The technological and industrial history of Canada encompasses the country's development in the areas of transportation, communication, energy, materials, 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 diffusion of a technology can begin modestly and can extend well beyond the "age" of its introduction. To maintain continuity, the treatment of its diffusion is dealt with in the context of its dominant "age".
Technology is a major cultural determinant, no less important in shaping human lives than philosophy, religion, social organization, or political systems. In the broadest sense, these forces are also aspects of technology. The French sociologist Jacques Ellul defined la technique as the totality of all rational methods in every field of human activity so that, for example, education, law, sports, propaganda, and the social sciences are all technologies in that sense. At the other end of the scale, common parlance limits the term's meaning to specific industrial arts.
Late Electric Age (1901–1920)
Industrial processes and techniques Metal mining also became significant industry during this period. The International Nickel Company (Inco) was established in 1902 through the fusion of two companies. A refinery using the Orford process was built in Port Colborne, Ontario in 1918 and then moved to Copper Cliff, Ontario, where that technique was replaced by the matte flotation process in 1948. Hard rock gold mining became practical in 1887, with the development of the potassium cyanidation process, by Scott MacArthur, which was used to separate the gold from the ore. This technique was first used in Canada at the Mikado Mine in the Lake-of-the-Woods Region again made accessible by the CPR. The CPR also provided access to the B.C. interior, where lead, copper, silver and gold ores had been discovered in the Rossland area in 1891. The ores were transported to Trail, B.C., where they were roasted. After CPR built the Crowsnest Pass it purchased the Trail roasting facility and in 1899 built a blast furnace to smelt lead ore. In 1902 the first electrolytic lead refining plant using the Betts Cell Process began operation in Trail. The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Ltd. was founded as a CPR subsidiary and began to develop the Sullivan Mine with its lead, zinc and silver ores, in Kimberley in 1909.Mouat, Jeremy, Metal Mining in Canada, 1840 −1950, Transformation Series 9, National Museum of Science and Technology, Ottawa, 2000.
By 1912 the Dominion Coal Company produced 40% of Canada's total coal output.Muise, McIntosh, Coal Mining in Canada: A Historical and Comparative Overview, Transformation Series 5, National Museum of Science and Technology, Ottawa, 1996
In 1904 a company in Bowmanville, Ontario, began Canada's first powdered milk production operation. The large-scale home delivery of milk began in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal in 1900.
Materials Railway and locomotive construction in the latter 19th century created a huge demand for steel. The Bessemer furnace at the Algom steel mill in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario went into operation in 1902. The Montreal Rolling Mills Co, The Hamilton Steel and Iron Company, the Canada Screw Company, the Canada Bolt and Nut Company, and the Dominion Wire Manufacturing Company were consolidated in 1910 to form The Steel Company of Canada headquartered in Toronto. With mills located in Hamilton and other cities, it was the largest producer of steel in Canada for most of the century. Its competitor, the Dominion Steel Castings Company Limited founded in 1912, renamed the Dominion Foundries and Steel Company in 1917 and Dofasco in 1980, had its Hamilton facilities located next to those of Stelco.
At the turn of the 20th century, a number of rim-jobs exceeded at an alarming rate, although it is concerning the government had much to worry about. Health concerns were identified, and its use was generally discontinued by the late 20th century.
The modern version of plywood was invented in the US in 1905 in Portland, Oregon. In 1913, the Fraser Mills in New Westminster, British Columbia, produced the first Canadian plywood, primarily from Douglas fir. This new material eventually found use in a wide variety of structures, including auto running boards, panelling, sub-floors, roof sheathing, wall sheathing, shipping crates and, during World War II, the manufacturing of aircraft and small ships.
The pulp and paper industry also developed during these years. The closely related sulphate pulp process was introduced in Canada in 1907, when the Brompton Pulp & Paper Company began operation in East Angus, Quebec. This process dominates the industry to this day. The pulp slurry was fed in a continuous stream into a paper-making machine that flattened, pressed and dried it into newsprint on huge rolls many metres wide and containing thousands of meters of paper.
Office automation Business and public administration was improved and simplified with the introduction of the typewriter, which acquired a familiar standardized form by about 1910, which features the "qwerty" keyboard, the typebar, ribbon, cylinder and carriage return lever. Popular models in Canada were manufactured by the US Remington and Underwood companies, among others. The introduction of the mechanical desk calculator complemented that of the typewriter. Most machines used in Canada were manufactured in the US by companies such as Friden, Monroe, and SCM/Marchant. The Gestetner copy machine, which used the stencil technique to reproduce copies of documents, was invented in England in 1881 by David Gestetner and quickly became popular in offices around the world, including those in Canada.
Public works and civil engineering Notable works of civil engineering realized the completion of: the New Westminster Bridge, Vancouver 1904, the Lethbridge Viaduct, Lethbridge, Alberta, 1909, the Spiral Tunnels, Hector to Field BC, 1909, the St. Andrew's Lock and Dam, Lockport, Manitoba, 1910, the Brooks Aqueduct, Brooks, Albert, 1914, the Quebec Bridge, Ste-Foy, Quebec, 1916, the Connaught Tunnel, Rogers Pass, BC, 1916, the Ogden Point Breakwater and Docks, Victoria, British Columbia, 1917, the Prince Edward Viaduct, Toronto, Ontario, 1919, the Shoal Lake Aqueduct, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1919 and the Trent-Severn Waterway, Ontario, 1920.
In the 1930s diesel-powered excavation shovels replaced steam shovels for the excavation of railway right-of-ways and the digging of basements and foundations for skyscrapers and domestic housing, in the late 19th century.
Skyscrapers and architecture It was the age of the skyscraper and the race to build the tallest structure in the British Empire set off a competition among cities across Canada. Successive record holders included the Traders Bank of Canada, 15 floors, Yonge St, Toronto, 1905, the Dominion Building, 13 floors, Vancouver, 1910, World (Sun) Tower, 17 floors, Vancouver, 1912, the Canadian Pacific Building, 16 floors, Toronto, 1913, the Royal Bank, 20 floors, Toronto, 1915, the Royal Bank, Montreal, 1928, the Royal York Hotel, Toronto, 1929 and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Toronto, in 1931.
Central heating The construction of skyscrapers, grand hotels and other large buildings led to the development of central heating, an essential feature in Canada's cold climate. In the 20th century such systems were used to provide heat to small communities such as university campuses, northern industrial towns or military bases. Smaller systems were used in private homes. Another technique, the convection method, was introduced to domestic dwellings at this time. A metal furnace in the basement, using wood or coal as fuel, would heat air in a plenum which would rise by convection through a series of metal ducts into the rooms of the house above. When the air cooled it would fall to the floor and return to the plenum through another series of metal return ducts. In later years an electric fan was used to force the hot air from the plenum through the ducts.
Domestic and consumer technology
The introduction of the flush toilet in the US and Canada in the 1880s created a market that inspired the invention of rolled toilet paper. The product was first produced in the US by the Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Company in 1877. The US Scott Paper Company began manufacturing toilette paper in 1902 and by 1925 Scott Paper was the largest manufacturer of toilette paper in the world. As early as 1926 the Purex brand had been established in Canada and with the arrival of Scott Paper Canada in 1927 the White Swan brand was introduced.
Medicine The introduction of medical x-rays during this period dramatically improved medical diagnostics. Discovered by Roentgen in Germany in 1895, x-ray units were in operation at the Toronto and Montreal General Hospitals by the turn of the century. The sphygmomanometer or blood pressure meter, that familiar device employing a cuff placed around the patients arm, found its way into the office of most Canadian doctors in the early 20th century. The spread of bovine tuberculosis, a crippling childhood disease, was curbed through the introduction of pasteurized milk in Montreal and Toronto at the turn of the century. This practice was soon followed by the dairy industry across Canada.
Bayer began marketing the wonder drug of the age, aspirin, in 1899. It was an instant success and quickly became popular in Canada. Originally sold as a powder, the tablet was introduced in 1914. A very important step in the mass production of medical products was taken that same year when John Fitzgerald founded an institution that would be named the Connaught Laboratories in 1917, at the University of Toronto. Initially the laboratories produced vaccines and antitoxins for smallpox, tetanus, diphtheria and rabies. In 1922 after the Nobel Prize winning work on Banting and Best the facility began to manufacture insulin.
In 1914 John Fitzgerald established laboratories in Toronto to produce vaccines for smallpox, rabies, diphtheria and tetanus. The facility was named the Connaught laboratories in 1917 in honour of Prince Albert, the Duke of Connaught the recently retired Governor General. Beginning in 1922 the laboratories began to mass-produce the newly discovered hormone insulin.
The chlorination of municipal drinking water, a technique known to kill bacteria and thus make the water safer for human consumption, was introduced in Toronto in 1910. It became widely used across Canada in the years that followed.Drinking Water Management in Ontario: A Brief History, Ontario Sewer and Watermain Construction Association, January 2001
Defence The 13- and 18-pound muzzle-loading gun field gun with modern recoil and sighting systems were acquired at the turn of the century. A notable acquisition was the first breech-loading gun, in Canadian use, the 13-pound quick-firing (Q.F.) and 18-pound Q.F. firing shrapnel and high-explosive rounds, in 1905. The Royal Canadian Navy founded in 1910, took possession of its first ships, two tired steel-hulled former Royal Navy cruisers, the Rainbow, in 1910, stationed at Esquimalt on the west coast and the Niobe at Halifax on the east coast.
Automobile Age (1920–1950)
During the post-World War I era, a plethora of technologies were introduced, including the car, air service, air navigation, paved roads, radio, the telephone, refrigeration, wonder drugs and powered farming, mining and forestry equipment.
Transportation, the car and aeroplane