Thomas Ahearn: Streetcars to Electric Appliances

Canadian Businessman and Inventor, Ahearn's Lamps Lit Ottawa Nights

Jul 13, 2008

Thomas Ahearn was one of Canada's ground-breaking businessmen and inventors in the early age of electricity: Oven, water heater, flat iron, streetcars, telegraphy, radio.

The industry of telecommunications seems like a modern invention, but it was in its infancy in the late 1800s. The young Thomas Ahearn saw his future in telecommunications, training as a telegrapher at age 15 in Ottawa, Ontario – for free. His skills lead him to the Montreal Telegraph Company in 1878. Two years later, said his obituary on Rootsweb, he became manager of the local Bell Telephone Company.

Developing a business partnership with fellow telegrapher and manager of the Dominion Telegraph Company, Warren Soper, the two men opened the electrical contract business, Ahearn and Soper in 1881. Men of vision, they opened a number of companies related to power, light and heat, noted OC Transpo. One of their first accomplishments was lighting the darkened night streets of the City of Ottawa with electric arc streetlamps - 165 of them.

New Electric Streetcars

In Ottawa, Ahearn saw the need for better transportation for the growing city. The original system used “ten small horse-drawn streetcars, 15 sleighs and 12 omnibuses.” These were not particularly modern. Electric streetcars were the answer. Ahearn and Soper opened the Ottawa Electric Railway, gaining the contract to build and run the new rail line in 1891. The new system consisted of four open rail cars that traveled from “car barns” near Parliament Hill through central Ottawa to Lansdowne Park. Eventually, there were 29 miles of track through the city with 68 cars to provide proper transportation around the city.

While the first electric streetcars came from St. Catherines, the rest of the cars were built at another of Ahearn’s firms, the Ottawa Car Company. To keep people moving in winter, a high-speed sweeper was designed for the front of the streetcars to clear the snow. Electric heaters, invented and patented by Ahearn, were installed for customer comfort. The innovative streetcars built by the Ottawa Car Company were sold across Canada, from Newfoundland to Alberta.

Electrical Appliance Patents

A creator at heart, Ahearn devised several electrical appliances, patenting the designs for each. The year 1892 was a prolific era for him, achieving patents for the electric water heater, the electric heater, the electric flat iron, and for an “apparatus for electrically heating an automatic water supply,” according to Collections Canada. The same year, he also invented the electric oven.

The electric oven was quite different from today’s sleek version. “The oven,” said CBC Ottawa, was “of brick, about six feet wide and somewhat deeper and about six feet high… .” Ahead of its time, the oven had small “peepholes” of “heavy plate glass” so the chef could watch the food cook. The first dinner prepared in the oven was for guests at the Windsor Hotel in the summer of 1892. The hotel manager was so impressed with the delicious, well-cooked food that he ordered an oven on the spot.

Ahearn the Businessman

Still interested in telegraphy, in 1897 Ahearn built Canada’s initial coast-to-coast telegraph line and was later involved in the first nation-wide radio broadcasts. The list of his interests displayed his sharp acumen in a variety of businesses. Along with the Ahearn and Soper Company, and the Ottawa Car Company, Ahearn was president of:

Chairman of the Federal District Commission, a great honour was bestowed upon Ahearn for his work in the beautification of the City of Ottawa. In 1928, he was named a member of the Queen’s Privy Council.

Ahearn was the son of Irish parents, John and Honora Ahearn. Born in 1855, he married Lilias Mackey in 1884 and they became parents of two children, Thomas and Lilias. (His son became a Member of Parliament.) After the death of his first wife, he married Margaret Howitt. Thomas Ahearn died in Ottawa on June 28, 1938 at the grand age of 83.

The copyright of the article Thomas Ahearn: Streetcars to Electric Appliances in Canadian History is owned by Susanna McLeod. Permission to republish Thomas Ahearn: Streetcars to Electric Appliances in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.