Northern visions: Aerial surveying and the Canadian mining industry, 1919-1928

Technology and Culture

Volumn 48, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 303-330

  Cronin, Marionne ^a,b  

^a SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION   (United States)

^b IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34249746143     PISSN: 0040165X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/tech.2007.0063     Document Type: Review

References (123)

1. "Geological Mapping of Mineral Areas," Canadian Mining Journal (1919): 298-99.
2. Morris M. Thompson, ed., Manual of Photogmmmetry, 3rd ed. (Falls Church, Va., 1966), 887.
3. Trevor Levere, "What Is Canadian about Science in Canadian History?" in Science, Technology, and Canadian History, ed. Richard A. Jarrell and Norman R. Ball (Waterloo, Ont., 1980), 14-22;
4. Dianne Newell, "All in a Day's Work: Local Invention on the Ontario Mining Frontier," Technology and Culture 26 (October 1985): 799-814;
5. Bruce Sinclair, "Canadian Technology: British Traditions and American Influences," Technology and Culture 20 (January 1979): 108-23;
6. Bruce Sinclair, N. R. Ball, and J. O. Peterson, eds., Let Us Be Honest and Modest Technology and Society in Canadian History (Oxford, 1974);
7. Suzanne Zeller, Inventing Canada: Early Victorian Science and the Idea of a Transcontinental Nation (Toronto, 1987).
8. Thomas P. Hughes, Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930 (Baltimore, 1983);
9. Mary Jo Nye, "National Styles? French and English Chemistry in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries," Osiris 8 (1993): 30-49;
10. Jonathan Harwood, "National Styles in Science: Genetics in Germany and the United States between the World Wars," Isis 78 (September 1987): 390-414;
11. Gabrielle Hecht, The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity after World War II (Cambridge, Mass., 1998);
12. Edward Jones-Imhotep, "Laboratory Cultures," Scientia Canadensis 28 (2005).
13. Diane Menghetti, "Invention and Innovation in the Australian Non-ferrous Mining Industry: Whose Technology?" Australian Economic History Review 45 (July 2005): 204-19.
14. Roger Burt, "Innovation or Imitation? Technological Dependency in the American Nonferrous Mining Industry," Technology and Culture 41 (April 2000): 321-47;
15. Men ghetti; Newell, "All in a Day's Work"; Dianne Newell, Technology on the Frontier: Mining in Old Ontario (Vancouver, 1986);
16. Terry S. Reynolds, "The Engineer in 19th-century America," in The Engineer in America: A Historical Anthology from Technology and Culture," ed. Terry S. Reynolds (Chicago, 1991), 7-26;
17. Sinclair, "Canadian Technology"; Sinclair, Ball, and Peterson, Let Us Be Honest and Modest.
18. In this context, "indigenous" refers to a technology that comes out of a particular place or region, not to technologies of the Canadian First Nations or Inuit peoples.
19. A. M. Narraway, "The Surveyor, the Aeroplane, and Canada," Canadian Surveyor 4 (1933): 3-8, quote on 3.
20. S. F. Wise, Canadian Airmen and the First World War: The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force, vol. 1 (Toronto, 1980), 3.
21. See also S. Bernard Shaw, Photographing Canada from Flying Canoes (Burnstown, Ont., 2001), ix-x.
22. For a detailed history of Canadian surveying and mapping, including Eduard Deville's work with photography, see Don W. Thomson, Men and Meridians: The History of Surveying and Mapping in Canada, vol. 2 (Ottawa, 1966). The other two volumes, covering the years prior to 1867 and from 1917 to 1947, were published in 1967 and 1969, respectively.
23. Gerald McGrath and Louis M. Sebert, eds., Mapping a Northern Land: The Survey of Canada, 1947-1994 (Montreal, 1999), bring the story of Canadian mapping and surveying to the mid-1990s.
24. See also Peter Collier, "The Impact on Topographic Mapping of Developments in Land and Air Survey: 1900-1930," Cartography and Geographic Information Science 29 (July 2002): 155-75; Thompson (n. 2 above).
25. See, for example, H. Hamshaw Thomas, "Geographical Reconnaissance by Aeroplane Photography with Special Reference to the Work Done on the Palestinian Front," Geographical Journal 55 (May 1920): 349-70,
26. and H. S. L. Winterbotham, "Geographical Work with the Army in France," Geographical Journal 54 (July 1919): 12-23.
27. Ken Coates and William Morrison, The Forgotten North: A History of Canada's Provincial Norths (Toronto, 1992);
28. Donald Creighton, The Empire of the St. Lawrence: A Study in Commerce and Politics, 2nd ed. (Toronto, 2002 [1937]);
29. Matthew Evenden, "The Northern Vision of Harold Innis," Journal of Canadian Studies 34 (1999): 162-86;
30. Jeremy Mouat, Metal Mining in Canada, 1840-1950, No. 9: Transformation Series (Ottawa, 2000);
31. Harold A. Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History, rev. ed. (Toronto, 1999 [1930]);
32. H. V. Nelles, The Politics of Development: Forests, Mines and Hydroelectric Power in Ontario, 1849-1941 (Toronto, 1974);
33. Newell, Technology on the Frontier (n. 6 above);
34. John Herd Thompson, with Alan Seager, Canada 1922-1939: Decades of Discord (Toronto, 1985);
35. Morris Zaslow, The Northward Expansion of Canada, 1914-1967 (Toronto, 1988);
36. Morris Zaslow, The Opening of the Canadian North, 1870-1914 (Toronto, 1971).
37. Peter Geller, Northern Exposures: Photographing and Filming the Canadian North, 1920-1945 (Vancouver, 2004); Levere (n. 3 above);
38. Morris Zaslow, Reading the Rocks: The Story of the Geological Survey of Canada, 1842-1972 (Ottawa, 1988);
39. Zeller (n. 3 above). In a somewhat different context, Mark Monmonier discusses American uses of aerial photography in the 1930s to monitor compliance with government crop regulations, another instance of the relationship between photography and control; see his "Aerial Photography of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration: Acreage Controls, Conservation Benefits, and Overhead Surveillance in the 1930s," Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 68 (2002): 1257-61.
40. "Geological Mapping of Mineral Areas" (n. 1 above).
41. The theodolite is an instrument used to measure angles during surveying, consisting essentially of a horizontal graduated circular plate with a sight (often a telescope), along with a vertical arc for the measurement of angles of altitude or depression. A plane table is a circular drawing table mounted horizontally on a tripod with an alidade pivoted over its center.
42. Canada Air Board, "Plotting Topography from Oblique Aeroplane Photographs, in Report of the Air Board for the Year 1922, app. 1 (Ottawa, 1923), 58-62;
43. Gerard H. Matthes, "Oblique Aerial Surveying in Canada," Geographical Review 16 (1926): 568-82.
44. Jewitt uses the example of contact between Precambrian and Paleozoic formations in the Mackenzie Valley to illustrate his point, noting that "the contrast in the topography is striking enough to make the contact a sufficient guide between the great lakes"; see W. G. Jewitt, "Aerial Exploration," Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Bulletin 24 (1931): 456-65.
45. See also E. L. Bruce, "The Possibility of the Use of Seaplanes in Preliminary Mapping of Precambrian Areas," Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Bulletin 15 (1922): 224-29.
46. John E. Hammel et al., "Aerial Exploration," Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Bulletin 22 (1929): 454-69.
47. Ibid., 463; Jewitt, 456-65.
48. "Due to the inherent mobility of aircraft, the operations of the existing exploration staff were extended and enlarged, areas previously considered inaccessible for all practical purposes being brought within the range of a few hours' travel" (Jewitt, 459).
49. Hammel et al., 457. The Department of National Defence echoed the sentiment: "The survey services are now certain that by the use of photography they can reduce their ground work by more than half; and, at the same time, can produce maps infinitely more complete and accurate in much less time, than by older methods" (Canada Department of National Defence, Report on Civil Aviation for 1924 [Ottawa, 1925], 49).
50. See also "The Modern Trend in Transportation," Canadian Surveyor 3 (1930): 23.
51. "Airplane Experiments," Canadian Mining Journal (1924): 91.
52. "Aerial Surveying," Canadian Mining Journal (1925): 775.
53. "The Air Force and Aerial Surveys," Canadian Mining Journal (1923): 448.
54. Hammel et al. (n. 18 above), 463.
55. Ibid., 458.
56. In 1925, the Canadian Surveyor noted that the Topographical Surveys Branch of the Department of the Interior and Royal Canadian Air Force employed a method whereby they would take photographs, "and then have the surveyor use these for information as to the best route to follow with his traverse, at the same time fixing points on the ground which show in the pictures in order that the correct dimensions of features of the area mapped may be plotted from the pictures themselves";
57. see "A Record in Coordinating Ground and Aerial Surveys: Topographical Survey of Canada and Royal Canadian Air Force Experimental Work in Manitoba," Canadian Surveyor 2 (1925): 15.
58. As R. B. McKay pointed out ten years later, ground control surveys followed the photographs, first because they outlined travel routes, and second because following the photographs allowed them to identify useful control points; see R. B. McKay, "The O. M. Miller Method of Oblique Air Surveying," Canadian Surveyor 5 (1935): 12-13.
59. "Air Service to Red Lake," Canadian Mining Journal (1926): 256.
60. C. L. MacLaurin, "Air Photography and the Aeroplane as Aids to the Prospector," Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Bulletin 15 (1922): 913-20.
61. R. C. Rowe, "The Development of Travel in the Canadian North," Canadian Mining Journal (1929): 155-57, 194 (quote on 194).
62. "Aerial Transport in Mining Districts," Canadian Mining Journal (1919): 113. This article is the first mention of aviation in the journal.
63. "Air-line for Passengers and Freight," Canadian Mining Journal (1924): 548-49.
64. Western Canada Airways advertisement, Canadian Mining Journal (1928): 665.
65. The second advertisement continues: "The rapid expansion of Canadian mining fields has called for the development of new and speedy means of transportation. Dog teams, snow tractors, railways and planes are all carrying on in commendable manner. The real exploitation has been made possible by planes, that need no roads and that cover in a few hours a journey that would take days by any other means" (Canadian Mining Journal [1929]: 280).
66. R. C. Rowe, "A New Development in Freight Carrying Aeroplanes: Which Contains Some Account of JU 52, the New Addition to the Fleet of Western Canada Airways," Canadian Mining Journal (1931): 850;
67. W. B. Burchall, "Freighting by Air," Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Bulletin 26 (1933): 672-82.
68. Burchall was the publicity manager of Canadian Airways Limited.
69. R. N. Johnston, "Appendix D: Aerial Sketch Mapping," in Canada Department of National Defence, Report on Civil Aviation for 1923 (Ottawa, 1924), 48-50.
70. See also S. F. Newcombe, "The Practical Limits of Aeroplane Photography for Mapping," Geographical Journal 56 (1920): 201-6;
71. and P. J. Barry, "Limitations of Aerial Surveying Outlined," Canadian Engineer 44 (1923): 197.
72. "Geological Mapping of Mineral Areas" (n. 1 above); Canada Department of Mines, Report for the Year Ended March 31, 1926 (Ottawa, 1927).
73. Mouat (n. 12 above). From a high of $135 million in 1920, the Canadian mineral industry's net domestic income dropped to $92 million in 1921. While its income increased to $108 million and $109 million in 1922 and 1923, respectively, it dropped to $104 million in 1924, climbed to $122 million in 1925, and reached prerecession peaks only in 1926, at $139 million; see F. H. Leacy, ed., Historical Statistics of Canada, 2nd ed. (Ottawa, 1983), series F153-65.
74. MacLaurin (n. 29 above), 914; Newcombe, 201; R. C. Purser, "Use of the Aerial Camera in Mapping," Canadian Mining Journal (1929): 92-96; Thomas (n. 11 above).
75. Anthony S. Brandt, "The First Canadian Fairchild Company, 1922-29," CAHS Journal 9 (summer 1971): 38-51;
76. Canada Air Board, "Report on Experimental Aerial Survey at Ottawa, 1920," Air Board Bulletin 2 (1921): 8-9, 11-12;
77. MacLaurin, 916; M. N. MacLeod, "The Adjustment of Air Photographs to Surveyed Points," Geographical Jour nal 61 (1923): 413-19; Thomas, 359-60, 364, 366.
78. Brandt, 42; MacLaurin, 915; MacLeod, 415; Newcombe (n. 35 above), 201. Compared to the concerns of surveyors, prospectors had much higher tolerances for error; see Gerard H. Matthes, "Aerial Surveys for City Mapping," Canadian Surveyor 2 (1926): 3-7.
79. Matthes, "Oblique Aerial Surveying in Canada" (n. 16 above), 569.
80. Ibid., 571.
81. Ibid.; Purser (n. 38 above), 92.
82. See MacLaurin (n. 29 above), 914-15; H. L. Cooke, "Experimental Topographical Survey from the Air," in Report of the Air Board for the Year 1922, app. 1 (n. 16 above), 62-69; Hammel et al. (n. 18 above), 463.
83. See, for example, Canada Department of National Defence, Report on Civil Aviation for 1926 (Ottawa, 1927); Canada Department of National Defence, Report on Civil Aviation for 1927 (Ottawa, 1928). Both vertical and oblique photography had difficulty dealing with dramatic elevations, but the rolling features of the Canadian Shield did not pose serious interpretation difficulties for surveyors. Photography lifted the surveyor above the heavy bush that obscured his vision on the ground and allowed him to view the outlines of the multiple formations that dotted the Shield. Oblique photography promised to be able to cover more ground more quickly, enabling the TSB and mining companies to satisfy the demand for maps of mineral-rich areas.
84. Canada Air Board, "Plotting Topography from Oblique Aeroplane Photographs" (n. 16 above); Matthes, "Oblique Aerial Surveying in Canada" (n. 16 above), 571; Purser, 92.
85. Unfortunately, altitudinal measurements could be unreliable. Aircraft altimeters used barometric measurements and thus were influenced by changes in atmospheric pressure and only accurate to within a hundred feet; see Matthes, "Oblique Aerial Surveying in Canada," 573. Interestingly, in his article MacLeod describes an instrument for determining the camera tilt; see his "The Adjustment of Air Photographs to Surveyed Points" (n. 39 above), 413-19.
86. Matthes, "Oblique Aerial Surveying in Canada," 574-76; Matthes also provides a detailed account of the mathematical formulas used.
87. Ibid., 576.
88. Ibid., 573, 574.
89. Zaslow, Reading the Rocks (n, 13 above), especially 4 and 335-70.
90. Robert Craig Brown and Ramsay Cook, Canada, 1896-1921: A Nation Transformed (Toronto, 1980);
91. Canada Air Board, Report of the Air Board for the Year 1920 (Ottawa, 1921);
92. Canada Air Board, Report of the Air Board for the Year 1921 (Ottawa, 1922);
93. W. A. B. Douglas, The Creation of a National Air Force: The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force, vol. 2 (Toronto, 1986);
94. Rénald Fortier, "Intervention gouvernementale et industrie aeronautique, L'exemple Canadien, 1920-1965" (Ph.D. diss., Université Lavai, 1990);
95. Margaret Solveig Mattson, "The Growth and Protection of Canadian Civil and Commercial Aviation" (Ph.D. diss., University of Western Ontario, 1979);
96. J. A. Wilson to Sir Sefton Brancker, 13 March 1923, J. A. Wilson Papers, National Archives of Canada (hereafter JAW Papers, NAC), MG 30 E 243, vol. 5, "Specific Correspondence, 1920-1942"; Wise (n. 9 above).
97. J. A. Wilson, "Air Policy," 1923, JAW Papers, NAC, MG 30 E 243, vol. 6, "Memoranda Relating to Air Development in Canada, 1920-1926." See also J. A. Wilson to C. J. Grey, 12 June 1923, JAW Papers, NAC, MG 30 E 243, vol. 5, "Specific Correspondence, 1920-1942."
98. Canada Department of National Defence, Report of the Department of National Defence for the Fiscal Year Ending March 1923 (Ottawa, 1923), 8, 37;
99. Canada Department of National Defence, Report of the Department of National Defence for the Fiscal Year Ending March 1924 (Ottawa, 1924), 45;
100. Dwayne Lovegrove, "The RCAF, 1918-1939: A Political History," CAMS Journal 25 (1987): 4-10, 19.
101. Kyle McIntyre also argues in his article that the RCAF functioned as an extension of Mackenzie King's policy; see his "The Politics of Air Power: Mackenzie King and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan," CAMS Journal 26 (1988): 108-15.
102. Michael Bliss, Northern Enterprise: Five Centuries of Canadian Business (Toronto, 1987);
103. Russell H. Catomore, "The Civil Aviation Movement in Canada: 1919-1939" (M.A. thesis, University of Toronto, 1970); Report of the Air Board for the Year 1922 (n. 16 above), 5;
104. Report on Civil Aviation for 1923 (n. 35 above);
105. G. P. de T. Glazebrook, A History of Transportation in Canada, vol. 2: National Economy, 1867-1936 (Toronto, 1964);
106. J. A. Wilson to P. D. Acland, 5 December 1923, JAW Papers, MAC, MG 30 E 243, vol. 5, "Specific Correspondence, 1920-1942."
107. John D. Lines, Australia on Paper: The Story of Australian Mapping (Box Hill, Australia, 1992).
108. Canada Department of the Interior, Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1926 (Ottawa, 1927).
109. Membership included representatives from the Department of the Interior, particularly the director of forestry, chief aerial surveys engineer, and assistant director of topographical surveys; see Douglas (n. 52 above), 72.
110. In 1925, work for the Dominion Forest Service formed the largest component of the RCAF's program, but it also undertook operations in Manitoba, covering 38,000 square miles using oblique photography. In 1926, Alberta operations continued to focus on vertical photography, but in Manitoba and northern Ontario, the air force used oblique photography to cover 25,000 square miles. It also covered 24,000 square miles in northern Manitoba; see Canada Department of National Defence, Report on Civil Aviation for 1925 (Ottawa, 1926), 64;
111. Report on Civil Aviation for 1926 (n. 45 above), 56.
112. Canada Department of National Defence, Report on Civil Aviation for 1929 (Ottawa, 1930), 45.
113. For a full discussion of the relationship between Canadian Vickers's designs and Canadian aviation politics, see Portier, "Intervention gouvernementale et industrie aeronautique" (n. 52 above), and Rénald Fortier, "L'instrument privilégié d'Ottawa: Canadian Vickers et la fabrication d'aéronefs au Canada au cours des années 1920," unpublished manuscript, 2005.
114. Of the RCAF's total activity of 3,941 hours, 45 minutes in 1924, forest-fire patrols comprised the largest segment: 1,356 hours, 17 minutes; see Report of the Department of National Defence for the Fiscal Year Ending March 1924 (n. 54 above), 54.
115. Report on Civil Aviation for 1923 (n. 35 above).
116. Report on Civil Aviation for 1929, 45.
117. Hammel et al. (n. 18 above), 463.
118. The same report did remark, in a tone of grateful appreciation, that the Departments of National Defence and Interior had made significant contributions over the previous two years through the use of airplanes; see Canada Department of Mines, Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1926 (Ottawa, 1927).
119. Canada Department of Mines, Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1927 (Ottawa, 1928).
120. Between 1921 and 1926, mineral development's net domestic income grew from $92 million to $139 million (an increase of 51 percent); see Leacy (n. 37 above), series F56-75 and F153-58.
121. "The prospector and mining engineer, their interest in the North awakened by the great discoveries of the past generation in the copper-nickel areas of Sudbury, the silver mines of Cobalt, the gold discoveries in the Yukon and at Porcupine, were also seeking better methods of transportation and exploration. The surveyor and geologist, the epic of whose work during past generations has yet to be written, urged as their first necessity, faster and easier means of transportation which would conserve their time and energy for scientific work and increase the efficiency of their service by giving a wider overlook over the country and a surer method of recording its features. Services such as the North West Territories Branch, the Department of Indian Affairs, and the Mounted Police, felt the handicap the old, slow, and arduous methods of travel imposed. All were anxious to experiment with aircraft but hesitated to embark on work so technical and so far removed from their normal duties" (Report on Civil Aviation for 1925 [n. 59 above], 44). The implication of this section is that the RCAF had been essential in meeting those needs.
122. Levere (n. 3 above).
123. Burt (n. 6 above); Menghetti (n. 5 above).