BKFK Home Page | BKFK Kids | Kid Inventors | Bombardier, Joseph-Armand

Joseph-Armand Bombardier

Snowmobile

  • In areas with large amounts of snow, transportation in the wintertime has always been a big issue. There were patents issued for machines that allowed people to quickly travel on the snow. But no one changed the snowmobile as much as a 15 year old from Quebec.
  • Joseph-Armand Bombardier was born in Valcourt, Quebec (southeast of Montreal), on April 16, 1907. He came from a large family of prosperous farmers and small shopkeepers. He lived in a rural area at a time when winter snow meant isolation and long trips for goods and services. In those days, horse-drawn sleds were still the only way to travel in the Canadian winters. His invention would eventually change the way of live for many in the Far North.

A Curious Mind

  • Joseph-Armand was a boy with a passion for mechanics. Like many great inventors, he was always taking apart anything mechanical, to see how it worked. Hopefully, for his parents’ sake, he put them back together! By the time he was13 years old, he built a miniature locomotive using pieces of a clock!
  • He then began inventing other toys like tractors and boats for his siblings and friends alike. It was apparent that Bombardier was a natural mechanic. He taught himself mechanical engineering by exploring, questioning, and trying things out. In addition to natural talent, he was driven to try and figure out how make the winter months as easy to navigate as the other ones.
  • He was 15 when he came up with his first design for the snowmobile was a small surface-skimming contraption with a propeller.

Don’t try this at home, kids!

  • You won’t believe how he invented it. He used to take apart his dad’s car. His dad got frustrated with this (who wouldn’t?) and gave him an old Model T Ford motor. Not only did Joseph-Armand fix it, but he went on to use it in new designs.
  • Just as he was getting ready to turn the engine into a snow machine, he was sent away to school to become a priest. This was often an expectation among Quebec families – so he went. But he kept working on his invention whenever he could.
  • Over Christmas break from school, he and his brother and cousins worked up something amazing. Powered by the engine from a Ford Model T, 15 year old Bombardier propelled a sled out of his workshop and astonished everyone! It was steered by his brother and Joseph-Armand operated the motor! He created a snow mobile! But his father was worried about safety and told his son to take it apart.

The Rest is History

  • After this invention, he knew what he was going to be. Not a priest, but a mechanic! He quit the seminary a few years later and worked in a Montreal garage. He kept up his studies, reading everything he could about mechanical engineering.
  • By 1937, he had his first commercial success - the B7 which uses the principle of steering by skis in front of a tracked drive.
  • A 15 year old with a curious mind invented the snowmobile! Just think what you could do!