In the Spring 2004 issue of the Vertex Angle, we posed
the following question.
"Canada has a great tradition of invention. Many key technologies and successful
consumer products had their beginnings here. Listed below are ten inventions.
Do you know which of them was NOT invented here?"
1. Basketball
2. Hydrofoil boat
3. Electron microscope
4. Jolly jumper
5. IMAX
6. Light bulb
7. Paint roller
8. Panoramic camera
9. Snowblower
10. Green garbage bag
Answer:
None - they were all invented in Canada. Basketball was started by James Naismith
in 1892, while Alexander Graham Bell and Casey Baldwin came up with the
hydrofoil boat in 1908. The electron microscope was invented by Prof. E.F.
Burton and Cecil Hall, James Hillier and Albert Prebus in the late 1930s.
The Jolly Jumper was developed by Olivia Poole and IMAX had its start with
G. Ferguson, R. Kroitor and R. Kerr in 1968. The first light bulb was patented
by Henry Woodward in 1874 (bet a lot of you thought Edison did it first
- but he apparently patented an improved version later). Norman Breakey
patented the paint roller in 1940, and the panoramic camera was conceived
by John Connon (sorry not Mr. Kodak) in 1887. We have Harry Wasyluk and
Larry Hanson to thank for the green garbage bag (1950s), while the snowblower
was developed by Arthur Sicard in 1927.
So you can see Canadians have been busy. There are a number of sources of information on the web about Canadian inventions - www3.sympatico.ca/taniah/Canada/things/ and inventors.about.com/cs/canadianinventors/ are a couple of good places to start.
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