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Thomas Leopold "Carbide" Willson 1860-1915

Photos by contributor Takashi Toyooka - Posted October, 2011

Plaque Location

The City of Ottawa
On Victoria Island east of the Portage Bridge

Coordinates: N 45 25.275 W 75 42.746

Plaque Text

Born in Oxford County, Upper Canada, and largely self-educated, Willson became a noted inventor in fields ranging from the generation of electricity, through electro-chemistry and metallurgy, to production of fertilizers. His international reputation and considerable fortune derived from the discovery, in 1892, of a method to mass produce calcium carbide as was done in this building. Acetylene, generated from this compound, was used both as an illuminant and a source for other industrial hydrocarbons. Willson's discovery thus laid a basis for much of the early twentieth century's chemical industry.

Related Ontario plaque
Thomas "Carbide" Willson 1860-1915

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