The First Snowmobile
One thing Annette's uncle Tom is good at is telling stories. After the funeral we had a nice bonfire at their farm. Tom is a bit of an inventor, having come up with a device to easily show the level of grain bins which has has patented and now sells all over.
What I did not know was that these inventions are from a long line of inventions in his family from both his father and grandfather.
His father made a bunch of stuff, from automated fertilizing equipment, to snow removal tools for ditches, to hovercraft. His biggest invention was basically a Jazzy he created in the 60's. It was the first real thing of its kind to help disabled people around stores and into/out of cars. The pamphlet for it was really bad ass. It was called Lectra-something, I can't remember the 2nd word but I know it started with an L.
His Grandfather, Otis Johnson basically invented the snowmobile. While there is no one person credited with it, Otis built his as a steam engine at the turn of the century. He later heard of a man named Carl Eliason who build a similar device modeled after a toboggan. They got together often to talk about their creations and how to make them better.
Eliason told Otis "you know if I was going to do it all over again, I'd probably start over from scratch and do it like ____". Otis asked if he could attempt to build it and make it work. Eliason told him to go for it, see what he could do.
Otis basically came up with the modern day snowmobile from this work. Now Roseau is a small town and if you didn't know it's also where Polaris is headquartered. And the Polaris guys saw Otis' take on his and Eliason's work and then copied it for their own company.
The history of the snowmobile is a weird and complex one, but it was pretty cool that Annette's uncle's relatives played an integral role in it.
What I did not know was that these inventions are from a long line of inventions in his family from both his father and grandfather.
His father made a bunch of stuff, from automated fertilizing equipment, to snow removal tools for ditches, to hovercraft. His biggest invention was basically a Jazzy he created in the 60's. It was the first real thing of its kind to help disabled people around stores and into/out of cars. The pamphlet for it was really bad ass. It was called Lectra-something, I can't remember the 2nd word but I know it started with an L.
His Grandfather, Otis Johnson basically invented the snowmobile. While there is no one person credited with it, Otis built his as a steam engine at the turn of the century. He later heard of a man named Carl Eliason who build a similar device modeled after a toboggan. They got together often to talk about their creations and how to make them better.
Eliason told Otis "you know if I was going to do it all over again, I'd probably start over from scratch and do it like ____". Otis asked if he could attempt to build it and make it work. Eliason told him to go for it, see what he could do.
Otis basically came up with the modern day snowmobile from this work. Now Roseau is a small town and if you didn't know it's also where Polaris is headquartered. And the Polaris guys saw Otis' take on his and Eliason's work and then copied it for their own company.
The history of the snowmobile is a weird and complex one, but it was pretty cool that Annette's uncle's relatives played an integral role in it.