Survivals: Aspects of Industrial Archaeology in Ontario.

Survivals: Aspects of Industrial Archaeology in Ontario. Newell, Dianne and Greenhill, Ralph., Survivals: Aspects ofIndustrial Archaeology Industrial archaeology, like other branches of archaeology, is the study of material culture from the past, but with a focus on industry. Strictly speaking, industrial archaeology includes sites from the earliest times (such as prehistoric copper mining in the British Peak in Ontario. Erin, Ont: Boston Mills Press, 1989.Pp. 225. Illustrations, select bibliography, and index. $39.50. This attractive book is the joint effort of two long time workersin Canadian engineering and technological history. One is Dianne Newellwho has also had a long interest in industrial archaeology. She wroteTechnology on the Frontier On the Frontier: A Melodrama in Two Acts, by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, was the third and last play in the Auden-Isherwood collaboration, first published in 1938. : Mining in Old Ontario, which was publishedin 1986. Ralph Greenhill is a noted collector and writer on photography.His major interest is the history of engineering which led toEngineer's Witness, published in 1985. For this book each authorhas produced five essays, each one with 7 to 10 pages of text and 10 to14 pages of photographs, both historical and modern. As Newellacknowledges in her introduction, the book is actually about theirfavourite sites in southern Ontario. Their selection starts with theRideau Canal Rideau Canal(rēdō`, rē`dō), 126 mi (203 km) long, S Ont., Canada, connecting the Ottawa River at Ottawa with Lake Ontario at Kingston. The canal, which has 47 locks, follows the course of the Rideau River. and covers Grand Trunk Railway Grand Trunk RailwayEarly Canadian railway line, incorporated in 1852–53 to connect the key cities of eastern Canada with Portland, Me. By completing its final link in July 1853 between Montreal and Portland, it became North America's first international railroad. bridges and stations, theHamilton Pumphouse, Gooderham & Worts Distillery (Toronto), soapfactories in London and Guelph, the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge The Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, commonly called the Whirlpool Bridge and formerly known as the Lower Steel Arch Bridge until 1937, is a spandrel braced, riveted, two-hinged arch bridge.This is an international bridge between Canada and the United States. (NiagaraRiver Niagara RiverRiver forming the U.S.-Canada boundary between western New York and southern Ontario. Its high flow and steep descent make it one of the best sources of hydroelectric power in North America. ), the St. Clair Tunnel The St. Clair Tunnel is the name for two separate rail tunnels which were built under the St. Clair River between Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan. First tunnel (1891-1995)The St. Clair Tunnel Company opened the first tunnel in 1891. (Sarnia), and the Peterborough Lift Lock The Peterborough lift lock is a boat lift located on the Otonabee River in the city of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada and is Lock 21 on the Trent-Severn Waterway.The dual lifts are the highest hydraulic boat lifts in the world, rising 19.8 m (65 ft). . The book deals almost exclusively with structures. The exceptionsare two interesting essays by Newell on belt and line shafting and onthe jerker rod system for pumping Lambton County oil wells. Powertransmission, though vital to industry, has been badly ignored byhistorians of technology. The type of transmission system used certainlyinfluenced the size, construction and layout of equipment and factories.Newell is to be congratulated for starting to look at this neglectedtopic in Canada. The overall concentration on large, spectacular structures andsystems has created a bias in favour of masonry, steel and concretestructures, such as Gooderham & Worts, the Whirlpool Rapids Bridgeand the Peterborough Lift Lock. As many of these structures are"monumental," they do not reflect the common practice or usualforms used in Ontario. Few ordinary structures or industries arediscussed in the book. For instance woodworking only appears as part ofthe chapter on belt and line shafting. The selection of large masonry structures at the beginning of thebook also emphasizes the British tradition of permanence. The Americaninfluence is not detectable in the early period perhaps because Americanstructures were wooden and very susceptible to fire and change. TheAmerican influence is more apparent later on as engineering became moreof a science. The Canadian contribution in the early days, according to theauthors, is in bringing together various technological elements andadapting them to Canadian conditions. Even when structures were almostentirely imported, Canadian superintending engineers, contractors andworkers were crucial to the success of the project. This fact has notbeen appreciated often enough especially for structures such as theVictoria Bridge. It was the turn of the century before Canadianengineers began to design and build their own significant structuressuch as the St. Clair Tunnel and the Peterborough Lift Locks. One of the strengths of the book is the use of visual images.Photographs show what a structure looked like at a given time, itsevolution, its relationship to the surrounding environment and importantdetails of its construction. The historical photos have been selectedwith great care and Greenhill's own photos bring the story of eachstructure up to date. By using only text and photos, the industrial archaeology inSurvivals becomes quite "soft". There is only one recent mapand diagram in the book. Missing are diagrams of structures andmachinery, tables giving dimensions or capacities, and lists ofequipment or processes employed. Information of this type would havegiven this book a harder edge and made it more valuable as a source ofengineering and technical history. It would have also made it useful forcomparisons with similar structures in Canada or elsewhere in the world.Within the chosen format, however, the authors have produced a beautifuland useful introduction to industrial archaeology in southern Ontario. Larry McNally Manuscript Division National Archives of Canada