The Friday Fillip: Canadian Inventions of the Humble Sort
Canadians have invented a lot of high-profile things — the Canadarm, the method for extracting insulin, IMAX projection — but what catches my attention are the small things that disappear into everyday life as though they’d always been there. These Canadian inventions are rarely sung (well, if something can be “unsung,” surely it might also be “sung”).
First among these is the humble egg carton. Yes, a Canadian invented the thing in which you buy and, likely, store your eggs. Joseph L. Coyle from Smithers, B.C., a newspaperman of all things, came up with a working prototype in 1911. (It said “sorry” when you got home and found an egg was broken.) Then comes Pablum that ubiquitous baby food (some of which is still bound to be in cracks and crannies in the rooms where my children learned to feed themselves), also an invention from the early part of the last century.
How about the paint roller? Yep, Canadian, the work of Norman Breakey in 1940. Or, one of my all-time favourites, the Robertson screw — the one with the square slot — invented by, well, P.L. Robertson in 1908, and to my way of thinking heads and shoulders above the slot-head or star-head competition. Or, for my final example, the garbage bag, than which nothing is humbler: the work in 1950 of Harry Wasylyk, a Winnipegger, and Larry Hansen, from Lindsay Ontario.
Have a look at Wikipedia’s list of Canadian inventions, or at the list thrown up by DuckDuckGo (my new g0-to search engine) after a search for [Canadian inventions]. You might be surprised at what you’ll find.
A small quibble about “pablum”. As I recall my box of cereal as a child it was spelled “Pabulum”. I wonder when the contraction came to dominate? The article to which you offer a link says “early in the 1900s”. I’d be curious to see a more definite date. I was a patient of Dr. Alan Brown in the late 1940s. Was he already practicing at the Sick Children’s Hospital before 1925? Or does early in the century now include the 2nd quarter?
Aging like cheddar,
Mickey Posluns.
We’re not proud of the Robertson screw are we? …responsible for a lot of swearing over the years. ;)
Hmmm….this comment could only have come from someone who has not learned to love the Robertson screw…..someone who has not learned how much more efficient it is to have a screw with a “socket” in the top, so your driver fits in snugly without any possibility of slipping.
Lots of lawyers are good with tools, but its not a prerequisite for good practice. Like everything else in life, there is a learning curve.
This is what I learned about Robertson screws by having to put things together myself:
I can put the screw exactly where I want it, centre the driver with my other hand, and once I put pressure on the driver, the driver pressure, plus the “socket” keep the screw in place, so it goes in quickly and it goes in exactly where its supposed to.
Simple, effective, and no swearing required.