Arthur Williams McCurdy (April 13, 1856 – 1923) was a Canadian businessman, inventor and astronomer. He was born in

Truro, Nova Scotia Truro (Mi'kmaq: ''Wagobagitik''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Truru'') is a town in central Nova Scotia, Canada. Truro is the shire town of Colchester County and is located on the south side of the Salmon River floodplain, close to the river's mouth at ...

, the son of David McCurdy and Mary Archibald. He moved to

Baddeck Baddeck () is a village in northeastern Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated in the centre of Cape Breton, approximately 6 km east of where the Baddeck River empties into Bras d'Or Lake. Local governance is provided by the rural municipality ...

, where his father took over the store established by his son-in-law Angus Tupper, with his family at the age of nine and was educated there and at

Whitby, Ontario Whitby is a town in Durham Region. Whitby is located in Southern Ontario east of Ajax and west of Oshawa, on the north shore of Lake Ontario and is home to the headquarters of Durham Region. It had a population of 138,501 at the 2021 census. It ...

. He returned to Baddeck, where he entered business with his father and brother

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

. In 1881, he married Lucy O'Brien. The following year, he bought his father's share in the business. The business failed in 1887 and McCurdy became private secretary to Alexander Graham Bell, who he had met in Baddeck. In 1889, he became an assistant in Bell's lab in Washington, D.C.. Observatoire fédéral d'astrophysique04

In 1899, he developed a portable tank for developing film, later selling the patent to Eastman Kodak. He married Hattie Maria Mace in 1902 after the death of his first wife. After leaving Bell's employ to pursue his own inventions, McCurdy moved to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

in 1903. A few years later, he moved to

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...

. He was president of the British Columbia Natural History Society and contributed an article about Victoria to the ''

National Geographic Magazine ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

''. McCurdy helped establish the Victoria centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and served as its vice-president; McCurdy lobbied for the establishment of the Dominion

Dominion Astrophysical Observatory The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, located on Observatory Hill, in Saanich, British Columbia, was completed in 1918 by the Canadian government. The Dominion architect responsible for the building was Edgar Lewis Horwood. The main instrument ...

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

, for a brief time the site of the largest telescope in the world. In 1916, he ran for the Esquimalt seat in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia; although he was at first declared elected,

Robert Henry Pooley Robert Henry Pooley (September 19, 1878 – June 23, 1954) was a Canandian lawyer and political figure in British Columbia. He represented Esquimalt from 1912 to 1937 as a Conservative. Pooley was interim leader of the party from August 192 ...

was declared elected after a recount. McCurdy died of heart failure in Washington, D.C. He was the father of the pioneering aviator

John Alexander Douglas McCurdy John Alexander Douglas McCurdy (2 August 1886 – 25 June 1961) was a Canadian aviation pioneer and the 20th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia from 1947 to 1952. Early years Son of inventor Arthur Williams McCurdy and born in Baddeck, Nov ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCurdy, Arthur Williams 1856 births 1923 deaths 20th-century Canadian astronomers 19th-century Canadian inventors Canadian people of Ulster-Scottish descent People from Baddeck, Nova Scotia People from Truro, Nova Scotia 19th-century Canadian astronomers