Alexander Fleck opened his first foundry and machine shop in Montreal in 1842. In 1867 he moved his business to Ottawa, perhaps to be closer to the lumber industry of the Ottawa River valley. He operated as the Vulcan Iron Works, and at some point he organized as Alexander Fleck Co. From early on, his products included sawmill machinery and steam engines. By the 1880s the Works included foundry, machine shop, boiler shop, and patternmakers' shop. As the area's logging industry declined, Fleck switched focus to steam engines, mining machinery and paper making machinery, though the manufacture of sawmill machinery continued until World War I.

In 1902 the business was reorganized under the new Canadian legislation regarding corporations, as Alexander Fleck Ltd.; by that time sons Alexander Fleck, Jr., and James Gordon Fleck were running the business. By 1920, the third generation—L. W. and K. F. Fleck—more narrowly focused the business on building machinery for the pulp and paper industry, for which Ottawa had become a major center.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Canadian government expropriated the company's plant. Legal wrangling continued until 1954 when Alexander Fleck Ltd. acquired partial ownership of another Ottawa business, Beach Foundry Ltd., makers of cooking, heating and cooling equipment. The business continued until at least 1967 but by that time the lines of business of interest to us—sawmill machinery and steam engines—were long gone.

Information Sources

• The 1886 book, Industries of Canada: Historical and Descriptive Review.

  Stewart & Fleck, Jr., Vulcan Iron Works, 428 Wellington Street—The Vulcan Iron Works were established as far back as 1842. They occupy a space of about 171 x 150 feet at 426 to 430 Wellington St, and are divided into several departments—foundry, machine shop, boiler shop , pattern room, engine room and office. All equipment of all necessary and best available appliances are provided and a large force of skilled machinists and workmen are employed in the production of light and heavy iron castings and all kinds of mill machinery, steam engines, stationary and moveable, boilers, water wheels, steam pumps, mining machinery, &c., which are constructed in the best manner. Repairs are promptly executed, and every attention is given to all orders for new work or repairing, and when desired estimates and drawings are furnished. Mr. Thomas Stewart and Mr. Alexander Fleck, Jr. have conducted the business under the present firm name since 1881, and have a large trade with all parts of Canada, finishing steam engines and boilers and fitting up flour, saw and other mills, which always give the highest satisfaction to all concerned.

• The 1915 book, Canadian Industry, Commerce and Finance, by James John Harpell, lists Alexander Fleck, Ltd., under several categories, including "Machinery, Saw, Shingle and Planing Mill".
• From a now-defunct web page for a business course at the University of Western Ontario.

  This essay was written in c 1967. It was copied from the May 1967 "Centennial Issue" of Industrial Canada held in the Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario. The original article should be consulted since this copy may contain some errors. The text and/or the images are being made available to researchers for scholarly purposes. They should not be used for commercial gain without the permission of the author or publisher.

  The Alexander Fleck Limited was founded in 1842 by Alexander Fleck, Senior, on his arrival from Scotland. He started his company in Montreal, but after a few years moved to Ottawa, where the firm has been situated ever since.

  Two of his sons, Alexander Fleck, Junior, and James Gordon Fleck, carried on the business, which was incorporated under its present name in 1902. At that time it was a general machine shop and foundry, but in 1920, when Messrs. L. W. and K. F. Fleck, the third generation, took over, it was decided that future success lay in the manufacture of equipment for the large and growing pulp and paper industry.

  In 1928 the company started to manufacture complete pulp bleaching equipment, but in 1939 surrendered its license back to the patentee. In 1938 it obtained the exclusive Canadian license to manufacture and sell a new piece of pulping equipment called the "Hydrapulper" and known in Canada as the "Turboflex Pulper". Fleck designed and built the first Hydrapulper (batch type) in the world and, as a consequence, was enabled to arrange with Dilts Machine Works of Fulton, New York, to manufacture and sell in Canada their line of equipment, consisting of refiners, beaters and agitators. This arrangement lasted until 1954 when the American company, by then the Black-Clawson Company, acquired shares in a Canadian manufacturing company. In 1939 The Alexander Fleck Limited plant was expropriated by the Federal Government. Settlement was concluded in 1954; rather than move from Ottawa the company acquired common stock holdings in Beach Foundry Limited, which avoided duplication of foundry, heating plant, etc. The latter company, founded in 1894, manufactures a complete line of gas and electric ranges, heating and air-conditioning equipment.

  The principal business of The Alexander Fleck Limited is to design and build stock preparation equipment for the paper and allied processing industries. By an agreement with Ajax Flexible Coupling Co. Inc., Westfield, New York, Fleck manufactures flexible couplings. Fleck equipment is made by the Beloit Corporation of Wisconsin under license for sale to foreign markets.

  Fleck family remains active in the company's management: L. W. Fleck is President and J. L. Fleck is Vice-President and General Manager. A third member, K. D. Fleck, is on the Board of Directors.

• An archived web page on the James Fleck house provides some background information.
• The 1921-09-30 Lumber.

  ALEXANDER FLECK DEAD
  Ottawa, Ont, Sept. 22.—Alexander Fleck, director of the Prince Rupert Timber and Lumber Co., Ltd., and president of Alex. Fleck Vulcan Iron Works, this city, died today at his residence. 593 Laurier Ave., West. He was 64 years of age, leaves a widow to mourn his loss. A member of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, he was looked upon as one of the most progressive manufacturers in the Capital. Golf was his hobby, he being especially pleased with the cup he won as a veteran when he defeated H. W. Turner, of Butte, Mont., at the links of the Hotel del Coronado, Coronado, Cal., when the rules called for all contestants to be over 50.

• The Alexander Fleck (Jr.) House at 593 Laurier Avenue (at Bronson) is a Queen Anne Revival House built in 1902, that is a designated heritage property. A 2018-2020 Cultural Heritage Impact Statement (PDF) was prepared for a proposed high-rise development on that property that would have involved the partial demolition of the house. The report includes a brief history of the company that provides the date for when the Alexander Fleck (Sr.) business relocated from Montreal to Ottawa.