Arthur Williams McCurdy, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetArthur Williams McCurdy
Canadian astronomer
Date of Birth: 
About Arthur Williams McCurdy
- Arthur Williams McCurdy (April 13, 1856 – 1923) was a Canadian businessman, inventor and astronomer. He was born in Truro, Nova Scotia, the son of David McCurdy and Mary Archibald.
- He moved to Baddeck with his family at the age of nine and was educated there and at Whitby, Ontario.
- He returned to Baddeck, where he entered business with his father and brother William.
- 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..
- 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 in 1903.
- A few years later, he moved to Victoria, British Columbia.
- He was president of the British Columbia Natural History Society and contributed an article about Victoria to the National Geographic Magazine.
- 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 on Vancouver Island, 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 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.
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