Inventor Name
McCann, F.J.
Repository
Provincial Archives of Alberta
8555 Roper Road
Edmonton, Alberta
T6E 5W1
780-427-1750
www.tprc.alberta.ca/archives/default.aspx
Physical Description
0.43 m of textual records. - 8 photographs. - 6 negatives
Summary
Francis Joseph McCann was born in Colgen, Ontario on January 19, 1880 to Francis McCann and Margaret McFarland. He moved west in 1904 to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba where he farmed for a number of years before moving on to work for the Canadian Northern Railway in Saskatchewan. In 1911, he moved to Edmonton and began work on a stooking machine designed to pick up bundles of grain and stack them for field drying. The success of his initial prototype led to the formation of the Heart Stooker Co., and plans were made for mass production. Delays in perfecting the stooker, however, as well as the arrival of the combine harvester and the onset of the depression, all combined to make his machine obsolete and the company went bankrupt. McCann then worked for the Coal Valley Mining Co. as an engineer until his retirement in 1950. F.J. McCann died on August 12, 1964 in Edmonton, Alberta. Fonds consists of personal and business correspondence, minutes of the meetings for the Heart Stooker Co., financial records, books, personal records of F.J. McCann’s children, patent applications and correspondence, shareholder certificates, minutes from meetings of the McCauley Community League, photographs and negatives of the Heart Stooker in operation and various newspaper clippings.
