Inventions of all kinds are made every day and around the world. Something new is on the brink of discovery all the time; we just have to be ready to find it. Someone has to come up with the simple and more complex things that solve the problems we face in our daily lives.
Here are 5 of the many Canadian inventions that did just that.
Insulin – Frederick Banting, Charles Best, J.J.R. McLeod and James Collip - 1922
Insulin was first discovered by Frederick Banting and Charles Best. Banting and Best removed insulin from the pancreas of a dog. Then, using the extracted insulin on another dog with severe diabetes, they were able to keep the diabetic dog alive for 70 days before they ran out of insulin.
After their initial success, James Collip, extracted insulin from cattle. This insulin proved to be purer and more refined than that used from dog’s extraction.
Taking what they had learned, they began using insulin for the treatment of diabetes in children. In 1922, a 14-year-old boy was given 2 doses of insulin as a treatment for his diabetes. His levels reduced to almost normal, and the success quickly spread.
In 1923, Banting and McLeod were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Snowmobile – Joseph-Armand Bombardier – 1936
Growing up in Québec, before the snow was cleared from the streets by the government, Joseph-Armand Bombardier’s son fell ill during a blizzard and could not be brought to the hospital. This tragic event began Bombardier’s mission and the design process of a vehicle that could travel over the snow-packed roads.
The first snowmobile was named B7 for Bombardier and the fact that it held seven passengers. Later, he created a 12-person snowmobile. The market may have been there, but World War II created a hold in production and Bombardier began helping the government with specialized military vehicles instead.
After the war, he began building smaller snowmobiles and created a recreational market for snowmobiles.
External Cardiac Pacemaker – John Hopps - 1950
After observing cardio-thoracic surgeons using hypothermia to slow the heart for surgery, John Hopps began experiments which would lead to the first external cardiac pacemaker. After creating a prototype, he began testing his pacemaker on a dog and was successful.
His external cardiac pacemaker later led to a transplantable pacemaker, and some of the parts (catheter electrodes) are still used in our pacemakers today.
Garbage Bag – Harry Wasylyk and Larry Hansen - 1950
Initially invented as a commercial product, the disposable green trash bags invented by Harry Wasylyk and Larry Hansen soon became a household item.
After the initial creation of the garbage bags, Wasylyk and Hansen sold them to Winnipeg General Hospital. Soon after the first sales of the bags, Union Carbide Company bought the invention, and the bags were soon sold for home use as Glad garbage bags in the 1960s.
Alkaline Battery – Lewis Urry - 1954
Experiments in hopes of finding a more efficient battery with less cost were underway using the original batteries as the base. Lewis Urry took a different approach and began experimenting to find a new battery instead. His experiments led him to the discovery that using manganese dioxide and powdered zinc with an alkaline as an electrolyte would work efficiently.
To showcase his new invention, he placed his dry-cell battery in a toy car and raced his car against a similar car using the old battery. The showcase was a success and demonstrated the durability of his new battery. Urry’s dry-cell battery was soon bought by Eveready (later Energizer).
Goalie Mask - Jacques Plante - 1959
Jacques Plante, a professional hockey goaltender, began his design of the goalie mask out of a need to protect himself.
After injuries to the face from the puck, he created a mask to protect his face. He began wearing the mask at practices but was not allowed to wear the mask during games as his coach feared it would impair his vision.
After being hit in the face with the puck during a game, he returned to the ice with his mask, refusing to take the ice without it. Due to the lack of another goalie, he was allowed to wear it for the remainder of the game and continued to wear it for the rest of his career.
While Plante was not the first goalie to wear a mask, he did introduce the mask to the normal equipment which was later made mandatory for all goalies.
This article has been written by homeschooling staff writers of The Canadian Schoolhouse (TCS). Enjoy more of our content from TCS contributors and staff writers by visiting our Front Door page that has content on our monthly theme and links to all our content sections.
SHARE TCS ON YOUR PAGE!
GRAB OUR BUTTON HERE-
"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).