Inventor Name
Dixon, Frederick A.
Repository
Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0N4
CANADA
Reference: 613-996-5115 or 1-866-578-7777 (toll free in Canada and the US)
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/index-e.html
Physical Description
10 m of textual records. 217 photographs b&w.; 6 technical drawings.
Summary
Frederick A. Dixon, inventor, public servant, tutor, born in 1843 in England, came to Canada during the 1870s. His first employment was with the Toronto Mail as a journalist. Later, he was appointed tutor to the Dufferin children while Lord Dufferin was Governor-General of Canada, 1872-1878, and then entered the public service of Canada in 1878 with the Department of Railways and Canals.In 1901 Frederick Dixon, an employee of the Department of Railways and Canals in Ottawa, received letters patent for his invention of improvements in rail joint fasteners which he called the Dixon Boltless Key Rail Joint. Canadian Patent number 71603, United States Patent number 689,388. Fonds consists of letters patent, specifications and correspondence relating to the patenting and subsequent evaluation and attempts to market the Dixon Boltless Key Rail Joint, 1896-1959. In addition there is a small amount of material on the Ottawa Steel Casting Company which used the Hunter Process; Dufferin and Dixon family correspondence, n.d., 1873-1959; miscellaneous correspondence with Sir Charles Tupper, Princess Louise and the Marquis de Lorne, n.d., 1885-1895.Fonds also contains photographs, ca. 1875-1950, consisting of Dixon family portraits, rural and bathing scenes, with the photographs by F.A. Dixon and his son, John Dixon.Fonds also contains drawings, n.d., of the Dixon Boltless Key Rail Joint, patented 1901 by Frederick A. Dixon.
