Thomas "Carbide" Willson 1860-1915

and

Thomas Leopold "Carbide" Willson 1860-1915

There are two plaques about this gentleman.
The first is in the County of Oxford.
The second is in the City of Ottawa.
Both can be seen on this page.

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted August, 2004

Photo by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted October, 2010

Plaque Location

The County of Oxford
The City of Woodstock
On the southeast corner of Vansittart Avenue and Admiral Street

Coordinates: N 43 08.200 W 80 45.829

Plaque Text

This house was built in 1895 by Thomas Leopold Willson, an electrical engineer who discovered the first commercial process for the production of calcium carbide, a chemical compound used in the manufacture of acetylene gas. He was born at Princeton, Ontario, and educated in Hamilton, where he performed his early experiments. The discovery which earned him his nickname was made at Spray, North Carolina in 1892. In 1896 he established a carbide works at Merritton, Ontario. After establishing a similar plant at Shawinigan, Quebec, he settled in Ottawa in 1901. His varied scientific achievements were recognized in 1909 by the University of Toronto, which awarded him the first McCharles Prize.

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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.

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