Alvin Orlando Lombard

Alvin Orlando Lombard was born in Springfield, Maine, and showed a significant interest from an early age in creating inventions that improved daily life at that time. Lombard was a prolific inventor and published most of his patents after moving to Waterville in 1895.

Lombard considered his first major invention his most significant. His water turbine regulator, the Lombard governor, was responsible for advancing the extensive development of water-powered electricity across the country.

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Considered the emancipator of horses, the log hauler was Lombard’s most famous invention. It combined the technology of steam trains with his creation of a moving tread, later known as the caterpillar tread. There were others who were experimenting with the idea of a log hauler, but Alvin Lombard was the person with the ingenuity, perseverance, and skill to bring the machine to a workable model, always revising to make it better. This lag tread led to tanks that played a vital part in World War I. It was marketed for heavy work in the woods, on farms, in construction, and for plowing.

Around 1898, Lombard pioneered a gasoline-powered steam automobile that made its debut on the streets of Waterville. This “horseless carriage” was a wonder to all who saw it, and large crowds would form to catch a glimpse of this technology in action.

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Lombard’s other inventions include a debarker for pulp mills, a mechanical separator of wood chips for paper making, a mechanical wood splitter, snow plows, and more. These inventions provided jobs and efficiencies at Waterville Iron Works and his Waterville shop, the Lombard Company.