Mechanical Engineering at the National Research Council of Canada, 1929-1951

Norman R. Ball was Engineering Archivist, Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa.

This is one of a series of books chronicling the development and work of the NRC. As with other books in the series, the author is a retired NRC employee selected and paid by NRC to write an internally acceptable history for the general reader. It is neither an independent nor a critical examination, and one should not look to it for a discussion of deep historical or philosophical issues on significant and revealing conclusions or insights. Nonetheless, it does provide introductory information about many interesting projects.

The book is in four parts: Before the War; Wartime; After the War; and Conclusions: Achievements and Shortcomings. With a total of 37 chapters, it appears as if nothing has been left out. Some of the chapters are indeed exciting, but the book simply tries to cover too much, with too little analytical fabric to hold the parts together. The numerous short chapters encourage random reading, and the book will be an ideal source of information for student essays and the interesting bits and pieces needed to liven up dinner speeches to specialist audiences.

One hopes that in the long run Middleton’s work will help to broaden and enrich Canadian studies and cultural perceptions. Middleton has clearly shown that there are many interesting topics behind which there must be fuller, more fascinating, and more revealing tales than the bare bones he has given. All of the books in the series constitute a useful introduction to the great variety of research pursuits at the National Research Council, and the reviewer hopes that they will help to foster the curiosity and awareness needed to give Canadians the kind of historical literature that will attempt to understand the National Research Council of Canada as an integral part of Canadian history and culture. The NRC divisional histories are a good beginning, and the NRC is to be congratulated for starting the process of introducing itself to Canadian readers. Canada is desperately short of historians interested in our own scientific, engineering, and technological heritage. Books such as Middleton’s show that the reason for the shortage is not a want of suitable subject material.