Since When Did Canada Invent Things? Quiz

Answer: Telephone

Revolutionizing communication technology, Bell developed the patent for the telephone in Brantford, Ontario. Oddly, there's been much controversy as to whether or not Bell stole the idea from fellow inventor, U.S.-born Elisha Gray, who failed to file the patent ahead of Bell.

The first phone call was made between Bell and his assistant, Thomas Watson, a year earlier. It comes as no surprise that one of Canada's largest telecommunications companies is named after the inventor: Bell Media.

Answer: Underwater

While early concepts of RADAR were hypothesized in the 1880s, SONAR actually made its practical debut in 1912. Standing for Sound Navigation and Ranging, SONAR uses sound to locate objects in and on bodies of water; it was especially useful during war times, and resulted in more complex battles off land, particularly between submarines. Reginald Fessenden, who was the first to create a working SONAR apparatus, made the device in Boston (and called the Fessenden oscillator) after the sinking of the Titanic as a way to locate icebergs. Early versions of the device were not too great at locating small items.

It would take many years before it could home in on items smaller than a sub.

Answer: Diabetes

Banting discovered insulin in 1922 and was subsequently awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his invaluable work in the field. Born in Alliston, Ontario he spent most of his life in Canada heading research on different diseases from black lung to cancer and issues arising in soldiers during the war. Nonetheless he's one of the foremost names in diabetes research; insulin was determined in several polls to be the most influential invention in Canadian history.

Insulin works by righting the functions of the pancreas which, in a diabetic individual, doesn't retrain energy from sugars necessary for the body to keep going.

Answer: Pablum

Created in the early days of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children (better known as 'Sick Kids' in the city), Pablum was developed as a food that could provide children with necessary nutrients for growth and overall health. While the meal does contain gluten (as it is made with wheat, oatmeal, cornmeal, and other grains), it avoids most other common allergens and actually works to prevent childhood diseases; it was a godsend in the Great Depression.

The volume of pablum sold in the early years of its life helped fund many advancements, making Sick Kids one of the best-equipped hospitals in all of Canada.

It also paved the way for later forms of essential infant nutrition used today.

Answer: Bombardier

Although early forms of snowmobiles started getting built long before the 1930s as a means of traversing snowy terrain, it wasn't until famous Canadian Joseph-Armand Bombardier revolutionized the market with his continuous-track motor devices and built upon a transport empire in North America.

The snowmobile has gone many overhauls since the early days to become more personalized, compact, and efficient; they're essentials the further north you go and often used for recreational purposes. Bombardier has since developed everything transport-based from Learjets to Toronto subway trains to... oddly, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch.

Answer: Walkie-Talkie

Sure enough-- Canadians again. The Walkie-Talkie was designed to communicate over a certain distance without being picked up by enemy forces. Unsurprisingly, it worked well enough to be used through the remained of the war. Nowadays, walkie-talkies are small enough and inexpensive enough to be picked up at a department store. Nonetheless, more advanced walkies are used by armed forces, police personnel, and other groups to communicate over a single, shared frequency. Canadians Hings and Gross created the 'packset' with a team at Motorola, a U.S. company. Funnily enough, the pager was developed as a result of the walkie-talkie, and so was the cordless phone; both were by Gross, the first to file their patents.

Answer: Garbage

Sure enough, garbage bags are an invention of the 1950s...and by Canadians (you're welcome, world!). Created for larger-scale refuse storage for businesses, the idea was drafted up by two men-- Harry Wasylyk and Larry Hansen, who pushed the idea onward to a Union Carbide plant in Ontario for manufacturing and distribution.

Their green polyethylene bags were sold under the Glad brand a decade later, becoming one of the largest names in cleaning products worldwide. Made from biodegradable material, garbage bags have since affected our environment in drastic ways.

Answer: IMAX

IMAX, originally created to show specialized films on larger screens with louder sounds and in more immersive settings, was built in the late 1960s by a team of Canadians seeking to bring a bigger viewing experience to the masses. The technology debuted at a later expo (Expo '70) in Japan, but the first IMAX theaters cropped up in Toronto. IMAX has since become a bit of a booming market; a grander alternative to a simple movie, it's often implemented by bigwig movie studios (Disney, Paramount, etc.) for high-profile releases and, in most cases, it requires a lot of financial input. Notable IMAX releases include the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "Avatar", the "Harry Potter" series, and James Cameron's re-release of "Titanic", and most of these films are amongst the top-grossing of all time, perhaps due to the use of IMAX tech.

Answer: Arm

Sure enough, the Canadarm worked where other devices would not. Developed by several firms across Canada, it was picked up by NASA as a solution to problems working with materials in space. Using remotely-controlled functions, the arms can carry payloads, allowing astronauts to better handle and repair satellites and other space bric-a-brac. Two were attached to the International Space Station; a handful of others have since been attached to space shuttles. One became a permanent fixture in Ottawa after use on the Endeavour, a shuttle decommissioned in 2012.

Answer: Blackberry

The Blackberry was created by RIM in 2002 and has since become a leading smartphone manufacturer worldwide, selling over 80,000,000 units, at one time being the largest iPhone competitor. While the iPhone's touch-screen was liked by some, those looking for tactile keyboards often went to Blackberry's sleek, compact design and, as such, it was picked up by most cellular providers. RIM later released tablets in an attempt to match the success of Apple Inc.

We've come a long way since Bell's phone!