CanadianStories of Canadian Innovations Innovation Allan McIntosh beside a “McIntosh Red” apple tree, , February 1908 called theMcIntosh“myfavouritekindofeatin’ apple.” the nameofMacintoshcomputer. JefRaskin,an Apple engineer, cooking andforeating fresh. Notably, theMcIntoshRedinspired Red’s supremacy, theMcIntoshappleremainsafavourite bothfor varieties likeGalaandHoneycrisphavechallengedthe McIntosh this breedingworkinbeautifulwatercolours. And whilenewapple Spartan new varietiesincludingLobo,Cortland,Empire, and in Ottawa, used the hardy McIntosh Red to create such as W. McIntosh RedwaspopularacrossNorth America. Apple breeders, in 1870andsoldtreestootherorchardists.Bytheearly1900s, son, continuedthiswork.HeestablishedaMcIntoshRednursery to other fruittrees propagated their unique apple flavour and tender white flesh. Over the decades, the McIntosh family the treesandoneboredeliciousfruit:adeep-redapplewithtart near Morrisburg ontheStLawrenceRiver. McIntoshtransplanted found apple-treeseedlingsasheclearedbrushonhisDundelafarm, in Ontario1811 The McIntoshRedisaworld-famousapplethatwas . FarmbotanistandartistFaithFylesrecordedsomeof T. Macoun at McIntosh Red Apple McIntosh . JohnMcIntosh,asettlerfromNew York, intheirorchard. Allan McIntosh,John’s the CentralExperimentalFarm by grafting scions, or cuttings, discovered in thousandsofbattlesorties. aircraft the flew Canadian Force, Royal the Air and RAF the both in aeronautical engineer intheworld of were William, Hurricanes 1,400 than More production. varietyof and Asia. played an important role in wartime Hurricane in a tooperate tough environments,theHurricanewasdeployedinEurope, its ability Africa, for Admired flight. level in 485 over fly to aircraft RAF first the became and fast also was canopy andretractable landing gear. The heavily-armed Hurricane enclosed an feature to monoplane (RAF) Force Air Royal was first it the firsts: technological of aircraft an was It 1935. in launched a single-seatmonoplane Robust andrugged,theHurricanewas German air force duringtheBattleofBritainin1940 The HawkerHurricanegainedfamefor Elizabeth “Elsie” MacGill, probably the first female , between 1940 and 1943 under the supervision its role in defeatingthe . Canadian pilots, fighting built inFort km/h .

Elizabeth “Elsie” MacGill, chief engineer at CN 6400 Locomotive

CN 6400 achieved the peak of its fame in 1939 when it carried King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on the Royal Tour across Canada and then went on display at the “World of Tomorrow,” the New York Queen Elizabeth

World’s Fair. Manufactured at the Locomotive Works for Canadian National Railways (CNR) in 1936, this steam and locomotive featured a semi-streamlined body — designed by National Research Council of Canada engineers — and a state-of-the-art steam engine. CN 6400’s sleek lines also made it a favourite in the CNR’s promotional material where it became the face of modern rail travel. By the late 1940s, though, the age of steam was coming to a close. CN gradually withdrew and scrapped most of its steam locomotives. It spared CN 6400 because of its technical and symbolic importance. King George VI King George aboard the Royal Tour train, May 1939 Tour aboard the Royal Roto Thresh Combine Harvester The Roto Thresh was the first combine harvester to use a spinning drum to separate grain from chaff and straw. Rotary separation is now common in combine harvesters, but in the 1950s, when Manitoba farmers William Streich, Frederick Streich, and Frank McBain built their first prototype, it was an innovative departure. The “sieveless chaffer,” as it was first called, underwent further development through the University of and in 1968 the Western Roto Thresh Manufacturing Company was launched. The first Roto

Thresh combine harvester rolled off the production line in Saskatoon Bill Streich in 1974, offering higher harvesting capacity and reduced grain loss. Only fifty machines were built, however, before production ceased and

in 1978. Fred with a prototype of the Roto Thresh combine, ca 1962 with a prototype of the Roto Canadarm

The Canadarm first launched into Space aboard Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981. The Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (its official name) measures 15 metres in length and has six rotating joints that give it a range of movement mimicking the human arm. Five Canadarms were used in the Space Shuttle program over its thirty- year span: they captured satellites, unpacked payloads and cargo, and cradled astronauts as they conducted inspections or maintenance. The Canadarm also played a key role in assembling the International Space Station. The Canadarm on display at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, named RMS 201, was the first in Space and was aboard the Space ShuttleEndeavour during its final mission. Spar Aerospace, the Canadarm’s primary contractor, designed and built the Canadarm in to exacting criteria for precision movement, manual and automatic operations, safety, reliability, and weight. Although it had never been tested in the harsh environment of Space, the Canadarm worked flawlessly straight out of the box. Canadian General Electric Monitor-Top Refrigerator Electric refrigerators changed the way Canadians stored, prepared, and consumed food. Before electric refrigerators, Canadians used root cellars and ice-boxes to preserve their food. In the 1920s, domestic electric refrigerators, or fridges, came onto the market as electrical distribution networks spread across Canada. Fridges used exposed belt-driven compressors to cool food, and resembled ice-boxes in their design; they were also expensive and noisy. Canadian General Electric, a subsidiary of American manufacturer General Electric (GE), introduced the first refrigerator with a sealed refrigeration unit in 1927. The refrigerator in the Museum’s collection dates from 1930 and features a top-mounted compressor, called a monitor after its resemblance to the turret on the ironclad warship the USS Monitor. The fridge’s all- steel construction and porcelain interior appealed to consumers, but homemakers disliked the monitor compressor. It was hard to clean and prevented use of the refrigerator’s top for storage, which was why manufacturers later replaced monitor-style refrigerators with more streamlined designs. Despite its flaws, this refrigerator marked an important shift in production and consumption: manufacturers such as GE began to produce electrical goods for middle-class consumers, marketing appliances in terms of convenience, cleanliness, and modernity. Canadians, depending on their incomes and location, accepted electrical appliances as labour- saving devices, buying into the notion that the electric kitchen was the mark of a modern home. However, refrigerators did not became standard equipment in Canadian kitchens until after the Second World War. Increasing wages and lower appliance prices made refrigerators more affordable; by 1960, 90 percent of Canadian homes contained one. RIM 950 Wireless Handheld™ Device by BlackBerry®

The RIM 950 Wireless Handheld™ device by BlackBerry® accelerated Internet communications when it was introd­ uced in 1999. Featuring a unique keyboard layout, it functioned as a pager, email device, and personal organizer. Suddenly, people were furiously thumb-typing, which made a distinctive click-clack sound. Incorporating a wireless modem, the BlackBerry® pager was always “on,” which allowed users to receive messages on the go without having to dial into a server. The device soon became identified with a class of mobile executives and decision-makers dependent on rapid exchanges of email and text messages. The RIM 950 Wireless Handheld™ device, which later incorporated a phone and web browser, established Research In Motion Ltd (now known as BlackBerry®) as a global leader in mobile communications; back in Ontario, it also consolidated Waterloo’s position as a hub for Canadian high-tech research and development. The Last Spike

The “last” spike was really the “second-to-last” spike. It took two swings for Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) financier and director Donald A. Smith to drive the final spike in Canada’s transcontinental railway. Smith represented CPR executives at a small ceremony on drove the last spike November 7, 1885, at Craigellachie, . On his first attempt, Smith bent the spike. Workers replaced it with another, which Smith drove cleanly home. That spike symbolically completed the 4,800-kilometre railway and fulfilled British Columbia’s condition for entering Confederation. The simple iron spike was one of millions produced in eastern Canadian ironworks and hammered into place by thousands of workers from Canada, Europe, and China. CPR officials later removed the ceremonial last spike from the railbed in Craigellachie and sent it to CPR headquarters in Montreal. Donald Smith pocketed the bent spike as a souvenir and used parts of it to make commemorative pins. When the actual last spike disappeared from the CPR president’s office, Smith’s souvenir suddenly became a national icon. Although the worse for wear, this spike has come to represent the completion of a monumental engineering feat and the formation of Canada as a transcontinental nation. Donald A. Smith to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway on November 7, 1885. The Honourable projector, ®

® Corporation IMAX Projector ® The IMAX® projector changed movie-goers’ expectations of spectacular wide-screen films when it debuted in Japan in 1970. IMAX® used an innovative film-transport mechanism to quickly and smoothly advance a 70-mm large-format film through the projector. This film carried an image ten times the size of the standard 35-mm movie format, making it the largest frame in film history. As a result, the IMAX® projector delivered an image of astonishing breadth and detail. The projector was the product of Canadian filmmakers and , producer Robert Kerr, and engineer Bill Shaw. Building on their experience producing large-screen films for , the

co-founder of IMAX team developed the IMAX® projector for the 1970 world’s fair in Osaka, Japan. After Expo 70, the projector was returned to Canada and installed in the first permanent IMAX® theatre in the and world, the Cinesphere at Ontario Place in Toronto. IMAX® #1, as it was called, remained in service there for forty years, making it the longest serving IMAX® projector anywhere. It was finally retired in 2011. Graeme Ferguson, Canadian filmmaker, co-developer of the IMAX Canadian filmmaker, Magnetron The cavity magnetron gave the Allies radar superiority in the Second World War. Radar, which researchers had developed before the war, uses radio waves to detect and track objects like ships and aircraft. It works by transmitting radio waves out into the atmosphere and then reading the signals that bounce off objects in the area. These signals give operators range and bearing and, over time, let them track a moving object’s direction and speed. The magnetron generated high-powered pulses of microwaves, which and technical the scientific provided higher resolution and greater directionality — and America in 1940. to North therefore greater range — than systems using longer waves. led It also reduced the size of equipment, which was especially important for airborne radars. Henry Boot and John Randall of Birmingham University in England invented the magnetron and General Electric Ltd manufactured this one in 1940. A British technical mission brought it to North America in 1940, leaving it in Canada after having used it to help persuade a reluctant government to join the Allied radar research and production effort. The word radar is an acronym derived from the term RAdio Detection And Ranging. Sir Henry Tizard that brought the magnetron mission Bombardier B-7 Snowmobile

Joseph-Armand Bombardier’s idea for the snowmobile grew out of family tragedy. Impassable winter roads prevented him from taking his son to hospital, and the infant died of peritonitis. In 1935, Bombardier built a prototype that ran on caterpillar tracks like those used on military tanks. Two years later, he patented a sprocket wheel and track drive system to build the B-7, a seven passenger covered snowmobile. The B-7 became popular with country doctors and veterinarians, as well as for postal delivery, and forestry and utility companies. The commercial success of the B-7 allowed Bombardier to expand production facilities in 1941 and develop other snowmobile designs, including the Ski-Doo. creator of the snowmobile Joseph Armand Bombardier, Cardiac Pacemaker

The pacemaker is a Canadian invention that keeps hearts beating. It revolutionized the medical treatment of cardiac patients and kick-started the field of biomedical engineering. In the late 1940s, Canadian surgeons Dr Wilfred G. Bigelow and Dr John C. Callaghan were exploring open-heart surgery techniques at the ’s Banting and Best Institute. Based on his wartime experience as a medic, Bigelow hypothesized that cooling the body and slowing the heart rate could enable heart surgery. The heart, however, had to remain beating while the body was hypothermic. During surgery on a dog, Bigelow and Callaghan observed that pulses from an electrical probe restarted the animal’s heart and could vary the heartbeat. Bigelow and Callaghan sought out electrical engineer John Hopps at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Ottawa to build a device who built the first pacemaker based on their observations. Portable and worn outside the body, Hopps’s pacemaker delivered electrical pulses to the heart using John “Jack” Hopps, an insulated wire inserted through the jugular vein. In 1950, Bigelow and Callaghan tested the device on a dog, the first successful use of an external pacemaker in the world. John Hopps and the NRC medical electronics team had bridged the gap between medicine and engineering, establishing the new field of biomedical engineering. By 1984, thanks to transistors and small batteries, pacemakers were small enough to be placed directly into the body, and doctors implanted a pacemaker into John Hopps. the electrical engineer

CCM Cheetah Bicycle

The Cheetah bicycle brought the look of chopper motorcycles, popularized by the American film Easy Rider, to Canada’s suburban streets. The Canada Cycle & Motor Company (CCM) began manufacturing chopper-style bicycles in 1966. The “Cheetah” — intended for girls — was part of a line that also included the “Mustang” and the “Marauder.” These bicycles all featured chopper-style high-rise handle bars, extended forks, and “banana” seats inspired by customized motorcycles. CCM’s juvenile bicycles had historically been conservatively styled and were basically smaller versions of adult bicycles. Chopper bikes appealed to the youth market, promising high-speed fun and perhaps even rebellion. Although chopper features actually made the bicycles inefficient to ride — and even unsafe — they were extremely popular with Canadian children. In today’s fast paced, digital age, it’s easy to take for granted the astonishing stories and ground-breaking work that went into so many devices we use every day. Canadian scientific and technological discoveries have contributed so much to the world as we know it. From the inventions most Canadians know of to lesser known discoveries that nevertheless have a huge impact on our lives, the history of innovation in Canada is worth celebrating.