Arthur Sicard, inventor of the snowblower
Portrait of Arthur Sicard: Atelier d’histoire d’Hochelaga-Maisonneuve archives, donated by Micheline Sicard. Drawing of a snowblower: United States Patent and Trademark Office, patent number US001703786.
Arthur Sicard, perpetuating the ingenious spirit of the line of Sicard millers, is generally considered the inventor and promoter of the snowblower as we know it today in our cities.
Here is a photograph taken of him shortly before his death in 1946, in Montreal. To his right: a plan view (fig. 1) and sectional view (fig. 2) submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. His invention received the patent number US001703786 in 1929. It should be noted that Robert Carr Harris, from Dalhousie, New Brunswick, had invented and patented a machine for clearing the snow from railway tracks in 1870.