Snow blower

[1] Robert Carr Harris of Maple Green, New Brunswick patented a "Railway Screw Snow Excavator" in 1870.

[5] He founded Sicard Industries in Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec and by 1927 his vehicles were in use removing snow from the roadways of the town of Outremont, now a borough of Montreal.

[6] The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that each year there are approximately 5,740 snowblower related injuries in the United States which require medical attention.

[8] The correct procedure is to turn off the engine, disengage the clutch and then clear the jam with a broom handle or other long object.

[8] In an effort to improve safety, many manufacturers now include a plastic tool to be used to clear jams, often mounted directly to the snow blower.

Most modern machines mitigate this problem by including a dead man's switch to prevent the mechanism from rotating when the operator is not at the controls; these may be mandatory in some jurisdictions.