History of Nova Scotia
with special attention given to
Communications and Transportation
Chapter 10
1 January 1920 to 31 December 1939
Go To: Index with links to the other chapters
1920 February 25
Stiver's Falls Hydroelectric Plant
Begins Operation
This plant, usually known as the old White Rock generating station, was built in 1919 at Stiver's Falls on the Gaspereaux River, near White Rock, about 3km south-west of Wolfville, and produced electricity for the first time on 25 February 1920. "The installation at Stiver's Falls began (in 1920) with a capacity of 375 horsepower 280 kilowatts. It provided electricity for a dozen Kings County communities, including both Wolfville and Kentville and, on the side, it ground pulp. It did all this with three generators producing, during their best moments, a total of just over 700 kilowatts ... The dam was 32 feet high, 29 feet thick at the base, and about 200 feet long." The plant was built by Roy Joudrey and Charles Wright, and was sold in the spring of 1920 to the Gaspereau River Light, Heat & Power Company Limited for $63,800, which the Public Utilities Board determined was "fair value".
Photograph taken about 1939 or 1940 of the original Stiver's Falls (White Rock) hydro-electric power plant, which was demolished in the late 1940s.
[The quotes are from the book The Story of R.A. Jodrey, Enterpreneur by Harry Bruce, McClelland and Stewart, 1979. The photograph was generously made available to me in August 1997, by Mr. Jim Sangster, who hired on with Avon River Power in 1936, and was an operator at this plant in the early 1940s.]
1920 March 3
Gaspereau River Light, Heat & Power Company
On this day, the Gaspereau River Light, Heat & Power Company Limited was incorporated by Charles Wright and Roy Joudrey.
1920 March 3
Gaspereau Valley Electric Light Company
On this day, the Gaspereau Valley Electric Light Company Limited was incorporated. On 29 July 1920, the GVEL Co. applied to the Public Utilities Board for authority to issue 800 shares at $10 each, to raise $8,000 to build an electric power line six miles long from the White Rock (Stiver's Falls) power plant to the village of Gaspereau, about 3 km south of Wolfville in Kings County. The authority was granted, and by October 1920 the line was built and carrying electricity to Gaspereau.
1920 March 3
Amherst Talking Machine Company
On this day, the Amherst Talking Machine Company Limited was incorporated.
1920 May 22
Paradise Electric Company Limited
The Paradise Electric Co. was incorporated on this day, to distribute electric power in the village of Paradise, Annapolis County.
1921 February 19
First Dial Telephone Exchange
The first permanent dial telephone exchange in Nova Scotia went into regular operation on this day, in north Halifax. All other exchanges in the province were still staffed with operators – anyone wanting to make a phone call had to tell the operator what phone number was wanted, and the operator used a special switchboard with retractable plugs to connect the two telephones, and when the conversation was completed, the operator pulled the plug connection.
[The Halifax Daily News, 19 February 2001]
1921 June 23
Barss Corner Electric Light Company Limited
The Barss Corner Electric Light Company Limited was incorporated on this day, to distribute electric power in Barss Corner and vicinity, in Lunenburg County. The BCEL Co. was purely a distributing company, meaning it did not generate any electric power; it purchased all of its electric power from J. Zwicker Son of New Germany.
1922
CHAC Halifax
Radio station CHAC went on the air in Halifax some time during 1922, on a wavelength of 400 metres. (In the very early days, the usual practice was to state the carrier as a wavelength. In the mid-1920s the general practice changed to stating the carrier as a frequency. In the 1990s the usual practice is to give frequencies, but the original terminology lingers in the common parlance of referring to a high-frequency transmitter as being a "short wave" station. You often see references to "short wave," never to "high frequency.") A wavelength of 400 metres is equivalent to a frequency of 750 kilohertz. CHAC was an AM (amplitude-modulated) station. In 1922 the transmitter power was probably around 100 watts, but this was reduced in 1923 to about 20 watts. CHAC operated for about three years, shutting down in 1925. The call letters may have been chosen from Halifax, Atlantic Canada.
Source:
History of Canadian Broadcasting
http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/schools/rta/ccf/
Radio Stations on the air in April, 1922
http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/schools/rta/ccf/stations/radio/stat1922.html
Reference:
Jeff Miller's Broadcasting History Pages
http://members.aol.com/jeff560/jeff.html
Canadian Radio Stations as of 1924
http://members.aol.com/jeff560/1926can.html
This information came from the Nov. 1, 1924, Radio Service Bulletin, a publication of the U. S. government...
1922 April 1
Early Radio Stations
In the early years, 1920 - 1932, of radio broadcasting in Canada, there were no government regulations, just official licensing through the Department of Marine and Fisheries, and later in the decade those departments were separated, with Marine being the sole control over Radio Broadcasting. Many stations were on the air long before they got their license. Canadian Government records only show which stations were actually on the air at the start of each fiscal year, April 1st (government fiscal year).The first of such records start April 1st, 1922.
Reference:
The Early Years, 1920 - 1932
http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/schools/rta/ccf/stations/radio/index.html
1922 June
Canadian Government Merchant Marine Service to Bermuda
In June 1922, the Canadian Government Merchant Marine, a government financed operation, inaugurated a Montreal to Bermuda to West Indies service, with Halifax replacing Montreal in the winter months. The vessels Canadian Fisher and Canadian Forester were employed on the run.
Source:
http://bermuda-online.org/canada.htm
1922 August 2
Death of A.G. Bell
Alexander Graham Bell died at his home Beinn Bhreagh, near Baddeck in Cape Breton.
1922 November 10
Paradise West Electric Light Company Limited
On this day, the Public Utilities Board gave approval to Paradise West Electric Light Company to issue 45 shares of common stock of par value $100.00 each, to raise $4,500 to built a pole line to distribute electric power in the vicinity of Paradise West, Annapolis County.
1923
Commercial Cable Company's
Sixth Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Cable
Cable laying was suspended during the war years 1914-1918, and even after peace came it was next to impossible to obtain new cable from the manufacturers, who were unable to handle the pent-up demand for thousands of miles of new cable. The Commercial Cable Company was able, in 1923, to get delivery of the huge number six cable, with its conductor weighing 1100 pounds of copper to the nautical mile. Like its predecessors, this was a submarine cable, and it was laid on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean along a route from New York to Hazel Hill, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, thence to Horta in the Azores, and from there to Waterville, Ireland.
1923
The Canadian Press News Organization
The Canadian Press (CP) is a national news co-operative of Canada's daily newspapers. It was incorporated in 1910 as Canadian Press Limited – a limited company carrying on a news agency business. In 1923, it was changed into a corporation without share capital by a statute of the Parliament of Canada (13-14 George V, Chapter 102) and thereby became "The Canadian Press" – a news co-operative. The statute limits membership in the co-operative to the owners of daily newspapers in Canada who subscribe for membership. It is a company that operates and contracts in its own name. News from The Canadian Press is made available on a subscription basis to newspapers, broadcasters, corporations, individuals and government offices.
Source:
http://www.cp.org/cppage.htm
1923 April 15
Highway Driving Rule Changes Sides
The "rule of the road" changed, in Nova Scotia. After this day, all drivers keep to the right-hand side of the road. Previously, automobiles, streetcars, horses, bicyclists, and all other vehicles and travellers adhered to the left-hand side of the road. Since 1 December 1922 there had been a problem for automobile drivers who crossed the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick – on that date New Brunswick had switched to driving on the right-hand side of the road, while Nova Scotia remained with the left-side rule. For four and a half months, drivers crossing the border in both directions had to remember to change to the other side of the road, and even with the relatively low traffic levels of that day there were many near-misses and some accidents resulting from this conflict.
Nova Scotia Tramways & Power Company Limited, which owned and operated the electric streetcar system in Halifax, sued the provincial government to recover the cost of changing the doors on all streetcars to the other side, and the cost of changes in track layout. In Lunenburg County, 1923 is still known as The Year of Free Beef; the price of beef dropped precipitously because oxen which had been trained to keep to the left could not be retrained – oxen are notoriously slow-witted – and many teamsters had to replace their oxen with new ones trained to keep to the right; the displaced oxen were sent to slaughter.
Photograph taken in the summer or fall of 1923, at Walnut Street, Halifax. The boy is Jim Sangster, then seven years old. The automobile (make and model not known) belonged to Max Manning (brother of Fred Manning, who built up the chain of Super Service gasoline stations in Nova Scotia). The historic significance of this photo lies in the sign displayed on the windshield. Painted on sheet metal, it reads "Keep to the Right", and faces forward as a reminder to oncoming drivers to drive on the right-hand side. The change from left to right had legally occurred on 15 April 1923, but it took time for drivers to get used to it. During the summer of 1923 there were several accidents due to drivers forgetting the new rule and lapsing into old habits. These windshield signs were manufactured in quantity, and sold as a defensive measure to drivers who wanted to reduce the chance of getting hit head-on by an oncoming vehicle on the wrong side of the road.
[The print was generously made available to me in August 1997, by Mr. Jim Sangster, age 80.]
On 1 January 1922, British Columbia changed to driving on the right-hand side of the road.
[The Truro Daily News, 30 December 2000]
1923 December
Passenger Train Services
Bridgewater
For decades, there was a law in Nova Scotia that required a board to be mounted on the outside wall of each railway station, displaying the scheduled times of every passenger train arrival and departure at that station. In December 1923, the train board at the railway station in Bridgewater, Lunenburg County, displayed the following information.
Halifax & South Western Railway
Passenger Train Schedule Board
Bridgewater Station
December 1923
|
|---|
Arrivals
34 arrivals each week
| 3:45am
|
Train 278 eastbound from
Yarmouth,
Barrington,
Shelburne,
Lockeport,
and Liverpool.
Thu. & Sun. only
|
| 6:30am
|
Train 284 eastbound from
Liverpool.
Mon. & Thu. only
|
| 9:30am
|
Train 258 southbound from
Caledonia
and New Germany.
Daily ex. Sun.
|
| 9:45am
|
Train 85 westbound from
Halifax,
Hubbards,
Chester,
Lunenburg,
and Mahone Bay.
Daily ex. Sun.
|
| 3:15pm
|
Train 86 eastbound from
Yarmouth,
Barrington,
Shelburne,
Lockeport,
and Liverpool.
Daily ex. Sun.
----------------
Connecting
from Boston Tue. & Fri.
|
| 5:30pm
|
Train 254 southbound from
Middleton,
Nictaux,
Springfield,
and New Germany.
Daily ex. Wed. & Sun.
|
| 7:20pm
|
Train 283 westbound from
Halifax,
Hubbards,
Chester,
Lunenburg,
and Mahone Bay.
Daily ex. Sun.
|
| 9:15pm
|
Train 256 southbound from
Port Wade,
Bridgetown,
Middleton,
Nictaux,
Springfield,
and New Germany.
Wed. only.
|
|
Departures
34 departures each week
| 6:45am |
Train 284 eastbound to
Mahone Bay,
Lunenburg,
Chester,
Hubbards,
and Halifax.
Daily ex. Sun.
|
| 7:35am |
Train 253 northbound to
New Germany,
Springfield,
Nictaux,
and Middleton.
Daily ex. Sun.
----------------
Wed. only continues as
Train 255 to Bridgetown
and Port Wade.
|
| 9:55am |
Train 85 westbound to
Liverpool,
Lockeport,
Shelburne,
Barrington,
and Yarmouth.
Daily ex. Sun.
----------------
Connecting
to Boston Tue. & Fri.
|
| 3:25pm |
Train 86 eastbound to
Mahone Bay,
Lunenburg,
Chester,
Hubbards,
and Halifax.
Daily ex. Sun.
|
| 3:25pm |
Train 257 northbound to
New Germany
and Caledonia.
Daily ex. Sun.
|
| 7:35pm |
Train 283 westbound to
Liverpool.
Wed. & Sat. only
|
| 11:00pm |
Train 277 westbound to
Liverpool,
Lockeport,
Shelburne,
Barrington,
and Yarmouth.
Tue. & Fri. only
|
|
[Source: Reconstructed from the public timetables for passenger train services in Nova Scotia, published by CNR in December 1923. At this time, the Halifax & South Western Railway was wholly owned by Canadian National Railway. H&SW owned the track and stations, and operated the trains, between Halifax and Yarmouth along Nova Scotia's South Shore, and between Bridgewater, Middleton, Bridgetown, and Port Wade. These trains were powered by coal-burning steam locomotives.]
|
This item was first uploaded to the Internet on 29 July 1998, to coincide with the special railway exhibit at the South Shore Exhibition, held in Bridgewater, 27 July - 2 August 1998.
|
H&SWR
Detailed Passenger Train Timetables
December 1923
1924
Halifax Radio Stations CFCS and CFCE
Radio station CFCS was on the air in Halifax some time during 1924, on a wavelength of 410 metres, equivalent to a frequency of 730 kilohertz. CHAC was an AM (amplitude-modulated) station, reportedly set up by Eastern Telephone & Telegraph Co.
Radio station CFCE was on the air in Halifax some time during 1924, on a wavelength of 440 metres, equivalent to a frequency of 680 kilohertz. It was set up and operated by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company.
Source:
Jeff Miller's Broadcasting History Pages
http://members.aol.com/jeff560/jeff.html
Canadian Radio Stations as of 1924
http://members.aol.com/jeff560/1926can.html
This information came from the Nov. 1, 1924, Radio Service Bulletin, a publication of the U. S. government...
1924 February 1
CNR Leases IR&C
On this day, Canadian National Railways leased the Inverness Railway & Coal Company for three years at an annual rental of $25,000, with the option to buy at any time during the lease. IR&C owned and operated a coal mine at Inverness, Cape Breton, and a railway 64.1 miles 103.2 km long from a connection with the Truro - Sydney main line of the CNR at Inverness Junction, near Point Tupper, to Port Hood, Inverness, and Broad Cove. In 2000, 4.8 miles 7.7 km of the original IR&C main line track remains in daily use as a section of the Truro - Sydney main line of the Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway Company; this is the section between the Canso Causeway and the Port Hawkesbury station, and southward from the Port Hawkesbury station about one km to the junction near Point Tupper.
1924 March
Chester Light & Power Company Limited
The Chester L&P Co. was incorporated by "Foreman Hawboldt, Carrol Manning, Roy Hennigar, Harold Hilchie, Owen Zinck, and Eugene Publicover", to distribute electric power in Chester and vicinity, in Lunenburg County. During the summer of 1924, Chester L&P Co. built a small hydro-electric generating plant at East River. In November 1924, the Chester L&P Co. had 73 electricity meters in service.
1924 May 7
Pictou County Electric Company Sold
On this day, the Pictou County Electric Company was acquired by the Pictou County Power Board.
1924 September 3 4:38pm
First Round-the-World Planes
Land at Pictou
In 1924, a squad of American army aviators took 300 hours and 11 minutes airborne time to fly around the world; the time elapsed from takeoff to completion of the trip was 175 days. On 6 April 1924, four seaplanes took off from Seattle. Twenty-four days later, the leader's plane Seattle crashed on a mountainside in Alaska; the crew survived. The three remaining planes kept going. Boston crashed into the Atlantic off the Faroe Islands; the crew was rescued by one of the U.S. warships patrolling the flight route. Pictou had been selected as a refuelling stop. On September 3, Chicago and New Orleans took off from Hawkes' Bay in Newfoundland at 10:12am. Strong winds over the Cabot Strait delayed them. They touched down in Pictou at 4:38pm. There was a huge celebration in Pictou. Several reporters from American newspapers were in town for the event. Their telegraphed reports appeared the next day on the front page of numerous papers, including the Boston Globe and the New York World. After being refuelled, Chicago, New Orleans and Boston II took off at 11:30am on September 5. They reached their point of departure, in Seattle, on September 28. The planes were Douglas World Cruisers.
[Excerpted from James Malcolm Cameron's Yesteryears in Pictou County, 1994, published by the Pictou County Historical Society.]
1924 December 24
McKay Automobile Factory Burned
"Photographs of turn-of-the-century Kentville are dominated by the three-storey Nova Scotia Carriage Company factory," which, in 1910, was taken over by the Nova Scotia Carriage and Motor Car Company Limited and converted to manufacture McKay automobiles. "The building was destroyed in a spectacular fire on Christmas Eve in 1924 and but for a fresh fall of snow, most of Kentville's commercial district would have gone up in smoke with it."
[The quotes are from Ed Coleman's column
McKay Motor Car – Valley-Made
which appeared originally in the Kentville Advertiser, 27 February 1998.]
1925 February 11
Radios Appearing in Bridgetown
Among the latest to install radios are Mr. Angus P. McDonald and Jack Lockett.
[The Bridgetown Weekly Monitor, 11 February 1925]
[75 Years Ago in the Bridgetown Monitor, 15 February 2000]
1925 February 28 10:20pm
Small Earthquake Felt at Bridgetown
About 10:20 on Saturday night (February 28th), a small earthquake was felt by residents of the Bridgetown area. Persons who were walking about the streets did not notice anything unusual but people in their homes noticed furniture shaking, and buildings trembled slightly. The disturbance occurred over all eastern Canada and a large part of the United States.
[The Bridgetown Weekly Monitor, 4 March 1925]
[75 Years Ago in the Bridgetown Monitor, 8 March 2000]
1925 March 11
Ice Gone from Annapolis River
The ice went out of the river last week. This is believed to be the earliest on record, or at least the earliest in a long period of years. It is now expected that the S.S. Valinda will come up from Annapolis (to Bridgetown) this week and go to Saint John on Monday next (March 16th), continuing her regular schedule for the season.
[The Bridgetown Weekly Monitor, 11 March 1925]
[75 Years Ago in the Bridgetown Monitor, 14 March 2000]
1925 March 21
Grand Central Hotel Burned
The old Grand Central hotel, one of the historic structures in Bridgetown, was badly gutted by a fire which started about 5:30 on Saturday afternoon, March 21st, and continued to burn until about 11:00pm. The fire department was quickly on the scene and were able to restrict the blaze to the old Central itself.
[The Bridgetown Weekly Monitor, 25 March 1925]
[75 Years Ago in the Bridgetown Monitor, 28 March 2000]
1925 April
Roads Closed to Motor Vehicles
The highways are to remain closed to motor vehicles until the first day of June.
[75 Years Ago in The Hants Journal, Windsor, 12 April 2000]
1925 April
Ships at Walton
Amongst the recent shipping at the port of Walton, Hants County, was the schooner Whiteway loaded with piling, the steamer Pluto loaded with gypsum, the schooner Lucia P. Dow also loaded with gypsum, the steamer Glenholme with freight for the Cheverie Trading Company, and the schooner Dorothy with coal.
[75 Years Ago in The Hants Journal, Windsor, 26 April 2000]
1925 April 3
Chief of Police Paid $1,000 a Year
At a meeting of the Bridgetown Town Council on Friday evening, April 3rd, 1925, B.A. Bishop was reappointed chief of police at his present salary of $1,000 per year. His duties to include Temperance Act inspection.
[The Bridgetown Weekly Monitor, 8 April 1925]
[75 Years Ago in the Bridgetown Monitor, 18 April 2000]
1925 April 21
Train Wreck near Bridgetown
On Tuesday, April 21st, the noon train from Halifax had a bad accident, engine and tender upset at the McLeod Crossing. One man was painfully injured, but no lives were lost.
[The Bridgetown Weekly Monitor, 22 April 1925]
[75 Years Ago in the Bridgetown Monitor, 25 April 2000]
1925 May
New Railway Station for Newport Station
Dudley Bezanson was awarded the contract for construction of the new railway station in Newport Station.
[75 Years Ago in The Hants Journal, Windsor, 10 May 2000]
ICS comment, written 10 July 2000:
Newport Station, in Hants County, was (and is – the hamlet known as Newport Station still exists but the railway station disappeared long ago) located on the Windsor Branch, 5.7 miles 9.2km east of the Windsor railway station (measured along the center line of the track). In 1925, this railway line was owned by CGR (Canadian Government Railways), and leased and operated by DAR (Dominion Atlantic Railway, a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific Railway). In 2000, this railway line is owned by CNR (Canadian National Railway), and leased and operated by W&HR (Windsor and Hantsport Railway).
1925 July 16
Eight Locomotives Burned
Fire in C.N.R. Shops with $500,000 Loss
Damage roughly estimated at half a million dollars was caused by fire that broke out in the Canadian National Railways shops at Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, at 12:50 o'clock today, and before being brought under control at 1:20 o'clock had destroyed all the buildings on the east side of the tracks, eight locomotives, seven or eight freight cars, and a large quantity of stores. The buildings consumed, included the roundhouse, machine shop, car shop, boiler house, master mechanic's office, field foreman's office, and a number of smaller structures. A snow flanger was badly damaged, and the railway station and station restaurant on the west side of the tracks were on fire several times but not seriously damaged.
[The Toronto Globe and Mail, 17 July 1925]
1925 November
Sale of
Windsor Electric Light & Power Company
The Avon River Power Company bought the Windsor Electric Light & Power Company.
1926 May
Radio Station CHNS Goes On Air
Together with Bill Johnson of the Northern Electric Company, William C. Borrett launched radio station CHNS in Halifax, with studios in the Carelton Hotel. CHNS went into regular operation with a 500 watt transmitter, on a carrier frequency of 930 kilocycles per second 930 kilohertz. The "HNS" part of the call letters stood for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Beginning in 1936 and continuing for about ten years, until the CBC established its own station in Halifax, CHNS played a major role in originating CBC programs to the network.
Source:
William C. Borrett member of CAB Hall of Fame
http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/schools/rta/ccf/personal/hof/borret_w.html
1927 March 9
Minas Basin Pulp & Power Co.
The Minas Basin Pulp and Power Company was incorporated on this day, with the founding shareholders being Roy A. Joudrey, Thomas Akin, and Charles Wright.
[Source: The Windsor Hants Journal, 22 September 1999, printed excerpts from Hantsport on Avon, 1968, by Hattie Chittick.]
1927 May 20
Charles Lindbergh
In the early afternoon of this day, Charles Lindbergh flew over Nova Scotia on his way to Paris. Early in the morning of 20 May 1927 Lindbergh climbed into his airplane, named the Spirit of St. Louis, at Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York. At 7:52am, the plane took off, vanishing in a drizzle. Just before nightfall, Lindbergh passed over St. John's, Newfoundland. Through fog, rain, and sleet, the plane flew on. At 10:00pm, Paris time, 21 May, a crowd at Le Bourget Field heard the faint drone of a motor. At 10:21pm Lindbergh landed, having flown 3,600 miles 5,800 kilometres in 33 hours and 30 minutes. On this flight, Lindbergh was the 67th person to fly non-stop over the Atlantic Ocean, and the first to do it alone.
[21 Oct. 1999: Thanks to H.G. for correcting the date on this item.]
Also see:
Charles A. Lindbergh
http://www.optonline.com/comptons/ceo/02810_A.html
During the next eleven years after Lindbergh's solo flight, three others also made a solo flight across the North Atlantic. Next after Lindbergh was Amelia Earhart in May 1932, then Wiley Post in July 1933, and the fourth to make this solo flight was Douglas Corrigan – better-known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan – who took off on 17 July 1938 from an airfield in Brooklyn, New York, and landed the next day in Dublin, Ireland. Corrigan claimed to have planned to fly to California (hence the nickname) but Corrigan was an excellent navigator and few take his claim seriously, instead believing that this story was Corrigan's way of avoiding legal complications due to his intentionally making the transatlantic flight in an airplane that did not meet the official requirements. Earhart flew from Newfoundland to Ireland (thus did not fly over Nova Scotia) but Post and Corrigan both flew across the length of Nova Scotia.
[The Toronto Globe and Mail, 17 July 2000]
1927 June 26
New Passenger Train Put Into Operation
Halifax to/from Montreal
On this day, The Acadian, Canadian National Railways' new Montreal - Halifax passenger train began regular service. Known named passenger trains operated by CN or its predecessors to/from Nova Scotia are:
Date of
first run
1 Mar 1898 The Maritime Express Montreal - Halifax
3 Jul 1904 Ocean Limited Montreal - Halifax
26 Jun 1927 The Acadian Montreal - Halifax
28 Jun 1929 Down Easter New York - Halifax
28 Jun 1929 Pine Tree Acadian Boston - Halifax
2 Mar 1930 The Gull Boston - Maritime Provinces
16 Mar 1941 The Scotian Montreal - Halifax
14 Jul 1956 The Bluenose Edmonton - Halifax
1 Jun 1967 The Cabot Montreal - Sydney
[Source: Canadian National in the East, Volume Three (book) by J. Norman Lowe, ISBN 0919487149, October 1985. Published by the Calgary Group of the British Railway Modellers of North America, 5124 33rd Street NW, Calgary, Alberta T2L 1V4.]
1928
Nova Scotia Light & Power Company Limited
In 1928, Nova Scotia Tramways & Power Company Limited changed its name to Nova Scotia Light & Power Company Limited.
1928
Halifax Radio Station CHNS
Station in operation: CHNS Halifax
Northern Electric Company Limited
930 kilohertz
100 watts
(to be replaced by CHNS, Halifax Herald, when completed)
Station under construction: CHNS Halifax
The Halifax Herald and Mail Radio Broadcasting Station Limited
930 kilohertz
500 watts
Source:
Jeff Miller's Broadcasting History Pages
http://members.aol.com/jeff560/jeff.html
Canadian Radio Stations as of 1928
http://members.aol.com/jeff560/1926can.html
This information came from the August 31, 1928, Radio Service Bulletin, a publication of the U. S. government...
The Halifax Herald and Mail Radio Broadcasting Station Limited was registered as a joint stock company on 6 August 1929. On 30 September 1930, the company's name was changed to Maritime Broadcasting Company Limited, and on 1 September 1989 the name was changed to Maritime Broadcasting System Limited [RJSC ID#1001968].
Source: Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stock Companies [RJSC]
http://www.gov.ns.ca/bacs/rjsc/
1928 February 14
CJCB Goes On Air
On this day, radio station
CJCB Sydney, Nova Scotia, went on air with a 50 watt transmitter working on a carrier frequency of 880 kilocycles per second 880 kilohertz. The "studio" was located in the book and music store of owner Nathaniel Nathanson. "Nate", as his friends called him, had begun to sell radios along with the phonograph records the store had carried for years. But there was little to listen to on these new radios. Sometimes, on a 'good night', you could pick up three or four U. S. stations, but only after dark and only when conditions were right. So Nate bought a ships radio and had it altered to work on land. The station was on the air for one or two hours at lunch time and three hours in the evening.
1928 March 19
Educational Broadcasting Begins
On this day, the Nova Scotia Department of Education began broadcasting experimental educational programs on CHNS radio.
[The Sunday Daily News, 19 March 2000]
1928 August
Western Nova Scotia Electric Company
On 4 August 1928, the Western Nova Scotia Electric Company Limited was incorporated under the provisions of the Nova Scotia Companies Act.
On 6 August 1928, the Western Nova Scotia Electric Company Limited purchased at Sheriff's Sale all the assets of the Yarmouth Light and Power Company, Limited, which included a hydro-electric generating station at Carleton on the Tusket River, an electric power distribution system in the Town of Yarmouth and vicinity, and a tramway (electric streetcar) system in the Town of Yarmouth. Operation of the tramway system was discontinued in October 1928, and the tracks were scrapped soon after.
In 1929 the hydro-electric plant was sold to the Nova Scotia Power Commission. After that sale the Company
purchased its requirements of power and energy from said Commission and carries on the business of the
distribution and sale of the same within the County of Yarmouth. By the late 1940s it had extended its electric power system from the Town of Yarmouth to Beaver River in one direction and to Pubnico in the other direction.
Reference:
Historical Notes about the Western Nova Scotia Electric Company
http://alts.net/ns1625/electr05.html
1928 August 30
General Order 40
Radio Spectrum Allocations
On 23 February 1927, U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed the newly passed Radio Act of 1927. It set up a temporary independent Federal Radio Commission, which would have one year to settle the radio mess.
On 30 August 1928, the FRC's General Order 40 was released to the public. It was formally announced "That a band of frequencies extending from 550 to 1500 kilocycles 550 to 1500 kilohertz, both inclusive, be, and the same is hereby, assigned to and for the use of broadcasting stations, said band of frequencies being hereinafter referred to as the broadcast band".
This 1928 definition of the AM (amplitude modulated) broadcasting band survives in the late 1990s with very little alteration. For technical reasons, it was necessary to keep carrier frequencies 10 kilohertz apart, so the 550 to 1500 kHz band allowed for 96 separate frequency assignments, no more and no less, from 550 to 1500 inclusive in steps of 10. On modern (1990s) radio receivers, these numbers appear in the tuning display (or dial) as 550, 560, 570, ... 960, 970, 980, 990, 1000, ... 1460, 1470, 1480, ... (the final zero is sometimes omitted, especially in radio station promotional material). For example, on the receiver dial CJFX Antigonish appears at 580 kHz, CJCH Halifax at 920, CHNS Halifax at 960, CKBW Bridgewater at 1000, CJLS Yarmouth at 1340, CKDY Digby at 1420, and CKEN Kentville at 1490.
Under General Order 40, six of these 96 frequencies were off-limits for United States stations, as 690, 730, 840, 910, 960, 1030 kHz were set aside exclusively for Canadian use. Among the first actions the FRC took, was to clear out the Canadian frequencies; that is, to force stations in the USA, which had been broadcasting on one of the frequencies allocated for exclusive use by Canadian stations, to move to non-Canadian frequencies. The new broadcasting reorganization was scheduled to take effect at 3:00 am on November 11th, 1928. At that moment, 802 of the USA's 893 standard broadcast stations changed their carrier frequencies. By all accounts this reallocation was successful in greatly reducing interference between stations.
On 29 March 1941, the new North American Regional Broadcasting Agreements extended the broadcast band to 1600 kHz. However, the overall structure, established on November 11, 1928, remains intact.
[For a comprehensive account of this important period in the development of commercial radio broadcasting, read
Building the Broadcast Band, by Thomas H. White. This article focusses almost exclusively on the United States, but, because the electromagnetic spectrum does not recognize political boundaries (such as the Canada - USA border), and because much of the technology available in Canada was similar or identical to that available in the USA, a Canadian reader will get a pretty good idea what was going on in those rough and tumble long-ago days, in the emerging business of radio broadcasting.]
In 1998, the legal AM broadcasting band in Canada was 525-1705 kHz. (The AM band above 1605 kHz is referred to as the "expanded AM band".) The legal FM band was 88-108 MHz.
[Source: DRRI http://radio.cbc.ca/radio/digital-radio/. Digital Radio Research Incorporated (DRRI), Montreal, is a non-profit, research and development joint initiative of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and leading private broadcasting organizations, with financial support from the federal government.]
1928 September 21
First Air Mail Stamps
On this day, the Canadian Post Office introduced the first airmail stamps.
[The Halifax Daily News, 21 September 1999]
1928 October 20
End of Streetcar Service in Yarmouth
The electric streetcar line, which began running along Main Street in Yarmouth in 1896, ceases operation. The track was dismantled shortly afterward.
1928 December
New Canada - Bermuda Shipping Service
Following the Canadian Government's participation in Bermuda's shipping services from 1925-1926, the Canadian National Steamships Company was established by Act of Parliament in Ottawa in 1927, to consolidate shipping services from Halifax and Montreal to Bermuda and the West Indies. On Saturday, December 15, 1928, the first of five newly built gracious "Ladies" steamed into Bermuda. She was Lady Nelson. Her sisters Lady Hawkins and Lady Drake followed on December 21, 1928, and January 14, 1929, to establish a fortnightly service.
The trio were designed for a combined human and commodity service to the eastern Caribbean, with accomodations for 218 passengers apiece in three classes and their holds designed to bring sugar from the Caribbean to Canada. Although they were known as the "Lady boats," they were "sugar ships," named after wives of famous British admirals. In April, 1929, they were joined by two "banana boats." Lady Somers (named after the wife of Admiral Sir George Somers who colonized Bermuda) and Lady Rodney served the western Caribbean and Bermuda with space for 130 passengers and special refrigerated holds for bananas from Jamaica to Canada.
Their introduction increased the frequency of the Bermuda schedule of the Lady boats from fortnightly to weekly. On their southbound voyages from Montreal or Halifax and Boston, depending on the season, the Lady boats would often bring more than just cargo and passengers for Bermuda. Sometimes they brought water too, for King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. They served Bermuda well until World War II. During World War II, all these vessels were requisitioned for war service and three were torpedoed and sunk. Two resumed service in 1947 until 1952.
Source:
http://bermuda-online.org/canada.htm
The Lady Boats
By Bernard Heydorn
There was a time, in the long ago and far away, when the Lady Boats came calling in the West Indies. In the days before established air services in the Caribbean, the five White Lady boats sailed from Halifax and Montreal, down the islands, and up the Demerara River to Georgetown in Guyana.
I can remember my father speaking with pride and some envy about who had sailed in and out of Georgetown on a Lady Boat, a trip he could only dream of making. These ships, oversized steamers, were named after British Admirals, and were owned and operated by the Canadian National Steamship Co.
Lady Nelson, Lady Drake, and Lady Hawkins sailed from Halifax year round to Bermuda, the Windward and Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Guyana, every two weeks. Lady Rodney and Lady Somers which were much bigger than the other three, serviced Bermuda, Nassau and Jamaica, from Montreal in the summer, and Halifax in the winter. Later, Boston was added to the routes.
Lady Nelson, Lady Drake, and Lady Hawkins carried 103 First Class, 32 Second Class, and 50 Third Class passengers and an additional 120 deck passengers across warm, Caribbean waters. In 1928, you could get a passage on one of these ships from about $85 up, and cruise the Caribbean for two weeks eating to your heart's content.
The ships were often loaded with Canadian produce on the way down, such as flour, butter, canned Brunswick sardines and refrigerated fruit – iced apples and grapes, which were treats at a Caribbean Christmas.
They returned with raw sugar, molasses and up to 50,000 stems of bananas at a time. The larger Lady Somers and Lady Rodney carries all First Class passengers, and were in fact floating casinos, as well as refrigerated space for 70,000 stems of bananas.
A Guyanese friend of mine once took a trip on the Lady Nelson from Guyana to Trinidad in 1938. For the return trip, he put out a hefty $21, which was $14 one way, and $7 more for the return, and ate five strapping meals a day! Even the stowaways were well fed in those days! Deck passengers could buy their meals for a nominal fee.
The ships stopped for a few hours in the smaller islands and longer periods in the larger islands and Guyana. They were fast, safe, and reliable, docking at Bookers #1 wharf in Georgetown on Friday, and leaving on a Saturday, every fortnight. They employed both Canadian and West Indian crew members.
The popularity of the Lady Boats peaked just prior to World War II in 1939, and then things changed dramatically. White paint became grey, few passengers surfaced, there were regular black-outs and no bananas, but lots of torpedoes to keep them company.
Lady Somers was the first to go down, torpedoed in 1941 with the loss of many lives. Within the next four months, three of the four remaining Lady Boats were attacked by German U-boats.
On January 19, 1942, Lady Hawkins was torpedoed between Boston and Bermuda with the loss of 250 lives, including a number of Canadians who worked at the Bauxite Company in Guyana and the West Indian passengers and crew. Four months previously, the mother of a Guyanese Canadian friend of mine had sailed from Canada to Georgetown on this ship, on a journey that took 21 days under blackout conditions.
In March 1942, Lady Nelson, the original Lady Boat, was torpedoed dockside at St. Lucia by a daring German submarine. It was practically sunk, but the crew lived on it until repairs were made. It had been heading for Georgetown.
Lady Drake was sunk 90 miles 150 km from Bermuda. Ironically, the name of one of the Lady Boat captains at that time was a Captain Coffin.
Lady Nelson and Lady Rodney were repaired and turned into hospital ships later in the war. Lady Rodney then became a troopship, working Newfoundland and Arctic waters, while Lady Nelson became a "diaper special", bringing war brides and their babies to Canada.
After the war, in 1949, both these Ladies returned to the Caribbean waters, but their days of glory were gone, and they lasted only five years longer. However, like grand old ladies, they were not prepared to die, and eventually ended up in Egypt as part of the ill-fated British expedition to free the Suez Canal, during the Suez Crisis in 1956.
I take this opportunity to salute these ships and the men and women who sailed and sank on them. they forged closer ties among the Caribbean people and between the Caribbean and Canada, ties that still exist today. They also paved the way for commercial air travel in the 1950's.
Source:
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/9253/heydorn2.html
1929 June 6
CNR Takes Over the IR&C Railway
On this day, the CNR (Canadian National Railway) officially took over the Inverness Railway & Coal Company in Nova Scotia. At the same time CNR also took over the Kent Northern; Montreal & Southern; Quebec Oriental; Atlantic, Quebec & Western; and Saint John & Quebec Railways.
[The National Post, 6 June 2000]
Inverness Railway & Coal Company
Stations
1915
|
Distance from
Inverness
Junction |
Location |
Elevation |
| miles |
km |
|
feet |
m |
| 0.0 |
0.0 |
Inverness Junction
Junction with the
Intercolonial Railway
at Point Tupper
|
28 |
8.5 |
| 4.5 |
7.2 |
Port Hastings
Station
|
8 |
2.4 |
| 12.1 |
19.5 |
Creignish
road crossing
|
82 |
25.0 |
| 15.7 |
25.3 |
Craigmore
Station
|
75 |
22.9 |
| 17.7 |
28.5 |
Long Point
Station
|
39 |
11.9 |
| 20.4 |
32.8 |
Campbell Point
Station
|
25 |
7.6 |
| 25.0 |
40.2 |
Judique
Station
|
8 |
2.4 |
| 27.5 |
44.2 |
Maryville
Station
|
6 |
1.8 |
| 32.5 |
52.3 |
Port Hood
Station
|
65 |
19.8 |
| 37.2 |
59.9 |
Glencoe
Station
|
213 |
64.9 |
| 39.6 |
63.7 |
Southwest Mabou
Station
|
83 |
25.3 |
| 44.5 |
71.6 |
Mabou
Station
|
46 |
14.0 |
| 47.0 |
75.6 |
Glendyer
Station
|
14 |
4.3 |
| 51.8 |
83.3 |
Glen Dhu
or
Alexander
Station
|
216 |
65.8 |
| 55.3 |
89.0 |
Black River
Station
|
204 |
62.2 |
| 56.0 |
90.1 |
Lake Ainslie
water tower
|
188 |
57.3 |
| 56.6 |
91.1 |
Strathlorne
Station
|
195 |
59.4 |
| 59.4 |
95.6 |
Inverness
Station
|
115 |
35.1 |
| 64.1 |
103.1 |
Broad Cove
End of survey
|
52 |
15.8 |
Source: Altitudes in the Dominion of Canada, 2nd edition, by James White, Assistant to Sir Clifford Sifton, Chairman and Deputy Head, Commission of Conservation, Ottawa.
- Notes:
- Elevations are above mean sea level.
- Altitudes, published in 1915, gives distances in miles and elevations in feet. Conversions to SI measures by ICS.
- Altitudes shows this information for the Inverness & Richmond Railway, which later became the Inverness Railway & Coal Company, and eventually CNR.
1929 June 28
Two New Passenger Trains Put Into Operation
Between New England and Nova Scotia
On this day, Canadian National Railways, working with Canadian Pacific Railway and the Boston and Maine Railroad, began operating two new passenger trains. The Pine Tree Acadian ran between Boston and Halifax, and the Down Easter between New York and several destinations in the Maritimes, including Halifax. Known named passenger trains operated by CN or its predecessors to/from Nova Scotia are:
Date of
first run
1 Mar 1898 The Maritime Express Montreal - Halifax
3 Jul 1904 Ocean Limited Montreal - Halifax
26 Jun 1927 The Acadian Montreal - Halifax
28 Jun 1929 Down Easter New York - Halifax
28 Jun 1929 Pine Tree Acadian Boston - Halifax
2 Mar 1930 The Gull Boston - Maritime Provinces
16 Mar 1941 The Scotian Montreal - Halifax
14 Jul 1956 The Bluenose Edmonton - Halifax
1 Jun 1967 The Cabot Montreal - Sydney
[Source: Canadian National in the East, Volume Three (book) by J. Norman Lowe, ISBN 0919487149, October 1985. Published by the Calgary Group of the British Railway Modellers of North America, 5124 33rd Street NW, Calgary, Alberta T2L 1V4.]
1929 November 17 4:32pm AST 2032:00.7 UT (GMT)
Undersea Earthquake Breaks Cables
In 1929 there were 21 submarine telegraph cables linking Europe to North America, and 16 of them were broken by this earthquake. Most of this damage was caused by undersea landslides or avalanches. Some cables, for more than a hundred kilometres, were buried so deeply they were never recovered. Of the 21 cables then working between Europe and North America, 13 landed in Nova Scotia. The quake's epicentre was under the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Newfoundland. It was felt throughout Nova Scotia, with shaking severe enough to throw goods off of store shelves and teacups off of kitchen shelves in Windsor and Chester. In Kentville and Annapolis Royal, bricks fell from chimneys and plaster was cracked in some houses. It was also felt in New Brunswick and in some parts of New England.
Deep Ocean Phenomena
Turbidity Flows
|
| A powerful earthquake off Newfoundland in 1929 caused a submarine landslide on the edge of the continental shelf. Submarine cables in the slump area broke immediately but cables downslope broke up to several hours later. Apparently a dense current of suspended sediment traveled several hundred kilometres across the sea floor.
|
Source:
Wave Erosion and Marine Geology – Deep Ocean Phenomena – Turbidity Flows
Professor Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/202OVHDS/WAVEeros.HTM
References
One of most destructive Canadian earthquakes...
http://atlas.gc.ca/english/facts/superlatives/general/gen5.html
The 1929 Tsunami in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland
Tsunami Runup Mapping as an Emergency Preparedness Planning Tool
Ruffman, Alan 1996. Geomarine Associates Ltd., Contract Report for Emergency
Preparedness Canada (EPC), Office of the Senior Scientific Advisor, Ottawa, Ontario.
Volume 1 – Report, 107 pages
Volume 2 – Appendices and Enclosures, 281 pages
http://www.epc-pcc.gc.ca/research/scie_tech/en_tsunami/
Description of the November 18, 1929 Earthquake and Tsunami The November 18, 1929 seismic event was felt throughout the Atlantic Provinces of Canada and as far west as Ottawa, Ontario and as far south as Claymont in Delaware. The significance of the 12 submarine cable breaks in the vicinity of the epicentre was not realized for 23 years. Doxsee, for example, in 1948 was still interpreting the offshore disruptions and the down-slope progression of the cable breaks in time as evidence of subsidence in the sea floor related to an assumed (down-dropped) graben forming the Laurentian
Channel. Such a graben is no longer hypothesized...
http://www.epc-pcc.gc.ca/research/scie_tech/en_tsunami/descr29.html
Earthquakes in Eastern Canada
http://www.seismo.nrcan.gc.ca/historic_eq/eastcan_e.html
http://www.seismo.nrcan.gc.ca/historic_eq/lsp_e.html
Seismicity Map of Nova Scotia and vicinity, 1568 to 1988
http://www.seismo.nrcan.gc.ca/damage/damage_e.html
Seismic Zoning Map of Canada Peak horizontal ground acceleration contours
http://www.seismo.nrcan.gc.ca/zoning/seismiczonea_e.html
The 1929 Grand Banks earthquake magnitude 7.2
http://www.seismo.nrcan.gc.ca/damage/1929_e.html
Tidal Wave Disaster Newfoundland November 1929
http://www.durham.net/~kburt/TidalWaveDisaster.html
Paleoenvironmental Evidence For The 1929 Tidal Wave (Tsunami) Disaster
in Southern Burin Peninsula, Newfoundland
http://www.cciw.ca/eman-temp/reports/meetings/national96/andersont.html
1929 Grand Banks Tsunami – First Documented Turbidity Current
The most damaging factor in this event was the undersea landslide. The landslide added to the size of the
tsunami and damaged many kilometers of twelve transatlantic telegraph cables. The majority of the monetary
damage was due to repair costs of the damaged transatlantic cables ... The tsunami was registered as far as South Carolina and Portugal. In 1952 American scientists from Columbia University put together the pieces of the sequentially broken cables that led to discovery of the landslide and the first documentation of a turbidity current...
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/general/historic/grandbanks29.html
Tsunamis of Canada
http://www.geoconnections.org/ccatlas/hazardnet/d_tsunami/tsuintro.htm
Determining Magnitudes of Historical Earthquakes
http://lasker.princeton.edu/ScienceProjects/ri/histeq/histeq.htm
Evidence for Turbidity Currents Information used to help resolve the mystery of how turbidity currents move across the ocean floor and carve submarine canyons comes from a well-documented earthquake in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1929 ... At that time, closely monitored Trans-Atlantic telephone [this is an error – in 1929 there were no trans-Atlantic telephone cables] and telegraph cables lay across the sea floor. During the Grand Banks earthquake, a number of these communication cables in the region south of Newfoundland near the earthquake were severed. At first, it was assumed that sea floor movement caused these breaks. Further analysis of the data revealed that these cables broke in an interesting pattern. The cables closest to the earthquake broke simultaneously with the occurrence of the earthquake. Cables that crossed the slope and deeper ocean floor at greater distances from the earthquake were broken progressively later in time. It seemed unusual that certain cables were affected by the failure of the slope due to ground shaking, but others were broken several minutes later. It was deduced that a turbidity current moving down the slope could account for the pattern of cable breaks. Based on the sequence of breaks, the current reached speeds approaching 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour on the steep portions of the continental slope, and about 24 kilometres (15 miles) per hour on the more gently sloping continental rise. The documentation of turbidity currents moving at these speeds can certainly help to explain how powerfully erosive turbidity currents must be as they move through submarine canyons...
http://oceanography.palomar.edu/EO6_chapters/EO6ch03.htm
The only tsunami known to have been recorded on the Atlantic Coast of the United States was generated by an earthquake off the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland on November 18, 1929...
http://geology.er.usgs.gov/eastern/earthquakes/faq5d.html
Earthquake Search Engine
http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/epic/epic.html
Heroic Efforts at Sea
Repairing Submarine Telegraph Cables
After the Earthquake
Maudie Whelan's article The Night the Sea Smashed Lord's Cove, in Canadian Geographic, Nov-Dec 1994, is but one chapter recording the effects surrounding the seaquake of November 17, 1929. Another chapter (not written as far as I know) could cover the heroic efforts made by the sailors who put to sea to repair the damage done to the submarine cables by the seaquake. For two months, twelve cable ships and their crews, probably exceeding 1,200 expert seamen, many from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, battled the inhospitable winter months of the North Atlantic to re-establish communications between Europe and North America.
There were a total of 21 breaks, referred to as "faults," in 12 cables. It is generally accepted that those faults occurred on November 17, but it should be recognized that an aftershock of 7.2 – about that of the original quake – was recorded on the seismograph at Dalhousie University in Halifax on the morning of December 12, 1929. This aftershock may have contributed to the large number of cable faults.
Two of the cable ships that fought the gales of the North Atlantic that winter were stationed in Halifax. They were the C.S. (Cable Ship) Lord Kelvin under the command of Captain Bloomer, and the C.S. Cyrus Field under the command of Captain Foote. Consider, if you will, working in gale-force winds and freezing conditions, positioning a ship within a few hundred yards of a desired location using celestial navigation when visibility was suitable, otherwise by dead reckoning, then hooking a cable about one inch 2.5cm in diameter with a grapnel at the end of a four-mile 6km towing line, trying to find a cable possibly buried several inches in the ooze of the ocean floor, which may have been moved from its original and known position by the undersea upheaval, retrieving it from a depth of some three and a half miles five and a half kilometres without imparting any additional damage, for repairs – all with the technology available many decades ago.
I salute those who demonstrated the strength and force of character to accomplish such feats under such conditions. They have made a significant contribution to our Canadian heritage.
J.C.S. Bloomer, P.Eng.
Mississauga, Ontario
Letter to the editor
Canadian Geographic, May-June 1995
1930
CNR Radio in Halifax
Canadian National Railways opened a radio studio in Halifax in 1930, as part of its rapidly expanding system for production and transmission of radio programs in Canada.
1930 March 2
New Passenger Train Put Into Operation
Halifax to/from Boston
On this day, Canadian National Railways, working in association with Canadian Pacific Railway and the Boston and Maine Railroad, began operating The Gull, a new passenger train running between Boston and several destinations in the Maritime Provinces, including Halifax. Known named passenger trains operated by CN or its predecessors to/from Nova Scotia were:
Date of
first run
1 Mar 1898 The Maritime Express Montreal - Halifax
3 Jul 1904 Ocean Limited Montreal - Halifax
26 Jun 1927 The Acadian Montreal - Halifax
28 Jun 1929 Down Easter New York - Halifax
28 Jun 1929 Pine Tree Acadian Boston - Halifax
2 Mar 1930 The Gull Boston - Maritime Provinces
16 Mar 1941 The Scotian Montreal - Halifax
14 Jul 1956 The Bluenose Edmonton - Halifax
1 Jun 1967 The Cabot Montreal - Sydney
[Source: Canadian National in the East, Volume Three (book) by J. Norman Lowe, ISBN 0919487149, October 1985. Published by the Calgary Group of the British Railway Modellers of North America, 5124 33rd Street NW, Calgary, Alberta T2L 1V4.]
1931
Avon River Power Company
Buys Six Small Electric Utilities
During 1931, the Avon River Power Co. bought six small electric utilities located in Kings and Annapolis Counties:
- Centreville Electric Light & Power Company,
- Gaspereaux Valley Electric Light Company,
- Lower Horton Electric Company,
- Kingston Electric Light Commission,
- the Town of Middleton's electric power system, and
- Sheffield Mills Light & Power Company.
1931 March 23
Cape Breton Electric Company
Bankrupt
The Cape Breton Electric Company, which had been incorporated on 30 March 1900 as Cape Breton Electric Tramway & Power Company, went into receivership on this day.
1931 June 9
Eastern Light & Power Company Limited
By Order In Council dated this day, the name of the Sydney Mines Electric Co. Ltd. was changed to Eastern Light & Power Co. Ltd., with head office in Sydney. The company supplied electric power in Sydney and North Sydney and vicinity.
1932 February
All-Canadian Long Distance Network
A Trans-Canada Telephone System ad appeared announcing nationwide long distance network in Canada. Previously, U.S. facilities were used to reach many Canadian destinations.
Ottawa-Regina $5.00
Ottawa-Vancouver $8.00
Halifax-Vancouver $10.00
(These are believed to be the rates for any call up to five minutes.)
Source:
http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/
history/ottawa.phone.history
1932 February 28
Last Model A Manufactured
On this day, the Ford Motor Company produced its last Model A, successor to the Model T.
[The National Post, 28 February 2000]
1932 May 26
CRBC Established
On this day, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Act was passed by the federal government, to set up supervision of all public and private broadcasting (which meant radio – there was no television broadcasting in Canada in 1932). The Act also set up a publicly-owned radio network broadcasting in English and French, owned and operated by the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC) – which in 1936 became the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
[The National Post, 26 May 2000]
1933
The South Shore Record
Begins Publication in Mahone Bay
In 1933, a weekly tabloid called the South Shore Record was started in Mahone Bay by R.E. Hyson and a group of businessmen. About six years later it was sold to F.J. MacPherson of Stellarton, who had purchased the Bridgewater Bulletin in 1932. On November 2, 1938, the Bulletin amalgamated with the South Shore Record as The Bridgewater Bulletin and South Shore Record, which it was called for two decades.
[The Bridgewater Bulletin, 10 February 1999]
1933
CRBC Radio in Halifax
The newly established Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission took over the Canadian National Railways' system for production and transmission of radio programs in Canada, including the CNR equipment in Halifax. The regular national schedule grew to some six hours a day, on a basic network of 26 stations, 8 of them with facilities owned or leased by the CRBC (Halifax CBH, Chicoutimi, Quebec CBQ, Montreal CBM, Ottawa CBO, Toronto CBT, Windsor CBW, Vancouver CBV). On another 31 stations, Commission programming was optional. In 1936 the national network still reached less than half the population. It operated only in the evenings and on Sunday afternoons, because the rental of long-distance wire line connections, even for a few hours a day, took something like a quarter of the Cornmission's total expenditure.
1933 December 31
Numerous Gasoline Pumps
"At the end of 1933 there was in the whole of Canada one retail gasoline pump installed to each 17.2 motor vehicles registered, but in Nova Scotia, at the same time, there was one pump to each 10.2 motor vehicles registered."
[Page 319, 1934 Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners of Public Utilities]
1934
Radio Station CHNS
Increases Transmitter Power
Radio station CHNS, Halifax, put into operation a new 1000 watt transmitter; the old 500 watt transmitter was kept as a standby. Both used vacuum-tube technology (this being decades before transistors became available).
1934 May 19
Approval of Conversion of Hantsport Exchange
On this day, the Public Utilities Board issued official approval of the Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Company's plan to convert the Hantsport telephone exchange to automatic (dial) service, which meant that switchboard operators would no longer be needed. This conversion was completed by MT&T by the end of 1934.
1934 June 30
Cunard - White Star Merger
On this day, the Cunard Line merged with the White Star Line. Before this date, the companies were entirely separate, competing lines. During 1931 Cunard had started negotiations to buy out its main rival, the White Star Line. Although these early attempts failed Cunard entered negotiations with the British Government in 1933. In December 1933 an agreement was reached whereby the two companies would merge to form Cunard White Star Limited and the Government would lend the company £9,500,000. The majority of this sum was to be used to complete Queen Mary, launched on 26 September 1934, and build a sister ship.
1935 February 25
Dartmouth Gas & Electric Light & Heating & Power Company
is Sold
On this day, the Public Utilities Board issued official approval for the Dartmouth Gas & Electric Light & Heating & Power Company Limited to sell its entire property, assets and undertaking to the Nova Scotia Light & Power Company Limited.
1935 December 25
Radio Station CJCB
Increases Transmitter Power
In 1935, radio station CJCB bought a 1,000 watt transmitter, which was installed in a new transmitter house at South Bar. It went into regular service this day, on a new carrier frequency of 1240 kHz. The new spot on the dial was required, because the former frequency of 880 kHz was not one of the six broadcast frequencies (690, 730, 840, 910, 960, 1030 kHz ) set aside in 1928 exclusively for Canadian use. CJCB, working at 880 kHz, had encountered excessive interference from stations in the USA, especially at night. The new frequency, 1240 kHz, also was not a set-aside, but the existing U.S. stations in this slot were far away and of relatively low power, so that CJCB could operate with a minimum of interference.
1936
Halifax and Dartmouth
Statistics for 1936
HALIFAX
108 miles of streets, 25 miles paved
63 miles concrete sidewalk
67 miles of sewers
16 miles of Electric Street Railway
8,000,000 gallons of water supplied daily
DARTMOUTH
84 miles of streets, 5 miles paved
800,000 gallons of water supplied daily
POPULATION
Halifax City Proper....................................64,279
Suburbs - Armdale, Bedford, Fairview and Rockingham..5,536
Dartmouth Proper........................................9,391
TELEPHONES
Hailfax 13,598
Dartmouth 1,596
MOTOR VEHICLE REGISTRATIONS
Halifax 8,140 passenger 1,909 commercial Total 10,049
Dartmouth 801 passenger 171 commercial Total 972
MOVIE THEATRES
Halifax 8 with seating capacity of 6,200
Dartmouth 2 with seating capacity of 1,150
HOTELS
Halifax 5 leading hotels with a total of 785 rooms
Carleton, Halifax, Lord Nelson, Nova Scotian, and Queen
Dartmouth 1 with 42 rooms
Thorndyke
SCHOOLS
Halifax 32 including 4 high schools
13,429 pupils 308 teachers
Dartmouth 5 including 1 high school
1,778 pupils 40 teachers
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Halifax consists of 95 men, six motor pumpers, two hose cars
two city service ladder trucks
one 75 ft. (23 metre) aerial truck
one chief's car, one deputy chief's car
four station houses
Dartmouth consists of 50 men, including 20 members of the Union
Protection Company, a volunteer association
with five pieces of equipment
Source: 1936 Might's City Directory
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/bryanfkeddy/hfx2.html
1936 June 10
Cunard Commemoration Ceremony
The maiden voyage of SS Queen Mary and completion of 96 years of ocean steam mail service by the Cunard Company, was specially noted at Halifax on June 10, 1936, by a public presentation of Cunard medals to two ladies. As a child at Halifax in 1840, Mrs. Fanny Lenoir, 103 years old at the time of the ceremony, visited Cunard steamer Britannia on the occasion of the initial voyage, and was honoured in 1936 as the only living person known to have been aboard Britannia, the first ship built for the Cunard North Atlantic service. Mrs. Loring W. Bailey, 94, crossed the Atlantic in Cunard steamer Cambria in 1849 and received a "Queen Mary" medal in 1936 as the company's "oldest client".
[Excerpted from the book First Things in Acadia by John Quinpool, published in Halifax in 1936.]
1936 September 27
Windsor - Kennetcook - South Maitland - Truro
Truro - South Maitland - Kennetcook - Windsor
Train Schedule
Dominion Atlantic Railway
Truro Subdivision Train Schedule
Effective 27 September 1936
Atlantic Standard Time
|
|---|
Eastbound
read down |
|
Westbound
read up |
| No. 3 |
No. 1 |
Miles |
Station |
No. 2 |
No. 4 |
Sat.
only |
Daily
except
Sun. |
|
|
Daily
except
Sun. |
Sat.
only |
| 7:55am |
4:10pm |
0.00 |
Dp. Windsor Ar. |
9:30am |
7:20pm |
| 8:11am |
4:27pm |
6.18 |
Brooklyn |
9:10am |
7:01pm |
| 8:18am |
4:37pm |
9.86 |
Scotch Village |
9:02am |
6:53pm |
| 8:29am |
4:48pm |
14.94 |
Stanley |
8:48am |
6:42pm |
| 8:54am |
5:15pm |
26.44 |
Kennetcook |
8:22am |
6:17pm |
| 9:23am |
5:47pm |
40.27 |
South Maitland |
7:46am |
5:47pm |
| 9:35am |
5:59pm |
45.55 |
Princeport Road |
7:33am |
5:33pm |
| 9:46am |
6:12pm |
50.82 |
Clifton |
7:21am |
5:21pm |
| 10:05am |
6:30pm |
57.84 |
Ar. Truro Dp. |
7:05am |
5:05pm |
Sat.
only |
Daily
except
Sun. |
|
|
Daily
except
Sun. |
Sat.
only |
| No. 3 |
No. 1 |
|
|
No. 2 |
No. 4 |
|
These trains were powered by coal-burning steam locomotives.
|
Detailed version of above timetable, showing all stations.
Source: DAR Employee's Timetable 91, taking effect 12:01am, Sunday, September 27, 1936.
1936 November 2
CRBC Becomes CBC
On this day, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation formally took over the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission's system, eight publicly-owned or leased stations and 14 private affiliates, and all other broadcasting facilities such as studios, equipment, etc. The CRBC employees became employees of the CBC. To help finance the CBC, each radio receiver in the country was required to be licensed. A dated sticker, sold at post offices for $2.00 each and good for one year, was required by law to be affixed to the rear of each radio receiver in the country. In 1937, the annual licensing fee was increased to $2.50 for each receiver; this was continued until 1953. The proceeds of this licencing system went to the CBC.
1938 November 2
The Bridgewater Bulletin and South Shore Record
On November 2, 1938, two South Shore newspapers, the Bridgewater Bulletin and the Mahone Bay South Shore Record were combined as a single newspaper named The Bridgewater Bulletin and South Shore Record. It continued regular publication under this name for two decades. In the 1990s, it continues weekly publication as The Bulletin.
[The Bridgewater Bulletin, 10 February 1999]
1939
CBC Installs High-Power Radio Transmitter
To expand the geographical coverage of its radio broadcasting system, in 1939 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation built a new 50 kilowatt radio transmitter located on the Tantramar Marsh at Sackville, New Brunswick, close to the Nova Scotia border, which sent a strong signal to most of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and all of Prince Edward Island. This new transmitter operated with call letters CBA ("A" for "Atlantic" – "M" for "Maritime" was unavailable because CBM was already in operation in Montreal).
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Latest revision: 2001 February 19