Earth and Sky
As the last quarter of the 20th century began, Alberta’s precision instrument industry took on another facet. Industries focused on the natural environment such as forestry and agriculture remained important. At the same time the impact of mining operations on the natural environment was becoming an increasing concern. These joint needs drove the development of companies focused on Alberta’s earth, weather, and climate.
The Campbell Scientific (Canada) Ltd. Snow Sensor developed in the early 1990s. The instrument is part of Ingenium's collections. (Artifact no. 2004.0332)
In 1978, Canadian Claude Labine negotiated with Campbell Scientific, a Utah company, for the right to sell its dataloggers--instruments designed to collect and store data in remote locations—in Canada. This need was explicitly connected to the oil industry: Labine had encountered the dataloggers when involved in a study tracking the effect of a nearby tailings pond at an oilsands site near Fort McMurray on local vegetation, and saw a market for them in Canada. First working out of his Edmonton home, Labine established Campbell Scientific (Canada), which both sold imported instruments and modified them for the Canadian market, such as longer remote operation and cold resilience. In the 1990s, the company built on a design by the Atmospheric Environment Services of Environment Canada to develop its first Alberta-designed instrument, a remote snow-depth sensor (left). Another Edmonton company, Lakewood Systems, was also founded in 1978 to fill the same niche.
A Piché Evaporimeter made by GEN Manufacturing Ltd. This instrument is part of the Campbell Scientific (Canada) instruments collection.
The impact of weather and climate on agriculture also drove the creation of Albertan instrument companies. In 1968, Henry Bergen, a former employee of the Canada Agricultural Research Station founded GEN Manufacturing in Coaldale, Alberta, to make instruments and precision equipment designed for use in farming, such as this Piché Evaporimeter (right), designed to measure evaporation rates in a given location.* In 1981, the company shifted towards specialising in agricultural tool parts, but kept its focus on precision.
Examples of Alberta’s meteorological and environmental measurement heritage can be found at the Campbell Scientific (Canada) Instrument Collection, which hosts hundreds of examples of precision instruments used in Albertan settings, including the Piché Evaporimeter pictured.
Today, Campbell Scientific (Canada) and GEN Manufacturing, alongside other local companies continue to support Alberta's energy, environmental and agricultural industries.
*Image courtesy of the Campbell Scientific (Canada) Instruments Collection.