Revenue Property Group

2012 marks the 100th Anniversary of Kaplan family activity in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Casey Kaplan was born in the village of Shadova in Lithuania in 1892. His birth name was Kasra but when he arrived in North America he changed his name to Casey (spelled alternatively as Kasse) and later to Harry. Aged twelve, he left Lithuania and traveled by ship to Cape Town to join his brothers Shlamy and Max and sister Gittel, all much older than he. In 1908 he got a job as a waiter on a Canadian Pacific liner. With Canadian Pacific he traveled around the world several times.

In 1912 he moved to Port Moody, British Columbia, which was the center of commerce within the Lower Mainland at the time. His plan was to work as a lumberjack, but at 5’4’’ he was rejected for being too short. As a result he worked in a logging camp as a short order cook, amazed by the amount of food the loggers ate. He also applied for a homestead which was granted to him.

When World War I broke out he volunteered for the army and was put into the Canadian Black Watch regiment which was sent to the trenches of France. This regiment had its roots in Scotland and following tradition, men playing bagpipes led the attacks out of the trenches. They soon ran out of bag pipers.

Casey fought in the Battle of the Somme. Conditions were terrible in the trenches because of the rain and deep mud as well as the shelling from the enemy. Casey was wounded and gassed. He had spots on his eyes where the mustard gas had burnt them. He walked with a slight limp as a result of a leg wound. He was in the trenches for 3 years and was lucky to survive. Of all the Allied soldiers, the Canadians had the highest proportion of casualties. His younger brother, Victor, was not as lucky. He died in the same battle fighting for the South African forces. Casey had no idea that his brother was there.

After the war, Casey returned to British Columbia where he became a poultry farmer. He had a friend, a fisherman, who could not sell all of the fish he was catching. So, Casey took this fish to feed his chickens. Soon the eggs and the chickens tasted of fish. As a result, the poultry farm collapsed. Later, Casey entered the scaffolding business. Most of the scaffolding was used to support back-drops for movies.

Scaffolding was made of wooden poles, nailed together. This process was very slow, whereas movie studios needed to change the backgrounds quickly. Casey developed a faster method. Steel pipes seemed to be the answer but there was a problem joining them together. He designed a clamp which would not only join the pipes where they crossed at 90 degrees but could take diagonal braces as well. The clamps were made of cast aluminium and were expensive to produce but being the first of their kind, Casey took out world-wide patents in them. Until the depression of 1929, the clamps found success because Casey could do jobs much faster than others and could therefore charge less for a job. Casey sold his patent to S.G.B., now Harsco Infrastructure.

Revenue Property Group is a Kaplan family company.

Casey’s Patents can be viewed here:

CIPO – Patent – 348376

brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca › Home › CPD

(51) International Patent Classification (IPC): N/A. (72) Inventors (Country): HAMBROOK RUSSELL JONES (Country Unknown); HARRY KASSE KAPLAN …

Revenue Property Group

2. Scaffolding coupling and clamp – Canada Patent CA 348376

3. Hambrook Russell Jones – Assignee Patent Directory, Page 1

4. Scaffolding coupling and clamp – CA 348377 A – IP.com