Photo from the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum
In the summer of 1969 the chimney came down as Leigh Instruments stepped up its efforts in the field of pollution. The chimney, which was once a Carleton Place landmark, became a pile a rubble on the bank of the Mississippi River and was no longer a symbol of industry activity.
Photo from the Carleton Place Canadian files– from the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum
Even though the once factory chimney was a sign of good and evil-it once was a producer of dirt and grime in towns all around the world. It was said during the first flush of the Industrial Revolution, the smoke from the factory chimneys was so dense that people had to grope their way through the streets in the middle of the afternoon in the British midlands.
Finance Department in 1968.. Thanks Nancy!- Photo-Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum
Photo and files from-Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum
Did you know that the first “black box”, or Crash Position Indicator was developed right here in Carleton Place? A unique system for locating a downed plane, its passengers and the flight recorder, this brainchild of Harry Stevinson, an engineer with NAE’s Flight Research Laboratory, was first manufactured and marketed by the Avionics Division of Leigh Instruments Ltd., in the early 1960’s. They were made of fibre glass and foam but tough.
There was a story that one time the Air Force showed up as one accidentally went “off” at Leigh Instruments and there was concern a plane had crashed in CP. The helicopter swirled over homes and used the river as a guiding landing strip. It landed in the parking lot and the tailwinds blew lawn chairs every where.
Ray Paquette This is not a black box-if they called it that, it was misnamed. This is a “crash position indicator or CPI” which simply broadcasts a homing signal for SAR aircraft. A “black box”, which is actually day glo orange in colour, monitors and records various readings from the aircraft operating systems, e.g., the engines. Actually the “black box” has two components: the monitoring component; and the “cockpit voice recorder”…
Susan Mary Risk I did soldering, prepping for Conap and stamping on those, made by Leigh Instruments for the Navy, and they were called black boxes back in the day!
Jeff Dezell Back in high school there was a search and rescue helicopter landed on the west lawn of CPHS. Apparently the door of the testing lab for the crash indicator was left open…caused quite a stir during typing class I recall…otherwise dull day got hectic!!
Ray Paquette As a follow on to this post, I wonder how many CPI’s were deployed from downed aircraft that actually led to a rescue of crew or passengers?🤔
In 1975 Leigh Instruments laid off 27 workers in Carleton Place and assured creditors they were solvent.
Harry Stevinson invented the aerodynamically deployed Crash Position Indicator to overcome the problem that normal CPI’s had only worked in 23% of crashesWhen Leigh went bankrupt there had been about 200 crashes with harry’s CPI on board and only 2 had failed. When fitted with the flight data recorder/cockpit voice recorder the records had been recovered 100%, with armoured box recorders the recovery is around 66%.
I was personally involved in the incident where the helicopter landed next to the Leigh Plant. I had done a major redesign of the helicopter CPI and a prototype had been built and was doing certification testing. This was in the anechoic chamber which was supposed to prevent the signal escaping. The helicopter pilot was in contact with Trenton Search and Rescue Centre who called Leigh and the switchboard put me on the line. I told them that we only had 4 hours left of a 48 life test so the pilot said that we could finish the test.
Unfortunately the idiot in charge of the chamber had knocked a hole in the sealed wall to run wires through so that beacons could be rotated using a TV antenna rotator. These wires provided a nice receiving antenna inside the chamber and transmitting antenna outside.
Remembering Industry in Carleton Place- Digital and Leigh Instruments
Bomb Scare in Carleton Place
lindaseccaspina 
I do believe the FDR, Flight Data Recorder, (black box) was in the airfoil as well.
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I believe you are right..:)
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Ottawa Online Tuesday 4 April 2000 “The Scope of the Problem” Dave Brown Ottawa Citizen
Bright Black Day
In Carleton Place, Black Thursday will be on a Wednesday this year. The “black” day was April 12, 1990, when the town’s major employer, Leigh Instruments, collapsed under financial pressure. Some 500 people in the town were suddenly without work, as well as 200 in Toronto and the same number in Ottawa.
“The idea was to hold a little reunion marking the 10th anniversary of the closing,” says Mary Arscott. “We were going to have it at the Legion Hall, but the reaction was surprising. There are almost 400 in now and the number keeps growing. We’ve had to book larger facilities at the town arena.”
It seems survivors of Black Thursday are happy, upbeat, and want to party. The party starts Saturday, April 15, at 1 p.m. at the arena and runs to 6 p.m. There’s a charge of $5 for snacks. Call 253-3623.
Dave Brown is the Citizen’s senior editor. His e-mail address is dbrown@thecitizen.southam.ca . Read previous Dave Brown columns at http://www.ottawacitizen.com
https://www.fact.on.ca/news/news0004/oc000404.htm
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thank you
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Reblogged this on lindaseccaspina.
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Harry Stevinson invented the aerodynamically deployed Crash Position Indicator to overcome the problem that normal CPI’s had only worked in 23% of crashesWhen Leigh went bankrupt there had been about 200 crashes with harry’s CPI on board and only 2 had failed. When fitted with the flight data recorder/cockpit voice recorder the records had been recovered 100%, with armoured box recorders the recovery is around 66%.
I was personally involved in the incident where the helicopter landed next to the Leigh Plant. I had done a major redesign of the helicopter CPI and a prototype had been built and was doing certification testing. This was in the anechoic chamber which was supposed to prevent the signal escaping. The helicopter pilot was in contact with Trenton Search and Rescue Centre who called Leigh and the switchboard put me on the line. I told them that we only had 4 hours left of a 48 life test so the pilot said that we could finish the test.
Unfortunately the idiot in charge of the chamber had knocked a hole in the sealed wall to run wires through so that beacons could be rotated using a TV antenna rotator. These wires provided a nice receiving antenna inside the chamber and transmitting antenna outside.
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Thank you!!!! added this to the blog
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