
Aberdeen Avenue
facility.
1943-1952
In the Transcribing Department, 19 typists working
at electric typewriters churned out 14,000 letters,
orders and reports a month – 1943.
15. 49 50
In 1949, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario*
launched a decade-long program to standardize the frequency
of electricity delivery from 25 cycles per second to 60 cycles**
per second. This $352 million CAD program involved converting
an estimated seven million appliances and other electrical
devices to the new frequency. This created a large increase
in service work for the Sanford Avenue factory and service shops
across Canada. The real benefit of this
standardization program was only realized
20 years later when Ontario Hydro was
able to join together all of the power
distribution systems in the province in
one synchronized provincial electrical grid
in 1970.
With the goal of accommodating
the increased workload, space at the
Sanford Avenue plant was increased
through a number of facility changes.
In 1951, a large manufacturing complex
for electric motors, naval auxiliary
turbines, rectifiers, circuit breakers and
small power transformers was completed
on Beach Road. Growth of the electronics
business was reflected in the building
of a major facility on Longwood Road the following year.
The completion of these construction projects marked
the last of the principal expansions in the Hamilton area.
Canada’s First
Television Sets
In 1948, four years before the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC) made the first television broadcasts
in Canada, Westinghouse produced the first Canadian-
designed television set in the Aberdeen Avenue plant.
This exciting new product was introduced with much
fanfare at the 1948 Canadian National Exhibition in
Toronto. Regular production of a television set with
a black-and-white, 10-inch picture tube started in 1949.
In an innovative move, Westinghouse maximized sales
of its household appliances by advertising during broadcasts
of Westinghouse productions. The first broadcast of
the critically acclaimed Studio One live dramatic series
premiered in 1949 and ran for nearly 10 years.
Betty Furness, who appeared as an actress in an early episode
of Studio One, was hired to promote Westinghouse products
during live commercials. Audiences loved her, sending her
an average of 1,000 pieces of fan mail a week and buying
* Now Ontario Power Generation.
** Frequency is now referred to as hertz.
S-building was constructed in 1949
to serve as a central warehouse for all the
company’s goods. Windows were placed
high up on each floor in order to provide room
below for stacks of products. In later years,
the Westinghouse employee store, stocked
with major appliances, consumer products
and electrical apparatus, was located on the
ground floor. Over time, the top three floors
were gradually converted to office space.
the Westinghouse
appliances she
recommended.
Her tag line,
“You can be
SURE … if it’s
Westinghouse™”
turned into a
national catchphrase. In 1953,
Furness hosted a talk show called Meet Betty Furness and
later, Best of Broadway, both sponsored by Westinghouse.
She also made regular appearances on What’s My Line?
and I’ve Got a Secret. After ending her affiliation with
Westinghouse in 1960, she went on to become the Special
Assistant for Consumer Affairs for the Lyndon B. Johnson
administration in the White House and headed the
Consumer Affairs Departments of both New York City
and New York State.
Expanding Into
International Markets
Recognizing that the post-war boom could not last forever,
the company wisely started to explore other markets,
particularly those in the British Commonwealth. In 1950,
the Canadian Westinghouse International Company was
formed for the express purpose of marketing the products
of Canadian Westinghouse to other countries. This venture
turned out to be a very successful one. Ten years later,
the organization reported that it had done business in
50 different countries and had taken part in major utility,
industrial and defence projects in Brazil, New Zealand,
Venezuela, Sweden, Bolivia and France.
In addition to incandescent light bulbs, fluorescent tubes and
mercury vapour lamps, the Lamp and Lighting Division produced
germ-destroying Steri-lamps, Bug-a-way outdoor lamps,
Odour-out-lamps, sunlamps, Christmas tree lights, as well as
miniature bulbs for flashlights and photoflashes – 1951.
Residential Power
Consumption Soars
In the years following World War II, two major factors were
to drive a dramatic increase in residential power consumption.
First, the electrification of rural areas of Canada added
large numbers of new users. Secondly, as soldiers returned
and settled down to domestic life,
large numbers of new households
were created.
Babies started to be born at a
rapid rate, triggering an increase
in new home construction to
accommodate the expanding families.
The resulting increase in the number
of homes in Canada not only fed
the demand for power, but also
sparked a boom market in the
appliance industry.
For Canadian Westinghouse,
after having to curtail production
of household appliances in order
to concentrate on the war effort,
the pent-up and new demand for these products was so great,
the company was unable to keep up. In response, in 1946,
capacity was greatly increased with the purchase of the
gun factory on Longwood Road that Westinghouse
had built and operated for the government during the war.
Most appliance production activities were consolidated
in this location and, in 1948, the building was doubled
in length.
The first black-and-white televisions
came off the line in 1949.
Many “war brides” received Westinghouse
appliances as wedding gifts in the
late-1940s.
Television manufacturing
at the West Plant – circa 1950.
Demand was so strong
for this “newfangled” device
that the factory soon had
trouble filling orders.
1943-1952
The “Laundromat,” the first
automatic washing machine
that would operate through
a complete fill, wash, rinse
and empty cycle without
the intervention of the
homemaker, was manufac-
tured at the Longwood Road
facility in 1947. This was
followed by the first electric
clothes dryers in 1952 and
dishwashers in the late-1950s.
16. 51 52
The Hours of Work section stipulated that the standard
workweek was 44 hours long: eight hours of work Monday
to Friday and four hours on Saturday. Female employees
were allowed a 10-minute rest period during each half
of the normal working day. There was no mention of a
rest period for male employees.
Paid specified holidays included: New Year’s Day,
Good Friday, Victoria Day, Dominion Day, Civic Day,
Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
With regard to vacations, all employees were entitled to
one week of paid vacation each year provided they had
completed one year of service. Employees with 10 years
of service were entitled to two weeks of paid vacation
each year.
The First Strike
On July 5, 1946, the unionized workers of Canadian
Westinghouse went on strike for 155 days. Workers at many
other Hamilton industries were on strike at the same time.
The ensuing Collective Agreement of 1947 states that the
basic starting hourly rate for male employees was 85 cents,
for female employees 65 cents and for a boy employee
73 cents until they reached the age of 18 and one-quarter.
Jobs were classified either as “male jobs” or “female jobs.”
It is worth noting that females were paid the males’ rate
of pay when performing “male jobs.” Men continued
to be paid the male rate of pay even if they were doing
Assembling radio
components – 1943.
Assembling air brakes – 1944.
The First
Collective Agreement
The war’s aftermath brought many changes to the Canadian
industrial scene, including the growth of industrial unions.
As early as 1913, individual employees in the Foundry
Department went on strike. In addition to demanding
more pay, these workers wanted to be granted the
right to be represented by a union committee that
would regulate piecework prices and shop conditions.
In 1916, 84 Canadian
Westinghouse employees
walked off the job as part of
a general strike of machinists
and toolmakers in the Hamilton
area. Hours of work seemed
to be the main issue. At this
time, employees at most
manufacturing companies
worked a 55-hour week (10
hours a day, five days a week
and five hours on Saturday).
In 1919, various labour organizations agitated to have
manufacturing companies in the Hamilton area reduce
the workweek to 44 hours. At Canadian Westinghouse,
after a conference with employees, the workweek was
reduced from 55 hours a week to 48 hours a week. Although
some employees were unhappy
with the resulting cut in wages,
these hours remained standard
until the Depression of the 1930s
when hours were cut back
dramatically in order to spread
the work out over as many
employees as possible.
Prior to World War II,
inequities in wages and benefits
became an issue for Canadian
Westinghouse employees.
According to an article in the Golden Anniversary Edition of
the UE Guide published by the United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers of Canada (UE), “On March 17th
, 1937,
about fifteen men, employees of Canadian Westinghouse,
gathered in a small room … They compared their wages —
for some 37 cents an hour, for others 41 cents. Three were
receiving 51 cents and another 60 cents. No payment for
statutory holidays. One week’s vacation after 10 years service
provided you paid $1 to the Veterans Association. No hospital
or medical insurance - $14 a week sick benefit for married men,
$9 for single people, with the workers paying the full shot.
Shift bonus a laugh …” Following this historic meeting,
“The formal application for a
local union charter was made
on April 5, 1937, estimating
the number of eligible workers
to be approximately 3,000.
That was the beginning of
UE Local 504.”
With the outbreak of war
in 1939, union activities seem
to have been relegated to the
back burner as employees
rallied to support the
war effort. Around 1941
the company formed the Canadian Westinghouse Employees’
Association. The purpose of this association or “Works Council”
was to establish unity among employees so that questions
related to working conditions, health, safety, hours of work,
wages, recreation, as well as educational and personal
relations could be thoroughly studied and suggestions for
improvement brought to management. All employees were
eligible to join and membership fees were 25 cents per month.
On April 18, 1944, a vote was conducted and the United
Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America became
the bargaining agent for the hourly rated employees at the
Hamilton plants of Westinghouse. Of the 4,673 employees
eligible to vote, 2,386 voted for the UE, 592 voted for the
Employees’ Association, 626 voted against both options,
58 spoiled their ballots and 1,011 did not vote.
The UE was certified on June 16, 1944. The first Collective
Agreement was signed on July 14, 1945 and would remain
in place for one year. This 24-page agreement contained
17 Articles, some of which covered: Hours of Work, Overtime
and Specified Holidays, Grievance Procedure, Vacations
with Pay, Seniority and Representation.
Hand winding the electrical elements in toasters was just one
of the many tasks performed by the employees of the small
appliance and radio manufacturing and repair area that was
located on the second floor of P-building in the early 1940s.
“female jobs.” The shift
bonus was five cents per
hour on the second shift
and seven cents on the
third shift.
The 1947 Collective
Agreement reduced the
workweek to 42.5 hours
and brought improvements
to vacations with pay.
Employees received
two weeks’ vacation after five years and three weeks’
after 25 years of service. The next contract, signed in 1952,
reduced the workweek to 40 hours.
The following list of departments and steward representation
as defined in the 1947 Collective Agreement provides some
insight regarding the relative sizes of the areas of business:
Air Brake Division - 7 stewards; Appliance Division - 11 stewards;
Electric Division - 40 stewards; Foundries Division - 7 stewards;
Lamp and Tube Division - 15 stewards.
Assembling an ignitron rectifier – 1943.
Micarta, a plastic insulating
material, was produced by
heating and compressing resin
impregnated paper – 1943.
1943-1952
Early I.D. Badge
Until the late 1930s, instead of an I.D. badge, employees were issued
a “check,” which was a brass disc with the company name and employee
number engraved on it. Employees were required to show their check
to the watchman to gain entrance into the plant. When they arrived at
their department, employees hung their check on a rack and punched in.
When the whistle blew to signal the start of the shift, the timekeeper
closed a window over the checks and filled in the attendance cards.
17. 53 54
axial flow compressors and turbines
as well as innovative thermodynamics,
mechanics and materials. The engines
ranged from the 10-inch diameter
J32 at 224 pounds of thrust; to the
20-inch diameter J30 with 1,125 pounds
of thrust; and the highly successful
24-inch diameter J34* reaching 3,600 pounds of thrust.
As development challenges mounted, the larger J34
derivatives, the J40 and J46 (with a target of 9,900 pounds
of thrust), were produced in modest numbers. Lastly the
experimental J54 at 6,070 pounds of thrust looked very
promising; however, no orders resulted.
Westinghouse jet engines were credited with several
major firsts including the first use of cast turbine airfoils,
specialized superalloys and afterburners.
Overall, Westinghouse supplied engines for approximately
1,200 U.S. Navy jets from its base of operations in Kansas City
before discontinuing this business in 1960. Many engineers
from the Kansas City jet engine plant went on to work on
gas turbines in the Lester, Pennsylvania plant.
Westinghouse and its licencees produced a total of 4,850
jet engines of all models. Refurbished vintage Westinghouse
jet engines are still being used today in jet car and truck racing.
Experience on Jet Engines
Leads to Developmental
Work on Gas Turbines
It wasn’t until the 1940s that Westinghouse gained
the experience it needed to build land-based gas turbines
through its work on jet engines.
With the war raging in Europe, the U.S. military turned to
the jet engine to provide the required higher levels of power
necessary to achieve air speeds far in excess of those capable
in propeller driven aircraft. Based upon Westinghouse’s
steam turbine experience, the U.S. Navy awarded a
development contract to Westinghouse Electric Corporation
in December 1941 which resulted in the first U.S.-designed
jet turbine engine. The engine had an axial compressor,
an annular combustor, a turbine and a jet exhaust nozzle.
Continuous improvements led to the definitive production
version, the J30, in 1944.
In all, Westinghouse produced a family of small- and
medium-sized military jet engines characterized by
Early Gas Turbines
From the perspective of the Sanford Avenue plant,
the late 1940s were particularly significant since they
marked the parent company’s entry into the field of
gas turbine manufacturing.
When Parsons patented his steam turbine in 1884,
he made reference to a gas turbine. He stated that the
steam turbine design could be converted into a compressor
by driving it in the reverse direction by external means.
The compressed air could be discharged into a furnace
where fuel could be injected and the resulting products
of combustion could then be expanded through a turbine.
At the time, Parsons was too busy concentrating on his
steam turbine designs to work on the idea of a gas turbine.
As a result, his firm did not begin work on the development
of a gas turbine until 1938. In 1945, the Parsons Company
produced the first industrial gas turbine in Great Britain.
Parsons gas turbines, producing up to 15 megawatts (MW)
for auxiliary and peak demand power, were manufactured
in the U.K. until the product line was discontinued
in the mid-1950s.
Engineers at the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing
Company in the U.S. studied a closed-cycle gas turbine system
for a 25,000-shaft horsepower ship drive in the early 1930s.
At the same time, developmental work on gas turbines
was taking place in Great Britain and Germany. However,
the gas turbine was not considered a practical device,
except in special cases where hot gases were already
available under pressure as a by-product of a process.
The First Industrial
Gas Turbines
Westinghouse tested its first 2,000-horsepower,
1,350° Fahrenheit industrial gas turbine in 1946.
This engine was created with an eye to its possible use
either as a locomotive unit, or for industrial use in
pumping, pipeline compression or power generation.
Similar to the jet engine, it consisted of an in-line
arrangement of air intake, axial-flow compressor,
tubular-type combustor and turbine. The prototype units,
designed for locomotive use, included a reduction gear
and two DC generators on the same bedplate.
After many months of successful shop testing, much of it in
service simulating the frequent starting, stopping, idling, and
loading experienced by locomotives, the first industrial-use
gas turbine was placed in service in mid-1949 driving a
centrifugal compressor on a natural gas pipeline in Arkansas.
The gratifying results of the shop test on the first unit
resulted in the decision to construct two similar units
for installation in an experimental high-speed passenger
locomotive for railroad use. The locomotive was used
in demonstration service throughout the United States
for several years. The engines were later converted to drive
gas pipeline compressors and are still operational
in San Angelo, Texas.
The success of these initial engines led to the first
commercially available industrial gas turbine in 1948.
The first power generation unit, rated at 5,000 kW,
was installed at West Texas Utilities in 1952.
The J34, a 24-inch diameter engine, was the last production
aero-engine built by Westinghouse. It was used extensively
by the U.S. Navy in the McDonnell FH-1 Phantom
and F2H Banshee fighter planes. It was also used
in some experimental Douglas and Northrop designs
to explore transonic flight.
The first 5,000-kW Westinghouse
gas turbine for power generation
was installed at West Texas Utilities
in 1952.
After World War II, Siemens resumed gas turbine development
on the Junkers TL109-005 aircraft engine in Mülheim, Germany.
The first Siemens gas turbine, the VM1, rated at 1,200 kW,
was tested in Berlin in 1956.
In 1945, a pair of Westinghouse J30 jet engines provided
1,600 pounds of thrust each to power the McDonnell
FH-1 Phantom (left), the U.S. Navy’s first jet fighter and the
first Navy plane to reach the speed of 500 miles per hour.
The McDonnell F2H-1 Banshee (right), powered by a pair
of Westinghouse J34 jet engines, was used by the U.S. Navy
in the Korean War. At the end of the war, 39 F2H-3 Banshees
were transferred to the Canadian Navy, which operated
the aircraft from November 1955 until September 1962.
*In honour of the 100-year anniversary of the Hamilton Plant, a J34 jet engine was donated to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
in Mount Hope, Ontario. This engine will be refurbished by a team of volunteers and put on display when it is finished.1943-1952
18. 56
50 Years of Progress
and the Start of
a New Period
of Prosperity
In 1953, Canadian
Westinghouse celebrated
its 50th
anniversary.
The Annual Report proudly
stated, “Canada’s great
progress and achievements
in the last 50 years were
to a large extent made
possible by abundant power,
provided at low cost
through magnificent
hydro-electric systems.
More than half of the
hydro-electric energy
used in this country is
produced on generators
manufactured by
Canadian Westinghouse.”
During the anniversary press conference, visitors were
informed that ”Canadian Westinghouse has participated
in almost all of Canada’s major electrical projects.”
Canadian Westinghouse produced
a comic book to educate children about
electricity – 1955.
In celebration of its 50th
anniversary, the Canadian Westinghouse Company sponsored “Canada’s Tomorrow,”
a conference with the goal of being “an attempt at sober prophecy as to what Canada may and should become in the next 50 years.”
The conference brought together over 250 leaders in industry, government, education and the arts to listen to eight
prestigious speakers present papers dealing with the principal phases of Canadian life, development and future growth.
In 1959, the largest private telephone operation of its kind
in Ontario opened with a central switchboard to handle calls
for all Westinghouse locations in Hamilton, Stoney Creek
and Grimsby. More than 1,000 Westinghouse telephones
were linked together under one number JA8-8811 (528-8811).
Switchboard operators were able to handle 38,000 incoming
calls and 16,000 long distance calls per month.
1953-1962
19. 58
During the company’s 50th
anniversary year, extensive plant
tours were held for customers, suppliers, members of the press,
as well as the company’s employees and their families.
On display were a wide range of impressive products including:
a A 5,500-horsepower DC motor destined
for a paper mill on Vancouver Island.
a Huge synchronous condensers, turbines and
generator shafts for a multi-million dollar order
for the Forcacava development in Brazil.
*This device went on to be used for speed radar
and in control systems for guided missiles.
Turbo generator – 1961.
View of M-bulding looking west – 1958.
a One of the largest waterwheel generators
ever made. This unit was for the
Aluminum Company of Canada’s (Alcan)
Kemano development in British Columbia.
a Massive waterwheel generators for the
Hydro-Electric Commission of Ontario
Sir Adam Beck Generating Station
at Niagara Falls and the Consolidated Mining
and Smelting Company in British Columbia.
a Lamps used for removing cooking
and smoking odours as well as
fluorescent sunlamps for improving health.
a An unnamed device that demonstrated how
microwaves could be bounced against a
moving object in order to determine its speed.*
a Fluorescent colour boxes that made
home decoration as easy as flicking a switch.
Advertising copy declared, “Wall tones
in entire rooms may be changed as often
as the homeowner desires merely by using
different coloured fluorescent lamps.”
Although 1953 was an unusually successful period
for the company, by year’s end there were indications
that the long post-war period of ever-increasing business
was waning. Foreign competition was also becoming
a serious threat, particularly since Canadian wage rates
were now three or four times higher than those in many
overseas countries. Great concern was expressed that
despite growing sales, costs were increasing and profits
were steadily declining.
In an effort to reduce costs, the company embarked
on a program of decentralization. Certain product lines
were moved to specially designed, modern facilities
where maximum
efficiencies could be
achieved. For example,
lamp manufacturing
was consolidated in
Trois Rivières, Quebec
and small motor
production was moved
to a new plant in
Stratford, Ontario. (This
plant was closed after
only three years of
operation when foreign
manufacturers flooded
the market with
low-priced motors.)
In the late 1950s, one of the biggest problems facing
the company was the general scarcity of skilled tradesmen
in Canada. To alleviate this situation, the Canadian
Westinghouse Company recruited overseas and launched
a retraining program to diversify and upgrade the skills
of selected employees.
At the same time, as the Canadian economy weathered
a recession, Westinghouse suffered a dramatic drop in sales
of heavy apparatus and began to feel the threat of overseas
competition in the waterwheel generator, consumer products
and appliance businesses. This situation steadily worsened,
bottoming out in 1961 with the company declaring a loss
of $2.6 million CAD. This low point was immediately
followed by a period of unprecedented growth and
prosperity through the balance of the 1960s.
Assembling stator coils – 1953.
1953-1962
By 1957, Canadian Westinghouse had 13 manufacturing
facilities located in: Hamilton (three sites), Brantford,
Galt, London, Stratford, Etobicoke, Stoney Creek,
Grimsby, Trois Rivières, Granby and Vancouver.
Nine service shops and 18 sales offices were also
in operation.
Canadian Westinghouse consisted of five groups,
17 operating divisions and a total of 11,466 employees.
Apparatus Group
Motor & Generator Division
Power Transformer Division
Switchgear Products Division
Apparatus Service Division
Industrial Products Group
Industrial Control Division
Meter & Relay Division
Distribution Apparatus Division
Lighting Division
B.F. Sturtevant Company of Canada Ltd.
Consumer Products Group
Appliance Division
TV-Radio Division
Lamp Division
Tube Division
Air Brake Products Group
Air Brake Division
Project Development Group
Electronics Division
Defence Apparatus Division
Atomic Energy Division
Assembling bushings for transformers
20. 59 60
The fleet of 30-foot high, 100-ton transformers provided
for the St. Lawrence Seaway Project by the Transformer Division
were rated at 86,000-kilovolt amperes, making them
the largest single-phase power transformers in Canada.
Other divisions provided street lighting for canal locks
and approaches, “Bridge-o-matic” controls and motors
for the canal’s lift bridges and “Nofuz” circuit breakers.
The St. Lawrence Seaway Project provided the most
populated parts of Canada and northern U.S. states with
a surplus of electrical power. Although this monumental
project was responsible for sustaining many Westinghouse
businesses in Canada during the mid-1950s, its completion,
coupled with offshore competition, triggered an end to
the market for Westinghouse waterwheel generators.
The fact that goods would no longer have to be off-loaded
at New York or Montreal and shipped by rail to their final
inland destinations meant that this project also indirectly
affected the company’s sales of air brakes.
Faced with a drop in two key areas of its business,
the Canadian Westinghouse Company took steps to improve
facilities and source additional work for its factories by
venturing into new product lines including rapid-operation
mine hoists, large power transformers, medium-sized
steam turbines and gas turbines.
Large Transformers
Make Possible the
Transmission of Power
From Remote Locations
By the late 1950s, only about one-quarter of Canada’s
available waterpower had been developed. The remaining
three-quarters was considered too remote to make the
long-distance transmission of electricity from these sites
economically viable. However, technological advances soon
resulted in higher voltage transformers that could transmit
power over ever-increasing distances. This prompted the
development of power stations in northern Ontario and Quebec.
Westinghouse made heavy expenditures in 1958 to provide
new high-capacity test equipment for large power transformers
to ensure the company’s ability to compete in this growing
market. A new 250-ton crane, reported to be the largest
of its type in North America and costing $200,000 CAD,
was installed in K-building in order to be able to move massive
power transformers into the test facility and onto railcars
for shipping.
In 1961, a 250-ton Canadian Westinghouse transformer
for the Lakeview Generating Station in Etobicoke, just west
of Toronto, had the distinction of being the largest load
ever transported on a Canadian railroad. The massive
transformer was shipped on a Schnabel railcar designed to
split in the middle and hook onto the ends of the transformer,
making the transformer an integral part of the railcar.*
The new crane proved to be a good investment since,
by 1963, the Sanford Avenue plant was building six huge
735-kilovolt transformers for Hydro-Quebec’s five million
kilowatt generation complex on the Manicouagan and
Outardes Rivers north of Baie Comeau in northern Quebec.
Transmission at 735,000 volts from this power station
to Montreal and Quebec City was considered the highest
planned for any power system in the world.
By 1965, large transformers were selling so well that
116,000 square feet of assembly, testing and office space
were constructed at a new plant on Beach Road in Hamilton
to house the very successful Power Transformer and
Circuit Breaker businesses all under one roof.
Circuit Breakers
In 1956, the first “Jetaire” circuit breakers were shipped
for installation in Ontario Hydro’s transformer station
in Cornwall. This completely new concept in high-voltage
circuit breaker design was developed and patented
by Canadian Westinghouse engineers to compete with
breakers from overseas manufacturers.
In 1959, the factory produced the first 15-kilovolt
air circuit breaker with the capability of interrupting
a 1,000,000-kilovolt ampere current. That same year,
six 230,000-volt oil circuit breakers with an interrupt capacity
of 20,000,000 kilovolt amperes had the highest rating
of any oil circuit breakers in the world.
The St. Lawrence
Seaway Project
The 2,342-mile-long St. Lawrence Seaway, stretching
from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence to Duluth, Minnesota,
on Lake Superior and consisting of a system of canals,
dams and locks, is the world’s longest deep-water inland
waterway. The hydro-electric generating stations built
in conjunction with the St. Lawrence Seaway Project are
a key source of power for Ontario and New York State,
adding 912,000 kW to Ontario’s power supply alone.
In 1954, the legal impediments in both the U.S. and Canada
to the development of the St. Lawrence Seaway were removed.
Construction began almost immediately and the seaway
was completed in 1959, in time for the official opening
ceremonies presided over by Queen Elizabeth II and
President Eisenhower.
The Canadian Westinghouse Company justifiably took great
pride in the fact that the company supplied more electrical
equipment for the project than any other manufacturer.
For example, the Motor and Generator Division engineered,
manufactured and installed eight huge vertical waterwheel
generators, each capable of generating 80,000 horsepower,
for Ontario Hydro’s Robert L. Saunders Generating Station near
Cornwall. Another 15 waterwheel generators were installed
farther down the river at Hydro Quebec’s Beauharnois facility.
*Starting in 1998, Schnabel cars were used to ship W501G gas turbines weighing 267 tons from the Sanford Avenue plant to customers in North America.
(See page 95.)
Cutaway view
of a transformer.
The Canadian Westinghouse Company supplied waterwheel generators, transformers, control systems and a wide variety
of other electronic apparatus for the hydro-electric power stations along the St. Lawrence.
Shipment of a transformer on a Schnabel car.
1953-1962
21. 61
Gas Turbine
Manufacturing Begins
Recognizing that the market for new waterwheel generators
was rapidly disappearing, in 1959, the Hamilton plant
started manufacturing gas turbines under licence from
the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Lester, Pennsylvania.
This was a significant milestone for the Hamilton operation.
“For the last few decades, Canadian electrical manufacturers
have filled the needs for hydraulic generating equipment
(waterwheel generators) while the market for gas and
steam turbines was supplied from outside the country,”
explained A.A. McArthur, General Manager, Apparatus Products,
in a company newsletter. “With the market for hydraulic
generators substantially reduced because most major
water power sources within economical reach have been
harnessed, the future of thousands of people in our industry
will depend on our success in capturing a share of the
growing turbine market.”
Fortunately, the Canadian market for mechanical-drive
gas turbines was expanding at this time, stimulated largely
by the creation of TransCanada PipeLines and Westcoast
Transmission. These companies required compressor drive
gas turbines for use in pumping natural gas over long distances.
The Sanford Avenue plant was in an excellent position to
provide this growing market with high “Canadian content”
W62 and W92 mechanical-drive gas turbines as well as
Canadian-based field and factory service.
The first Canadian-made single-shaft gas turbine for power
generation was a 25,000-kW model W201G manufactured
in 1960 and sold for $2 million CAD to Canadian Utilities Limited
for their power plant at Vermilion, Alberta. The unit was subse-
quently upgraded to a W301G and, today, more than forty
years later, is reported to be still running. This was the only
W201G unit ever manufactured in the Sanford Avenue plant.
E125 steam turbines
used to start W92
gas turbines – 1962.
Checking the fit
of the blading on W62
and W92 gas turbine
rotors – 1963.
OntarioOntario
During the 1960s, the Sanford Avenue plant provided 22 W62 and W92 compressor drive gas turbines
for TransCanada PipeLine compressor stations.
The Start-Up of the
Steam Turbine Business
Prior to 1958, all Westinghouse steam turbines were
manufactured in Lester, Pennsylvania. Recognition of
the growing market for industrial steam turbines
for the expanding Canadian petro-chemical industry
prompted the decision to establish the Motor and
Generator Division at the Sanford Avenue plant as the
Canadian manufacturing site for small steam turbines
(50 to 2,100 horsepower). In the early years, single-stage
E-line steam turbines proved to be very popular,
with 300 being built in Hamilton in the first five years.
Building on the success of this product line,
the company quickly expanded into medium-sized,
multi-stage steam turbines. The first order received
for the new 2,000-kW class “M” turbine generator
was from the Ernest Harman U.S. Air Force base
in Newfoundland in 1960.
1953-1962
The Newcomer –
The Gas Turbine
It is interesting to consider how far the field of
power generation has come in just over a half-century
of gas turbine development. The following is excerpted
from an article entitled “The Newcomer - The Gas Turbine,”
written by W.R. Morgan and published in the January
1950 edition of the Westinghouse Engineer magazine.
“The task with the gas turbine in the immediate future is,
clearly, to develop it for long-continued operation with
gas temperatures beyond 1,300° Fahrenheit and to
obtain information as quickly as possible that will lead
to constructions suitable for temperatures up to 1,500°
Fahrenheit. Such programs are being aggressively pursued.
Both the central-station field and industry generally
have several attractive applications for the gas turbine
that await its development. There is little doubt that such
practical, long-life machines will become reality and that
machines of open-cycle form, and in capacities up to
about 10,000 kW, will be built in a few years. Closed-cycles
offer possibilities of machines several times this rating.
Now at mid-century, the gas turbine stands about
where the steam turbine stood at the beginning of
the century. The gas turbine inherits much experience
from its cousin. Its development, for all its obstacles,
should be rapid. What the next 50 years hold for
the gas turbine makes for interesting speculation.”
Judging by his comments, it is likely that W.R. Morgan
would have been surprised by the amount of progress
that has taken place in the fields of turbine design
and engineering in the last 50 years. The Westinghouse
501G gas turbine, rated at 253 MW or 253,000 kW,
is 25 times larger than the 10,000-kW capacity
he forecasted in the article.
Modern materials combined with internal cooling
systems and coatings allow the firing temperature
to exceed 2,500° Fahrenheit, which is well past the
melting point of blades. This fact, alone, would probably
have astonished Morgan.
Considering the amount of progress made over
the last 50 years, it is hard not to wonder where
turbine technology will be 50 years from now.
The first mechanical-drive
gas turbines manufactured
in the Sanford Avenue plant
were three W92RM,
8,500-horsepower gas
turbines for TransCanada
PipeLines.
W62M compressor drive gas turbine for TransCanada PipeLine
– 1963.
22. 63
Entry Into
the Atomic Age
By the mid-1950s, the company was actively expanding
into new technologies. A year before his death in 1914,
George Westinghouse uttered these prophetic words:
“There exists a form of energy of which we have as yet
no knowledge, but which may become available to us
as the result of further discoveries.” Forty years later
his legacy company would enter the atomic age and
go on to become a major player
in the nuclear industry — with
the help of a German company
named Siemens.
Immediately after the Second
World War, the Allies banned
research from being conducted
in Germany on such items
as power generating and other
high-technology equipment.
As soon as the ban was lifted
in 1955, Siemens and Westinghouse
combined forces in developing pressurized water reactors for
nuclear power plants. In 1956, the Canadian Westinghouse
Company hired scientists and engineers who specialized
in the field of nuclear engineering and started an Atomic
Energy Division. In 1964, the company entered the field
of nuclear fuel manufacture through the acquisition of
facilities in Port Hope, Ontario.
In the United States, Westinghouse nuclear reactors
powered six of the first seven atomic submarines.
The company’s prestige rose in 1958 when two of these
vessels, Nautilus and Skate, were the first submarines
to travel from Hawaii to the Atlantic Ocean by crossing
under the North Pole.
Defence Products
for the Cold War
Throughout the decade, the company’s electronics
business located at the Longwood Road plant grew rapidly
as Westinghouse became an important supplier of defence
items, including propulsion steam turbines for Canadian
Navy ships, torpedoes, assorted products for the Korean War,
shipboard fire control equipment, as well as the “Velvet Glove”
missile in 1958.
In 1957, the Electronic Division’s
engineering and manufacturing
advances in the field of industrial
electronics and microwave com-
munication showed considerable
promise when a demonstration
of a long-range, high-frequency,
tropospheric communications
system (subsequently called
“Microscatter”) provided near-
perfect wireless communications
between the Sanford Avenue
plant and Kinmount, Ontario, located 130 miles away. In later
years, this division produced advanced anti-submarine systems
and ship detection sonar systems for the St. Lawrence Seaway.
In 1959, the company received orders from the Royal
Canadian Air Force and the U.S. Air Force for a Microscatter
system to provide ground control for the Bomarc supersonic
missile defence system located in the U.S. Subsequently,
a helicopter-transportable version of Microscatter was delivered
to the U.S. Air Force and a trailer-mounted model was sold
to the Swedish Air Force. In 1962, this technology was used
in its first commercial application to provide a telephone link
between Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and Uranium City
in Saskatchewan.
The ”Circle W“
In 1961-1962, Canadian Westinghouse put on a new face with a modern-looking
"Circle W" logo and an updated logotype for the name "Westinghouse."
The artwork even used "Westinghouse blue," a special ink mix intended to repre-
sent the blue corona visible during an electric arc. The new Westinghouse logo,
along with the slogan, "You can be SURE … if it’s Westinghouse™," would go on to
become two of the most easily-identifiable corporate symbols in North America.
Home Entertainment and
Light Apparatus Products
Sales of television sets hit all-time highs in the early 1950s
due to the opening of a number of television stations
that broadcast signals to new areas of Canada. By 1958,
however, sales of televisions, radios and “high-fidelity
reproducing equipment” (record players) were dropping
as a result of low-cost Japanese and European models
flooding the market.
Fall season television-broadcasting programming created
much excitement in 1958 with the announcement of the
48-week season of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse,
which served as the vehicle for Westinghouse’s merchan-
dising campaign for consumer products. This pioneering
series, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, featured a line-up
that included comedies as well as dramas, adventures,
romances, musicals, mysteries and westerns. In Canada,
the program was transmitted over the CBC television network.
In 1960, the Light Apparatus Division landed a large order
for electrical apparatus, including heating and ventilating
systems, for Place Ville Marie in Montreal. Other major projects
included apparatus for a General Motors plant expansion,
the Ford Motor Company glass plant, the Malton International
Airport, the CFTO-TV television station in Toronto,
the London Postal Terminal, the Hamilton Sewage Plant,
the TD Centre in Toronto and the expansions of
McMaster University and the University of Waterloo.
The Electronics Division specialized in radar,
sonar and advanced communication systems.
In order to keep up with the demand for television sets,
Canadian Westinghouse transferred television production
from Hamilton to a facility in Brantford, Ontario in 1954.
Thousands of people toured
the Sanford Avenue factory during
the first Family Day held in 1961.
Many employees purchased
Westinghouse appliances from the
company store. Payment could be made
using a payroll deduction plan.
One small visitor was fascinated
by a single-stage steam turbine rotor
at the Family Day – 1961.
1953-1962
23. 66
Consumer and
Commercial Products
Take on a
Greater Importance
In the 1960s, rising personal
incomes, increased housing
construction and the impact
of the first baby boomers
entering adulthood, all
contributed to a buoyant
market for Westinghouse
household appliances.
In 1966, the two millionth major appliance
came off the production line at the
Longwood Road plant. The company
was so well respected in the industry
for its innovative designs and high-quality
products that Westinghouse was named
“Appliance Manufacturer of the Year – 1968”
by retailers across Canada.
1963-1972
The rotor for a W62 mechanical-drive gas turbine for TransCanada PipeLines is gently lowered into the casing – 1963.
In 1971, company shareholders voted to adopt the name
Westinghouse Canada Limited (Limitée). Ten years later,
the Canadian operation changed its name to Westinghouse
Canada Incorporated. When abbreviated to Westinghouse
Canada Inc., the name was acceptable in both English and French.
Electric blanket advertisement – 1964.
Canada celebrated its 100th
birthday
in 1967. Westinghouse contributions
to Expo ’67 included the “Dancing Waters”
multi-fountain and multi-coloured light display
and Expo Express trains powered
by Westinghouse motors and controls.
The Lamp and Lighting business was doing
so well that a new 86,000 square foot plant
was built in Galt, Ontario. New products included
special fluorescent lights for the large supermarkets
that were springing up across the country. Exterior lighting
products included street lighting, floodlights, automotive
lamps and airport runway lighting systems.
24. 67 68
and freezer with a “carousel” icemaker — a precursor to the
refrigerator door-mounted icemaker. In tune with the trend
for more colourful living, a groovy new colour, “Poppy,”
was introduced in 1971 and was an immediate hit.
Dishwashers were so popular that two new dishwasher
production lines were put into operation at the Longwood
Road plant. Vending machines were added to the product line
in 1968. The first 100 were installed in the Hamilton factories
for use by Westinghouse employees.
In 1974, the Appliance Division expanded its operation
with the opening of a new 170,000 square foot Distribution
Centre across the street from the production plant on
Longwood Road. The new building was connected to the plant
by a bridge and conveyor. A computerized inventory
management system was installed to control the flow
of product across the country. Two years later the new
Distribution Centre was sold when the company withdrew
from the major appliance business.*
Westinghouse had been providing in-home service
for refrigerators and other major appliances since their
introduction in the 1930s. By 1967, the company had
equipped their easily recognizable fleet of “Blue Trucks”
with two-way radios to improve the promptness of
home service calls. “Wesplan,” one of the first extended
warranty plans, was introduced in 1973 and provided
owners of Westinghouse major appliances with protection
year after year.
Meanwhile, brisk sales of small domestic appliances led
to the expansion of the Consumer Products Division and
the construction of a modern plant in Orangeville, Ontario
in 1969. This plant was used for the manufacture of portable
appliances such as blenders, cordless electric carving knives,
the “Sesame” can opener, the “Galaxy” kettle, “Steam-n-Dry”
irons, electric frying pans, hair dryers, microwave ovens,
room air conditioners, dehumidifiers and radios. In 1972,
Westinghouse Electric Corporation in the U.S. withdrew
from the portable appliance and consumer electronics
businesses. Four years later, the Orangeville plant was sold
along with Westinghouse Canada’s
major appliance business.*
Canada’s First
Colour Televisions
Colour televisions were developed in Westinghouse
laboratories in the United States in the late 1950s. With much
fanfare, the first colour television sets manufactured in
Canada rolled off the production line at the Brantford plant
in 1964. Colour telecasting was scheduled to take place
in Canada in 1966 so they quickly became a top-selling item.
In the U.S.,
Westinghouse made
broadcasting history
on July 20, 1969,
when astronaut Neil
Armstrong became the
first man to set foot
on the moon. The
image of this historic
event was captured
by a Westinghouse
television camera
and transmitted to
50 million television
viewers around the world.
Meanwhile, in Canada, the surge in demand for colour
televisions and stereos for domestic and export markets
created the need to double the Brantford plant’s capacity.
Three years later, however, in the face of mass production
of components and large-scale assembly in Asia, production
of radio tubes, television sets, radios and other home
entertainment products became unprofitable and
was discontinued.
Withdrawal From
Traditional Businesses
By the mid-1960s, the company employed approximately
10,000 hourly and salaried employees in its various businesses.
In 1967, amidst celebrations of Canada’s Centennial,
Westinghouse experienced a six-week strike, the first at its
Hamilton plants in 21 years. In 1968, Local 555 was certified
as the bargaining agent for approximately 800 office and
clerical employees in Hamilton.
Although the company enjoyed a number of consecutive
years of growing sales, profits dropped by 20 percent
between 1964 and 1969. In an effort to increase profits,
the company withdrew from some of its under-performing
traditional businesses while focusing efforts on new,
more profitable, product lines.
Technological advances in manufacturing meant that
fabricated parts for air brakes could be used in place of many
foundry-produced components. As a result, after 57 years
of operation, the foundry at the Longwood Road plant
was closed in 1962.
Built-in dishwasher – 1962.
Motorized, push-button controls
eliminated the need to manually
set washing cycles and provided the
maximum in ease of use.
In 1968, the company
entered the stereo
component market
offering a complete
line of tuners, amplifiers,
turntables, eight-track
tape decks and speakers.
The Westinghouse ESCORT – a purse-sized
AM radio that incorporated a flashlight, clock,
cigarette lighter and a plate for personalizing
sold for $36.35 CAD. “So, if you are lost in the woods
at night without matches, you can find your way,
keep yourself entertained, tell the time and
light up a smoke, all with the Westinghouse ESCORT.”
A wall-mounted oven was
the latest in stylish design – 1962.
Innovations in
Appliance Design
In 1967, the company launched its first self-cleaning oven.
High-end models also featured a “look-in” window.
By the 1970s, top-loading automatic washers and a
coin-operated laundry machine were available. Smaller sized
and stackable models were also designed to capture
the expanding apartment and mobile home markets.
Refrigerators with a 16-cubic-foot capacity and “Shape
of Tomorrow” styling were available with replaceable colour-
keyed door panels in avocado, gold-tone and wood grain.
The 1970 line-up included a “side-by-side” refrigerator
Colour televisions sold for about $400
CAD when they were launched in 1964.
By the early 1960s, the Westinghouse “laundry twins“
(a matched set of a “Laundromat” and dryer) were
outselling all other laundry equipment in Canada.
* See page 74.
1963-1972
25. 69 70
In 1969, the purchase of the parent Westinghouse
Air Brake Company (WABCO) in the United States by
American Standard Inc. was followed by the sale of the
73-year-old Canadian air brake business to the same company.
International markets became increasingly more important
throughout the 1960s. By 1969, export sales accounted
for 10 percent of the company’s sales. Major orders included:
power transformers for Thailand, Bolivia and Trinidad &
Tobago; switchgear for Brazil, Honduras and Dominica;
electronics for Japan, West Germany and Great Britain;
nuclear power station components for India; and gas turbines
and mine hoists for the United States. The company was also
very successful at selling 240-volt refrigerators, freezers
and washers to Great Britain, Mexico, Venezuela and the
West Indies. In 1972, in anticipation of closer trading
relationships with the rest of the world, the company created
the Metric Conversion Department.
Turbines and
Transformers Replace
Waterwheel Generators
In 1971, the waterwheel generator business succumbed
to offshore competition from companies including Mitsubishi,
Mitsui and Russian firms that had effectively sewn up
the Canadian market. As a result of the discontinuation
of the waterwheel generator business, the main aisles
in the Sanford Avenue plant were gradually converted
to the manufacture of steam and gas turbine components
and other electrical apparatus.
To respond to the growing market for high-voltage
power transformers, an 80,000 square foot assembly
and test building was added at the Beach Road plant
in 1964. In 1970, a 25,000 square foot office building
was added to the facility.
During this period, a major order was obtained for
735-kilovolt reactors and large generator transformers
for the Churchill Falls Hydro-Electric Generating Station
in Labrador, the largest hydro-electric installation of its kind
in the world. Power lines extended 1,100 miles from
Churchill Falls to Montreal. A large share of the balance
of the work on this project went to offshore competition.
The Canadian Government took action to investigate
possible injury to the domestic industry from the sale
of foreign-made transformers at “dump prices.”
Supplying Nuclear
Power Stations
In 1965, the new Port Hope facility shipped its first order
of atomic fuel to a customer in India. In 1968 the division sold
$1.7 million CAD of calandria tubes to Ontario Hydro for its new
nuclear power station at Pickering, Ontario. This was followed
by a $4 million CAD order for nuclear fuel for the Bruce Nuclear
Power Station near Kincardine on Lake Huron in Ontario.
Electronics Division
Expands Into Commercial
Electronics Products
In 1971, the Electronics Division, which had branched
out into commercial electronics products, moved from
the Longwood Road
plant to a new facility
on Walkers Line in
Burlington, Ontario.
A new Solid State
Devices Department
manufactured hearing
aid amplifiers and
other integrated circuit
devices. In 1972,
the solid state devices
business was sold in
an employee buy-out.
Today, this very
successful high-
technology company
operates in Burlington,
Ontario under the
name of Gennum
Corporation.
In 1968, the Electronics Division was marketing “Wesscam,”*
a revolutionary stabilized camera platform for televising
or shooting film from a moving vehicle. This product,
still highly regarded and considered an industry standard
in 2003, formed the basis of a company that spun off in 1974
as Wescam* and is also located in Burlington, Ontario.
D-line steam turbine for a chemical company – 1964.
Westinghouse patented
the first fully automatic
operatorless elevator in 1949.
This technological advance
contributed to the widespread
construction of high-rise
apartment buildings. In 1968,
Canadian Westinghouse
formed the Elevator Division
and established sales and
service offices in Toronto
and Vancouver to support
the market for elevators
and “electric stairways,” as
escalators were then called.
In the early 1960s, engineers at Canadian
Westinghouse developed a sophisticated
electronic control device called LINATROL
for cutting intricate shapes out of metal
at speeds up to 200 inches per minute.
LYNX was a subsequent model
of this product line.
In the 1970s, the Electronic Division’s
Industrial Electronics Department
was producing graphical display devices
for use in medical and process
control applications and “Wand”
video display terminals (VDTs).
Not all the Turbine and Generator Division’s turbines were
for land use. In 1968, twin 4,400 horsepower W41G gas turbines
were provided for the Canadian Coast Guard vessel,
Norman McLeod Rogers, the first icebreaker in the world to use
gas turbines for ship propulsion. The turbines were designed to
provide a power boost for breaking through heavy ice.
Trimming shrouds on
an EM25 steam turbine
for Fish Engineering for
use in Argentina – 1963.
*The original product name was spelled Wesscam.
One S was dropped when the new company was named.
1963-1972
