To celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary, we are shining a light on our amazing country. In the weeks leading up to July 1st, we will be releasing articles on the best Canada has to offer. Get ready for some useful information, beautiful photos and, of course, some laughs.
From space equipment to peanut butter, Canadians have a long history of inventions. While there are far more inventions than there's space to give credit to, here's a list of 15 of Canada's best inventions.
Basketball
Like for Iggy, RT for Kawhi pic.twitter.com/8W2HJXsVnX
— NBA_Mixes (@NBA_Mixes) June 15, 2017
Basketball was invented by James Naismith in 1891. More than a hundred years later, an NBA players' average salary for shooting hoops is $4.5 million, with the highest paid player, LeBron James earning $30.9 million in 2017.
Born in Ontario, Naismith was 30 years old when he wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program. He was a physical educator, doctor, chaplain and sports coach.
The invention of basketball developed through Naismith playing duck on a rock - a game where your goal is to knock over the stone that's being guarded by the other team. He learned through that lobbing a shot was a more effective and accurate shot, then just a hard, straight throw.
Naismith lived to see basketball become an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904.
Lacrosse
Check out the ALL @JimRahey photo album here📔: https://t.co/z4dQqTEqoZ (📸: @garrettjames22 Photography) pic.twitter.com/PgbPXqJ8Z7
— Vancouver Stealth (@StealthLAX) June 5, 2017
Lacrosse originated from two groups, the Indigenous people of the Eastern Woodlands and Indigenous people of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies, but was modified by European immigrants in North America. Originally, the game was played by throwing the ball in the air and both sides rushing to catch it.
But it took too long to move across the field with a large mob all racing for the ball. That's when passing was introduced as a trick. The balls were made out of wood, small animal skulls, and deer skin stuffed with hair. Rituals prior to the game were similar to that of going to war - including special dances, body paint, strict pre-game diets and other ceremonial acts. French Jesuit missionaries were the first Europeans to encounter lacrosse, in the St. Lawrence Valley of Canada. They were initially opposed to the game, describing it as violent. That was in the 1630s. While European colonists were uneasy, French colonists started playing the sport and eventually there were enough players to keep the sport alive. In 1856, a dentist named William George Beers, founded the Montreal Lacrosse Club and codified the game in 1867. He shortened the playing time, used fewer players, introduced a rubber ball and redesigned the stick. The first game played after Beers changed the game was at Upper Canada College in 1867.
Hockey
Outsiders may know it as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We know it as Hockey Heaven. pic.twitter.com/L9T2vOlXvz
— Nick Bones (@BonesEgo) June 15, 2017
It comes as no surprise to most Canadians that hockey was invented in Canada, but the game's humble shinny beginnings started in the United Kingdom. Europeans already played shinny, which involved a stick and ball, and then brought the game over to North America. By the 19th Century, ice hockey was born and raised in Canada. Amateur leagues began in the 1880s and it became an official Olympic sport in 1920. Another Canadian addition to the sport was the invention of the goalie mask. That would happen years later, in 1960, by Jaques Plante.
Newsprint
Newsprint was invented by Charles Fenerty in 1838. He was responsible for developing the wood pulp process for making paper and then adapting it into news print. The fact that Fenerty was also a poet, likely helped spur him on to this invention.
He wrote more than 35 poems, and who knows how many first drafts. By 1844, Fenerty took a sample of his paper to the Acadian Recorder newspaper. He'd written a letter on his paper, describing the spruce wood pulp materials. Fenerty never patened his invention that would changed the world and the papermaking process. Over time, North America and Europe adopted Fenerty's process and developed large paper mills.
Fenerty was born and raised in Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Kerosene
Dr. Abraham Pineo Gesner was another Nova Scotian who invented kerosene in 1846. By refining liquid fuel from coal, bitumen and oil shale, Gesner developed kerosene.
The beauty of kerosene was that it burned cleaner than other fuels and was less expensive. He started the Kerosene Gaslight Company in 1850 and started installing street lights in Halifax and other areas. In 1854, he'd expanded to the United State and created the North American Kerosene Gas Light Company. Gesner's been recognized for his contributions with a memorial in Halifax, a postage stamp with his image and a streetcar in Ottawa named after him.
Telephone and Hydrofoil boat
Several inventors contributed to the invention of the telephone, starting in 1840 when Charles Grafton Page used electric currents and a magnet to create a ringing sound in the magnet. Several people in between Page and Alexander Graham Bell helped further the development of the telephone, but it's Bell that was the first to obtain the patent in 1876. Bell's classic line which proved the phone actually worked was of him saying, "Watson, come here! I want to see you!" (Source: Wikipedia).
Bell didn't stop at the phone in 1876. He went on to develop the hydrofoil boat in 1919. The HD-4, or Hydrodome number 4, set a world marine speed record of 114 km/h.
Graham had dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada.
Light Bulb
Believe it or not, Thomas Edison did not invent the electric light bulb. He bought the patent. The real inventor was a Canadian named Henry Woodward.
On July 24th in 1874, Woodward filed a Canadian patent application on the electric light bulb. The patent was granted by August 3rd of that same year and later sold the patent to Edison and the rest is history.
The initial light bulb started in a glass tube with a large piece of carbon connecting two wires.
Peanut Butter
While Canadians have the Aztecs and Incas to thank for the use of peanut pastes, the early form of the spread was first patented by Marcellus Gilmore Edson in 1884.
Edson lived in Montreal and found a way to cool the product into a butter-like consistency and then sell it. With a large dose of sugar, the hard peanut mix, softened into that creamy texture.
In 1903, the first peanut butter-making machine was developed and got this product on the market for the everyday person.
Anti-Gravity Suit
Isn’t it awesome that the anti-gravity suit is a Canadian invention? #CANSEC2017 https://t.co/iYbZixYWiC pic.twitter.com/VckdSN0rF2
— NRC Canada (@NRC_CNRC) June 1, 2017
The anti-gravity suit was invented by Wilbur Rounding Franks in 1941 for high altitude jet pilots. Franks was a Canadian scientist born in Ontario. The suit was made out of rubber and pads filled with water. The G-Suits were used in World War II and prevented them from blacking out at high altitude. His same design was used in the development of astronaut suits.
Walkie-Talkie
Canadian invention variously credited to Donald Hings. Proud Canadian reason #41 #walkie-talkie #History #Canada150 pic.twitter.com/mvHCh4aX02
— Orr Insurance Broker (@orrinsurance) June 5, 2017
Canadians have Donald L. Hings to thank for the walkie-talkie. It was built in 1937 and didn't get much attention until World War II started in 1939. The two-way radio became a necessity during the war. Hings worked at the Department of National Defence for a while to further develop the radio for combat use.
Jolly Jumper
Jolly Jumper - Canadian Invention by Indigenous woman Olivia Poole :) https://t.co/NzJJBgPII1 #ThankYouCanada via @HistoryTVCanada
— Natalie St-Denis (@nstdenis) June 11, 2017
Olivia Poole first had the idea of the Jolly Jumper in 1910. Poole grew up on the White Earth Indian Reserve in Minnesota. She adopted their practice of putting infants in a snug wrap or 'papoose' and hang them from a sturdy tree branch so they could bounce up and down. Poole was living in Ontario when she designed the bouncing harness by making a saddle from cloth diaper and hanging it from a bar with a spring.
In 1942, Poole and her family settled in British Columbia and she and her husband began manufacturing her invention. It took years to patent, but by 1957, the Jolly Jumper was patented at Poole Manufacturing Co. Ltd. The Jolly Jumper is still being manufactured in Mississauga, Ontario.
Snowmobile
The wildly popular Ski-Doo has had a long legacy, thanks to Joseph-Armand Bombardier. Bombardier grew up the cold and snowy winters of Quebec and was an engineer.
He was 13 years old when he built a mini locomotive propelled by a clock and his inventions rolled out from there. He built tractors and boats, as well as a mini canon. The snowmobile started out as a Model T Ford engine strapped to two wooden sleds with a wooden propeller. The sled ran for a kilometre, but his dad told him to take it apart as it was deemed too dangerous. Bombardier was only 15 years old. By 1935, Bombardier at 28 years of age, built the first snowmobile with caterpillar tracks underneath and room for two to three passengers. The first use of the snowmobile was used by doctors, ambulance drivers and priests in rural regions. The system was patented by 1937, followed by a patent in 1942 of the B12 snowmobile, used in World War II. By 1958, the first ultra-light snowmobile, the Ski-Doo was delivered to a missionary in northern Ontario and became a popular recreational vehicle by 1964.
Prosthetic Hand
Canadian Helmut Lucas created the first mechanical prosthetic hand in 1971, the first major advancement in prosthetics in hundreds of years pic.twitter.com/uHFLFOOJWJ
— Canada (@Canada) September 28, 2016
The electric prosthetic hand was invented by Helmut Lucas in 1971. The nervous system and muscle system send signals to the electric prosthetic and that feedback is processed to make a movement.
While there had been a long history of prosthetics made over the years, this was the first major development in hundreds of years.
Canadarm
#TBT: Boldly Going -The Canadarm. When you need another arm to get the job done. First used Nov 1981 on the 2nd space shuttle. #Canada150 pic.twitter.com/Hon7YqqVyn
— Cogeco Peer 1 (@CogecoPeer1) June 15, 2017
The Canadarm was developed by staff of the SPAR Aerospace in 1981. It was a remote-controlled arm that repaired satellites and transported astronauts and cargo in space.
NASA used the arm for 30 years during its Space Shuttle Program. The arm cost $110 million to build and was developed under the National Research Council of Canada, with a team in Toronto.
In 1981, the Canadarm was airborne for the first time with the space shuttle Columbia. The Canadarm flew to space 90 times, with its final flight in 2011.
Weevac 6
Wendy Murphy developed the world's first evacuation stretcher for infants, the WEEVAC 6. In 1985, Murphy was watching coverage of the earthquake rescues taking place in Mexico and saw there wasn't a method for transporting infants out of dangerous areas, and quickly. The first stretchers were sold to the Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto in 1987. Now, the stretchers are used by hospitals, nursing homes and long term care facilities. Murphy's WEEVACS won the Manning Award for Innovation and the National Research Council of Canada's Award for Outstanding Innovativeness in Medical Device Technology. The stretcher is made of lightweight aluminum and fire resistant materials. ORTECH International presented Wendy with the Joseph Flavelle Award.
Tell us your thoughts! What's your favourite Canadian invention that wasn't on the list?
Let us know in the comments below!
In celebration of Canada's 150th birthday, Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery has a Canadian Gift Basket up for grabs for one lucky winner (19+). Enter the form below before June 30th, 2017 at noon for your chance to win the following:
BRBN Whisky Chocolates
Glencairn Glass Set
Blittered Sling Travel Pack Bitters Collection
Jalapeno Gold Jelly (made with OKS Gin by Taste of the Okanagan)
OKS Drunken Fruit Trio
Chill 'N Rocks (whisky rocks)
OKS Shot Glasses
OKS Sunglasses
