George Foote Foss was a machinist, blacksmith, bicycle repairman and inventor from Sherbrooke, Quebec. He was the inventor of the Fossmobile, Canada's first successful gasoline-powered automobile which he manufactured in 1896.
Early life
Foss was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec in 1876 to Edwin Sherrill Foss and Ellen Sophia. His parents had emigrated from New England and farmed in Stanstead. They moved to Sherbrooke, where his father became the city’s auction clerk. Foss was an entrepreneur at an early age. His first job was running up and down the streets of Sherbrooke, ringing a bell on auction day to help his father. At the age of twelve he was sweeping out the localpost office. By age fourteen, he was transferring bags of mail from the local post office, to the Grand Trunk and Quebec Central Railways, with the help of a draft horse harnessed to a sleigh or buggy.
Career
Foss obtained electrical expertise, while apprenticing with Whitney Electrical Instrument Company. He learned how to assemble electrical instruments and wind electrical motors. About two years later, he joined the Stanley Electric Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he furthered his electrical experience. Foss returned to Sherbrooke at the age of 18 and opened up his own shop, offering machining, blacksmithing, and bicycle repair. Foss’ first initiative was to engineer a 52-volt boat motor. This motor was mounted to the top of the rudder with a bicycle chain running to the propeller. He made thirty small storage batteries, which were stored under the seat. The motor was very quiet and worked well for him, as he traversed the Magog and St Francis rivers. In 1896, Foss traveled to Boston, Massachusetts to purchase a turret lathe for his machine shop. He saw and rode in his first automobile there. It was an electrically driven brougham. After 30 minutes, the batteries in the car died. Upon returning to Sherbrooke, he began to design and build an automobile that would address the problem. He started with a chassis made of old bicycle frames. The Fossmobile's front mounted engine made maintenance easier and produced considerably less upward vibration through the seat. The gear shifter for the Fossmobile was mounted directly on the tiller style steering column, something that was not done by other manufacturers for another 40 years.
Foss never tried to market or mass-produce his automobile. He turned down an offer from a private investor who offered to finance the production of his automobile. In 1900, Foss met with Henry Ford who offered him a chance to help build a new company that Ford was trying to establish. Foss declined Ford's offer, because he thought Ford's automobile was inferior to the Fossmobile. Shortly after their encounter, Ford founded the Ford Motor Company. In 1902, Foss moved to Montreal, Quebec and became an automobile salesman. He had distribution rights for the Crestmobile, which was manufactured in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In this role, he was also able to test-drive other makes and models as they came onto the market. He eventually had the opportunity to drive a Ford automobile for himself, and he remarked that it was indeed a well-made vehicle. In 1912, at the age of 37, Foss went back to working as a machinist. He opened a machine shop in Montreal, Quebec and became a key contributor in the manufacturing of World War I parts. Foss retired in 1932 after a lengthy illness. He later purchased a steamship named "Island Queen", which he operated as an excursion boat on Lake Saint-Louis.
