Welcome! 

Register :: Login
Manufacturers Index - McKechnie & Bertram

McKechnie & Bertram
Dundas, ON, Canada
Manufacturer Class: Wood Working Machinery & Metal Working Machinery

History
Last Modified: Oct 5 2018 9:49PM by Jeff_Joslin
If you have information to add to this entry, please contact the Site Historian.

This firm was partnered by Robert McKechnie and John Bertram. It was established in 1863 and changed its name to John Bertram & Sons in 1886. See the entry for John Bertram & Sons for a detailed history of this maker.

Information Sources

  • Listed in Lovell's Canadian Dominion Directory for 1871, in several places. "CANADA TOOL WORKS, McKechnie & Bertram, proprietors, Hatt st. (Dundas). See adv. p. 6". Also, "MCKECHNIE & BERTRAM, manufacturer of machinists tools and wood working machinery, Canada tool works, Hatt st. See adv. p. 6". There are one-line entries under the names of the principals as well.
  • 1872 Might & Taylor's Toronto Directory lists "McKechnie & Bertram (R McKechnie and J Bertram), Canada Machine, Tool and Woodworking Machine Works, Dundas; A D Cameron agent, 64 Colborne".
  • Seen on an online for-sale site: a 24-inch long-bed planer from this maker.
  • The United States Centennial Commission's Report on the International Exhibition of 1876 lists McKechnie & Bertram as exhibiting "Radial Drill, etc." The Reports and Awards book by the same Commission lists McKechnie & Bertram of Dundas for "Wood-moulding machine and radial drill. Report.—A variety of machine tools for the working of metal and wood; also originality shown in the design of a radial drilling machine, whereby the spindle may be placed at any angle within certain limits; likewise for general convenience and soundness of structure in a machine for planing wood, which is a remarkably good tool for its intended purpose." It lists the firm as exhibiting a wood moulding machine; a "moulding machine, lathe, drill, etc."; an iron turning lathe; a radial drill; a slotting machine; an iron shaping machine. Their exhibit won a Silver Medal.
  • The Authorized Catalogue of the First Annual Exhibition of the Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition Association of Toronto, held in September 1879, lists McKechnie & Bertram as exhibiting a 4-head moulder, and a single-sided planer-matcher. Under the category of iron-working machinery they exhibited a radial drill, planer, shaper, large screw-cutting engine lathe, small screw-cutting engine lathe, and a "lever drill".
  • The Report of Sir Charles Tupper, G.C.M.G., CB., Executive Commissioner, on the Canadian Section of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition at South Kensington, 1886, mentions, "The wood-working machines of Messrs. McKechnie & Bertram, of Dundas, Ont., proved quite a revelation as to what can be effected by a few hands in turning out material for cabinet work and house fittings."