Important Canadian Inventions

We Canadians may not be the kind of “flag waving” patriots that citizens of many other nations seem to be, but I guess you could call us a nation of “closet patriots”. We are extremely proud of our country and Canadian accomplishments, we just don’t show it a lot.

The following is just a small partial list of some of the Canadian inventions and innovations that have had a great impact on the whole world.

Insulin, Treatment for Diabetes [1921, Frederick Banting, Charles Best]
Telephone [1876, Alexander Graham Bell]
Pacemaker [1950, John Hopps, Wilfred Bigelow, John Callaghan]
Zipper [1913, Gideon Sundback]
Electric Wheelchair [1952, George Klein]
Cobalt-60 "Bomb"  Cancer Treatment [1951, Harold Johns]
Java Programming Language [1994, James Arthur Gosling]
Canadarm [1975, Spar Aerospace/NRC]
Standard time [1878, Sir Sandford Fleming]
Electron Microscope [1939, James Hillier, Albert Prebus]
BlackBerry [1999, Mike Lazaridis]
Radio Voice Transmission [1900, Reginald Fessenden]
Basketball [1892, James Naismith]
Instant Replay [1955, CBC's Hockey Night in Canada]
Lacrosse [First Nations Peoples]
Electric Oven [1892, Thomas Ahearn]
Walkie-Talkie [1942, Donald L. Hings]
Alkaline Long-Lasting Battery [1959, Lewis Urry]
Paint roller [1940, Norman Breakey]
Instant Mashed Potatoes [1962, Edward Asselbergs]
Plexiglas [1931, William Chalmers]
NewtSuit [1987, Phil Nuytten] (first practical deep-sea diving hard suit)

Can you imagine the world today without some of these inventions? We really do have the right to be proud of our Canadian heritage.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team