1907 to 1925: Childhood and adolescence

April 16, 1907, Valcourt, in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada: Joseph-Armand Bombardier is born. No one in this peaceful farming village anticipates the newborn's unusual destiny...

Mechanized toys

As a boy, Joseph-Armand shows remarkable curiosity for everything mechanical, disassembling and reassembling a variety of mechanisms. At a mere 13 years old, he manufactures one of his first mechanical toys ­ a miniature locomotive driven by a clock mechanism ­ and paints the object in great detail, showing his advanced sense of both the mechanical and aesthetic. Other mobile toys, such as tractors and boats, soon result from Joseph-Armand's fertile imagination, to the immense pleasure of his brothers, sisters, and friends.

The entrepreneurial spirit that will eventually lead this inventor to success is already present: to finance the purchase of his clock mechanisms from the village jeweller, the young Joseph-Armand uses the money he earns serving mass to the parish.


From spinning wheel to cannon

Everything is possible in Joseph-Armand's feverishly inventive mind. He builds a steam engine out of old sewing machine parts. With permission from his aunt Marie, he mounts the engine on her spinning wheel, and to the boy's great joy ­ and his aunt's distress ­ the experiment works: the wheel spins faster and faster.

Joseph-Armand's curiosity is constant. He convinces the local veterinarian, Mr. Archambault, the father of his friend Paul, to give him a broken 12-calibre gun. Joseph-Armand happily goes to work shortening the barrel, modifying the firing system, cutting and polishing the butt, and changing the breech. Then he mounts the new device on metal wheels, and demonstrates his mini-cannon at Paul's house a week later. The gun is detonated with black powderŠ in the presence of a dumbfounded veterinarian.

The infernal engine

Joseph-Armand takes great pleasure in dismantling and reassembling Alfred Bombardier's car motor, so to keep him away from it, Alfred gives his son an old Model T Ford motor considered "irreparable." With the help of his brother Léopold, the adolescent nevertheless fixes it and soon incorporates it into a vehicle of his own design.

His first snow machine must wait a few months, however, because Alfred sends him to pursue studies at Sherbrooke's Séminaire Saint-Charles-Borromée near Valcourt at the age of 14. Alfred hopes that his eldest son will join the priesthood, following a firmly rooted tradition of Quebec francophone families.

Insurmountable obstacles become challenges in the mind of Joseph-Armand. Away from his workshop, the schoolboy continues developing his latest idea. Upon his return for Christmas and New Year's vacation, he retreats to his father's workshop where he prepares a surprise with his brother Léopold and a few cousins.

New Year's Eve day Alfred Bombardier watches in astonishment as a strange sled propelled by the old Ford motor emerges from his workshop ­ a veritable "infernal engine." Sitting in front, Léopold steers the machine using cotton rope reins, while Joseph-Armand, standing at the back, operates the motor, which drives a propeller manufactured by the young inventor himself.

At 15 years old, the inventor has created his first snow vehicle. Its launch surprises and amazes everyone, but Alfred Bombardier quickly orders it dismantled, concerned about the dangerous propeller. Joseph-Armand obeys, but is secretly proud of having successfully driven his machine on the snow.

Change of direction

Joseph-Armand's intellectual curiosity and ingenuity, and his pleasure in crafting different mechanisms and repairing motors, are an early sign of the passion that will drive him through life. He continues his studies at the Séminaire, but his heart isn't in it. He knows he will be neither a priest, nor doctor, nor farmer, but rather a mechanic.

At age 17 he obtains his father's consent to quit college and begin an apprenticeship at Gosselins's Garage in South Stukely in the spring of 1924. He then left to work in Montreal where he took night-school courses in mechanics and electrical engineering. He also took english courses and reads all the science and technology publications he can get his hands on.