Factory view, detail from advertisement in 1871 Lovell's Newfoundland Directory

Ebenezer Edwin Gilbert was one of the first Canadian-born mechanical engineers. He was an early innovator in steam engines, particularly for marine work and for municipal water pumping stations. He also made sawmills.

By 1856 Gilbert was operating the Beaver Foundry, making "steam engines, boilers, mill work, heavy forges, and iron castings". By 1858 he was in a partnership, Gilbert, Mine & Bartley, which became W. P. Bartley & Co. By 1867 Gilbert was on his own again, operating the Canada Engine Works as E. E. Gilbert, which later became E. E. Gilbert & Sons. We have also seen the name Canadian Marine Engine Works in association with that firm; we do not know whether or not that just a renamed Canada Engine Works.

E. E. Gilbert died in 1889, and it appears that his business did not long outlast him.

Information Sources

• Mackay's Montreal Directory has an ad for Beaver Foundry, E. E. Gilbert, "First gate past the Toll Gate, St. Joseph street, Montreal."
• The Eastern Townships Gazetteer and General Business Directory for 1867 has an ad for E. E. Gilbert, Canada Engine Works.
• History of the counties of Argenteuil, Que., and Prescott, Ont., by Cyrus Thomas, 1896, has this tidbit: "Charles Henry... learned the blacksmith trade, and was employed as foreman in the Canadian Marine Engine Works of E. E. Gilbert & Sons...."
• Transactions of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers has this obituary:

  E. E. Gilbert, one of the oldest and best known mechanical engineers in Canada, died of heart disease on February 12th, 1889. He was born in Montreal in 1823, and at the time of his death was sixty-six years of age. Like a great many engineers of the day, he did not receive early professional training. He commenced his career in the forwarding business at Montreal, and was one of the pioneers in trading by steamer to Chicago, and other then-distant parts on the Great Lakes. Having great mechanical ability, he invented machinery for loading and discharging cargo on the vessels with which he was connected.

  In 1858, he and the late Mr. W. P. Bartley entered into partnership as engineers. The firm carried on business in Montreal for several years, building a large number of engines for river and lake steamers, as well as machinery for other purposes. He afterwards removed to new works, which he carried on on his own for many years, and where he constructed some of the largest engines for lake and river steamers in Canada, introducing many important improvements, particularly in the valve gear of marine beam engines.

  He was, perhaps, the first engineer outside the United States to fully recognize the advantages of the "Corliss" valve gear, and as long ago as 1859 he had built and fitted a paddle steamer with a Corliss engine. In 1860, the steamer "Montreal" was built, having a Corliss engine with a cylinder 60 in. diam. and 8 ft. stroke.

  In this steamer he introduced the forced blast for boilers, on the closed stoke-hold system, now in universal use on modern fast steamers in naval and mercantile marine. This steamer is still running regularly between Montreal and Quebec, and, after nearly thirty years, is still a fine specimen of marine engineering.

  Later on in connection with his sons, he invented a new system of submarine rock blasting and excavation, and undertook extensive government contracts for deepening the rapids in the River St. Lawrence, all of which were successfully carried out under unusual difficulties. He devoted much attention to pumping engines for water works, and built engines for Toronto, Montreal, and other cities in Canada. One of his last examples was for the high level service of the Montreal Water Works. The engines were built from his own design, and their performance not only exceeded his own guarantee, but placed them amongst the best of high duty pumping engines.

  He contracted a few months ago with the Canadian Government to execute works on the enlargement of the Cornwall Canal, and after visiting Ottawa on business connected with the work, he died suddenly of heart failure on arriving at his home.

  He became a Member of the Society on the 20th of January, 1887.

• Memorials—The Geological Society of America, 1979, has this snippet: "...Gilbert, the elder son of Philip Holton Gilbert and his wife, Florence Birtton, was born in Montreal on 9 December 1893. His grandfather, Ebenezer Edwin Gilbert, had founded E. E. Gilbert & Sons, which operated Canada Engine Works in..."