This article outlines the history of Canadian technological invention. Technologies chosen for treatment here include, in rough order, transportation, communication, energy, materials, industry, public works, public services (health care), domestic/consumer and defence technologies.
The terms chosen for the "age" described below are both literal and metaphorical. They describe the technology that dominated the period of time in question but are also representative of a large number of other technologies introduced during the same period. Also of note is the fact that the period of invention of a technology can begin modestly and can extend well beyond the "age" of its introduction. To maintain continuity, the complete treatment of an invention is dealt with in the context of its dominant "age".
Stone Age (14,000 BC – AD 1600) The first innovators and inventors in Canada were the native peoples who arrived 14,000 years ago. They innovated techniques to survive in a very new and mostly hostile environment. This involved new ways to obtain food, create clothing and travel across a huge territory. Notable inventions included the canoe, snowshoe, igloo and pemmican. The West Coast natives innovated construction techniques that included the use of heavy timber and eastern tribes developed sedentary agricultural techniques.Wright, J.W., A History of the Native Peoples of Canada: Volumes I(2001) & II(1999), Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa
Age of Sail (1600–1830) The arrival of the Europeans provided a new impetus for innovation and invention.
The first metal works, Les Forges de St. Maurice, developed metal products for colonial use. Along with the Royal Dockyards of 1666 and 1746 in Quebec City, they constituted the first groups of skilled industrial labourers working in teams to solve the problems related to the construction of complex structures.Wilson, Garth, A History of Shipbuilding and Naval Architecture in Canada, Transformation Series 4, National Museum of Science and Technology, Ottawa, 1994
Techniques to improve fishing and the cutting and the transport of timber were refined. There were innovations in cultivation techniques to deal with the cold climate.
Steam Age (1830–1880) This era ushered in experimentation with the design of steam powered locomotives and ships.
It was via the paddle-powered steam boat that steam power was first introduced to Canada. The Accommodation, a side-wheeler built entirely in Montreal by the Eagle Foundry and launched in 1809, was the first steamer to ply Canadian waters, making its maiden voyage from Montreal to Quebec that same year in 36 hours.
The building of large wooden ocean-going sailing vessels became a hugely successful undertaking in the Maritimes in the latter half of the nineteenth century due to innovative construction techniques and designs.
Sandford Fleming invented standard time.
In 1844, in Nova Scotia, Charles Fenerty invented newsprint made from woodpulp and Abraham Gesner invented kerosene in Halifax in 1846.
Thomas Willson innovated techniques for the production of acetylene. Experiments in X-ray technology were conducted at RMC in Kingston, Ontario. Henry Ruttan improved techniques for the heating and ventilation of buildings and railway cars. In the United States, Canadian James Lee invented the rifle magazine.
Electric Age (1880–1920) Matthew Evans and Henry Woodward invented and patented the incandescent electric light in Toronto in 1874 and later sold the patent to Edison. This would become the basis for his renowned endeavours with electric lighting. Thomas Willson invented the electric arc light during this period.
The year 1876 saw Alexander Graham Bell invent the telephone. Bell (a Scot by birth) had a family home in Canada at the time, but conducted much of his work in a rented laboratory in Boston. Experiments in trans-oceanic wireless communication were being conducted by Guglielmo Marconi in Newfoundland and Cape Breton. In the US, Canadian Reginald Fessenden conducted investigations into what is now called FM broadcasting. Canadian Frederick Creed invented the teleprinter in 1902.
As stated on its Wikipedia page, "Brantford [Ontario] is sometimes known by the nickname "The Telephone City" as former city resident Alexander Graham Bell conducted the first distant telephone call from the community to Paris, Ontario in 1876."
Charles C. Barnes of Sackville, New Brunswick invented the rotary vane pump and patented the device on June 16, 1874.
Inventive Canadian chemists specializing in the field of electrochemistry during this period included W.T. Gibbs, T.L. Wilson and E.A. LeSeur.
In 1907, the invention by researcher Charles E. Saunders of genetically modified Marquis wheat with its hardy growing characteristics helped overcome retarded growing conditions on the prairies.
Alexander Graham Bell undertook experiments in aviation and high-speed water craft on Bras d'Ors Lakes in Nova Scotia. It was here that Canada's first heavier-than-air machine, the AEA Silver Dart, took to the air in 1909.
Peter Robertson invented the square-headed Robertson screwdriver in Milton, Ontario, in 1908.
Military and defence I (1914–1918) WWI invention and innovations included the variable-pitch propeller, developed by Wallace Rupert Turnbull, the gas mask, invented by Cluny MacPherson of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the "Nissen Hut", invented by Peter Norman Nissen in 1916, the Curtiss Canada bomber and the ill-starred Ross rifle. Attempts were made to convert the latter to what became known as the Huot automatic rifle, but the war ended before it could be introduced.
Automobile Age (1920–1950) In the early twentieth century, several dozen individuals and small businesses located mostly in southern Ontario experimented with snowblower innovation. One of these, Samuel McLaughlin of Oshawa, eventually became the basis for General Motors of Canada. S. L. C. Coleman of Fredericton, New Brunswick invented the sway bar, a device to improve the suspension of automobiles, in 1919. The dump truck was invented in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1920 by Robert T. Mawhinney. In Montreal Alexis Nihon invented the tubeless tire.
It was within this context that Joseph Bombardier in Quebec invented his automobile for the snow, or "snowmobile", and founded the Bombardier company. This corporation would become a giant of Canadian industrial research in the latter part of the century. In 1925, Arthur Sicard of Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec, invented the snow blower.
Experiments with electrical sound recording by microphone were undertaken by Horace Owen (born Hamilton, Ontario, 1888 died Ottawa 1972) and Lionel Guest in 1919.
This period also saw the development of the "batteryless" radio in Toronto by Edward S. Rogers, Sr. and further innovations in radio by Canadian Marconi Company in Montreal. Experiments in television transmission were conducted there by Alphonse Ouimet in Montreal in 1932. In 1937, Donald Hings invented what would become the Walkie-talkie.
On the domestic scene, Herbert McCool invented Easy-Off Oven Cleaner in Regina in 1932Atkins, Jeff, Discoveries and Inventions:Chemistry - Easy-Off Oven Cleaner, article in Horizon Canada, No. 58, Centre for the Study of Teaching Canada Inc., Saint-Laurent, Quebec, 1986, p. 1393 and Frederick F. Tisdall, M.D., T. G. H. Drake, M.B., Pearl Summerfeldt, M.B., and Alan Brown, M.B. of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, invented pablum in 1930.
Eli Franklin Burton along with students James Hillier, Cecil Hall and Albert Prebus invented the electron microscope at the University of Toronto in 1938 and Hugh Le Caine invented the music synthesizer in 1945. The 1940s also saw Frank Forward invent techniques for refining nickel and cobalt.
However, in terms of scale, nothing could match the giant of Canadian innovation throughout the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, the Canadian Pacific Angus Locomotive Works of Montreal. This huge enterprise designed, developed and built many of the steam engines for the great Canadian Pacific Railway Company.
Military and defence II (1939–1945) World War II saw science and industry harnessed to fight the enemy. The National Research Council (NRC), created during World War I to advise the government on industrial research, grew exponentially as did Canadian war industries. A tight bond was formed between the two.
The NRC itself helped develop radar, the proximity fuse, the explosive RDX, high-velocity artillery, fire control computers and submarine detection equipment, among other things. The NRC Examination Unit innovated in the field of cryptology. The NRC's Atomic Energy Project ushered in the Atomic Age with the development of the world's most powerful research reactor (NRX), as well as the start-up of the first reactor outside the United States (ZEEP), at its Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories (see below).Avery, Donald H., The Science of War: Canadian Scientists and Allied Military Technology During the Second World War, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1998
The Crown Corporation, Turbo Research (Orenda), a top-secret jet engine development enterprise, was established in 1944 at Leaside, near Toronto to develop jet power plants, including the TR.1, TR.2, TR.3, and TR.5, for RCAF aircraft.
Enterprises such as the Ford Motor Company of Canada developed and built special-purpose military transport vehicles. Polymer Corporation of Sarnia, Ontario pioneered new types of synthetic rubber. Canadian Industries Limited in Montreal formulated new types of explosive and Canadian Marconi Company innovated in the new field of radar. Northern Telecom (Nortel) developed telecommunications equipment. Ship building companies on the east and west coast adapted US and British designs and construction techniques for the mass construction of ships. Wilbur R. Franks invented the aviation anti-blackout suit in Toronto and experiments in germ and chemical warfare were conducted at Grosse-Isle, Quebec and what is now CFB Suffield, Alberta.
Specialized government businesses such as Research Enterprises Limited (1940), along with electronics firms like National Electric Company (NEC), developed and manufactured what would now be called "high tech" products, including optical systems and communications devices.
Secret arrangements with Britain and the US, resulting from the Tizard Mission, saw Canadian industry participate in the development of the atomic bomb, notably through the innovation of uranium refining techniques. Under the aegis of the National Research Council, a top-secret nuclear laboratory was established at the University of Montreal in 1942. Subsequently, the top-secret Chalk River Laboratories nuclear research facility was built at Chalk River, Ontario, and it was here that the ZEEP atomic pile went critical in 1945, making Canada the second country in the world after the US to build a nuclear reactor.Eggleston, Wilfred, Canada's Nuclear Story, Clarke, Irwin & Company, Toronto, 1965
Television Age (1950–1980) After the war, a number of innovators, including Electrohome of Kitchener, Ontario, offered televisions and entertainment systems to consumers. In the 1950s, Anthony Barringer invented INPUT, an electromagnetic device used for the aerial detection of mineral deposits.