Frederic Thomas Nicholls (November 22, 1856 – October 25, 1921) was a Canadian businessman, electrical engineer and politician. He was a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

senator representing the

senatorial division Canadian Senate divisions refers to two aspects of the Senate of Canada. First, it refers to the division of Canada into four regional Senate divisions of 24 senators each, as set out in section 22 of the Constitution Act, 1867.The Constitution Act ...

of Toronto, Ontario from 1917 to 1921. In 1892 Nicholls became second vice-president and general manager of

Canadian General Electric GE Canada (or General Electric Canada) is the wholly-owned Canadian unit of General Electric, manufacturing various consumer and industrial electrical products all over Canada. GE Canada was preceded by the company Canadian General Electric (CG ...

. He was president of the

National Electric Light Association The National Electric Light Association (NELA) was a national United States trade association that included the operators of electric central power generation stations, electrical supply companies, electrical engineers, scientists, educational i ...

of the United States in 1896–97 and brought its annual convention to Niagara Falls, Ontario, in 1897. Frederic Nicholls was a member of Edison Pioneers and

Ontario Hydro Ontario Hydro, established in 1906 as the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, was a publicly owned electricity utility in the Province of Ontario. It was formed to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity g ...

. He worked on the Toronto Power Company Plant with Dr. Frederick Stark Pearson of the Pearson Engineering Corporation of New York. The Toronto Power station was opened in 1906 by the Electrical Development Company of Ontario, led by Toronto Billionaire financier

Henry Pellatt Major-General Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, CVO (January 6, 1859 – March 8, 1939) was a Canadian financier and soldier. He is notable for his role in bringing hydro-electricity to Toronto for the first time, and also for his large château in Toron ...

, who owned that city's

Casa Loma Casa Loma (improper Spanish for "Hill House") is a Gothic Revival castle-style mansion and garden in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that is now a historic house museum and landmark. It was constructed from 1911 to 1914 as a residence for fina ...

. Pellatt hired the same architect, Edward J. Lennox to design both his home and his hydroelectric generator in Niagara Falls. Pellatt and partners William Mackenzie and Frederic Thomas Nicholls formed the Electrical Development Company of Ontario in 1903, buying water rights from the

Niagara Parks Commission The Niagara Parks Commission, commonly shortened to Niagara Parks, is an agency of the Government of Ontario which maintains the Ontario shoreline of the Niagara River. History The Commission was founded in 1885 and charged with preserving and ...

for $80,000 a year. Nicholls was one of the directors along with William Mackenzie and Wilmot Deloui Matthews to form the Canadian Shipbuilding Company with capital of $1 million in the early 1900s ($21,733,333 in 2018).

Recognition and influence

The Nicholls Building on King Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is named after him including the Nicholls Oval and Nicholls Lake in Ontario. He was also known as an early editor of the

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

newspaper. Frederic Nicholls's speech of January 19, 1905, to the Empire Club in Toronto was published as Niagara's power: past, present, prospective . . . ( oronto, 1905 reproduced as CIHM, no.78710). A number of his other speeches are in his Conservation of Canadian trade (Toronto, 1918).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholls, Frederic 1856 births 1921 deaths Canadian businesspeople Canadian senators from Ontario English emigrants to Canada Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) senators