Science and technology in Canada

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Science and technology in Canada consists of three distinct but closely related phenomena:

• the diffusion of technology in Canada,
• scientific research in Canada
• innovation, invention and industrial research in Canada

Contents 1 The diffusion of technology in Canada 1.1 The Stone Age: Fire (14,000 BC – 1600) 1.2 The Age of Sail: Ships, symbolic language, and the wheel (1600 – 1830) 1.3 The Steam Age: Trains, telegraphs, water, and oil (1830 – 1880) 1.4 The Electric Age: Light, street railways, telephones, skyscrapers and central heating (1880 – 1920) 1.5 Killing Machines I: Artillery and machine guns (1914 – 1918) 1.6 The Automobile Age: Cars, planes and radios (1920 – 1950) 1.7 Killing Machines II: Bombers, tanks, corvettes, radar, and explosives (1939 – 1945) 1.8 The Television Age: TV, nuclear weapons, atomic energy, and computers (1950 – 1980) 1.9 The PC Age: The Microchip and Mobile Communications (1980 – 2000) 1.10 The Internet Age: Wireless Technology, Mega Oil and Ecological Friendliness (2000 – Present) 2 Scientific research in Canada 2.1 The beginnings of science (14,000 BC – 1850) 2.1.1 Native peoples and nature (14,000 – 1600) 2.1.2 The Europeans: Explorers, universities, and talented amateurs (1600 – 1850) 2.2 The rise of professional science (1850 – 1900) 2.2.1 Government research organizations 2.2.2 New universities and changing curricula 2.2.3 Disciplines (1850 – 1900) 2.2.4 Scientists of note (1850 – 1900) 2.3 Research laboratories, Nobel Prizes and the NRC (1900 – 1939) 2.3.1 University laboratories 2.3.2 Government laboratories 2.3.3 Disciplines (1900 – 1939) 2.3.4 Scientists of note (1900 – 1939) 2.4 Science at war (1939 – 1945) 2.4.1 Funding and pure science 2.4.2 Disciplines (1939 – 1945) 2.5 Explosive growth (1945 – 1985) 2.5.1 Universities and government research agencies (1945 – 1985) 2.5.2 Funding agencies (1945 – 1985) 2.5.3 Disciplines (1945 – 1985) 2.5.4 Big science (1945 – 1985) 2.5.5 Science policy 2.5.6 Nobel Laureates and other scientists of note (1945 – 1985) 2.6 Cutbacks and recovery (1985 – Present) 2.6.1 Universities and government research agencies (1985 – Present) 2.6.2 Funding agencies (1985 – Present) 2.6.3 Disciplines (1985 – Present) 2.6.4 Big science (1985 – Present) 2.6.5 Nobel Laureates and other scientists of note (1985 – Present) 3 Innovation, invention, and industrial research in Canada 3.1 The Stone Age: Fire 14,000BC – 1600 3.2 The Age of Sail: Ships, symbolic language, and the wheel (1600 – 1830) 3.3 The Steam Age: Trains, telegraphs, water, and oil (1830 – 1880) 3.4 The Electric Age: Light, street railways, telephones, skyscrapers and central heating (1880 – 1920) 3.5 Killing Machines I: Artillery and machine guns (1914 – 1918) 3.6 The Automobile Age: Cars, planes and radios (1920 – 1950) 3.7 Killing Machines II: Bombers, tanks, corvettes, radar and explosives (1939 – 1945) 3.8 The Television Age: TV, nuclear weapons, atomic energy, and computers (1950 – 1980) 3.9 The PC Age: The Microchip and Mobile Communications (1980 – 2000) 3.10 The Internet Age: Wireless Technology, Mega Oil and Ecological Friendliness (2000 – Present) 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] The diffusion of technology in Canada

The terms chosen for the "age" described below are both literal and metaphorical. They describe the technology that dominated the period of time in question but are also representative of a large number of other technologies introduced during the same period. Also of note is the fact that the period of diffusion of a technology can begin modestly and can extend well beyond the "age" of its introduction. To maintain continuity, the treatment of its diffusion is dealt with in the context of its dominant "age". For example the "Steam Age" here is defined as the period from 1840 to 1880. However steam powered boats were introduced in 1809, the CPR was completed in 1885 and railway construction in Canada continued well into the twentieth century. To preserve continuity, the development of steam, in the early and later years, is therefore considered within the "Steam Age". Technology can be applied in many fields. Those chosen for treatment here include, in rough order, transportation, communication, energy, materials, industry, public works, public services (health care), domestic/consumer and defence technologies.

[edit] The Stone Age: Fire (14,000 BC – 1600)

The diffusion of technology in what is now Canada began with the arrival of the first humans about 14,000 BC.

These people brought with them stone and bone tools. These took the form of arrowheads, axes, blades, scrappers, needles, harpoon heads and fishhooks used mostly to kill animals and fish for food and skins. They also brought fire which they used for heating their dwellings and for cooking which was done onyou beep! open fires. There were no clay pots or ovens.

In the Arctic the Innu used stick frames covered with animal skins for shelter during the summer months while during the harsh winter they built houses made of snow or igloos. On the plains native peoples used the wellfasdfasdfasfas known teepee. This consisted of a number of poles arranged to form a conical structure which was in turn covered with animal skins. In central Canada the long house was popular. This large structure was built from interwoven branches and could house 70 to 80 people. Several of these structures would be built together to form a village which was often surrounded by a palisade of logs stuck vertically into the ground as protection from hostile tribes. On the west coast native peoples constructed dwellings made from heavy timber. These structures were built near the wateradgasdgasdgsdgasdgsadgasdgsdgf's edge and were often decorated with elaborate and elegant carved images.

Transportation techniques were simple. The aboriginal peoples did not have the wheel, horses or the sail. The paddle powered canoe was the most common means of transport and was especially practical during the summer, considering the large number of lakes and rivers that characterized the topography. The duggout was favoured in the waters off the west coast. Summer travel also saw use of the travois, a simple type of sled that was pulled over the ground by a dog and used to transport a light load. In the winter the snow shoe made walking in the deep snow practical. Winter transport in the Arctic made use of the dog team and in warmer summer months the use of the kayak was common.

Clothing was made of animal skins which were cut with stone and bone tools and sewn with bone needles and animal sinews. Native peoples did not have textiles.

For the most part native peoples were hunters and gatherers, chasing large animals, and fishing for a source of protein. Plants and fruits that grew naturally were also an important food source. A common, easily stored and readily transportable food was pemmican, dried powerdered meat mixed with fat, berries and "vegetables". In central Canada there was limited agriculture which allowed the storage of some food during times of privation. Of note was the fact that they did not have the plow or draught animals.

The first peoples had techniques for dealing with disease. Medicines included those made from high bush cranberries, oil of wintergreen and bloodroot, among others. A type of tea made from the bark of the spruce or hemlock could prevent or cure scurvy.

The first peoples did not have writing or any way of communicating in symbolic form or storing information. Their extensive knowledge of the natural world and information relating to their customs and traditions was passed orally.

Weapons of war were made by hand from wood and stone. The long range weapon of these times was the bow and arrow with an effective range of 100+ metres. Close in fighting was conducted with a range of simple armaments including: stone tipped spears, stone axes (tomahawk), stone blades used as knives and stone and wooden clubs of various types. Because there was no knowledge of metal working with the exception of some small items of jewelry made from copper, such weapons as swords and metal knives were not part of this early arsenal.

[edit] The Age of Sail: Ships, symbolic language, and the wheel (1600 – 1830)

The arrival of white explorers and colonists in the 1500s introduced those technologies popular in Europe at the time, such as iron making, the wheel, writing, paper, printing, books, newspapers, long range navigation, large ship construction, stone and brick and mortar construction, surgery, firearms, new crops, livestock, the knife fork and spoon, china plates and cups, iron pots, cotton and linen cloth, horses and livestock.

The use of wind and water as sources of power were major developments in the technological history of the new colonies. Ships with large masts and huge canvas sails maintained the link between the colonies and the imperial centres, Paris, France until 1763 and London, England until the arrival of steam power in 1850. Wind power was used to a lesser extent to turn the sails of the windmill, which did not come into widespread use. However water power was used extensively to power grist mill in both New France and later, Quebec and Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Animal power in the form of the horse or ox, was used to work the fields. Fire from a wood or oil fuel source was not new but the use of stone fireplaces and ovens along with metal pots and pans dramatically changed the nature of cooking. The new arrivals also brought new eating habits. Meat from animals such as cows, sheep, chickens and pigs was common as were new types of fruits and vegetables. These items were eaten fresh but could be stored for later consumption if salted, pickled or frozen. Grain was ground to flour at the local grist mill and baked in the home oven with yeast to make bread. Hopps, grain and fruit were fermented to make beer, hard alcohol and wine. Meals were served on pewter or china plates and eaten with a metal knife, fork and spoon. The places were set on a simple wooden table with wooden chairs often made by the man of the house.

Inland travel by the coureurs de bois was by way of an Indian invention, the canoe. Within settlements transport was often simply a matter of walking around town. The horse, introduced by the new arrivals also provided a new and convenient mode of transport. The wooden cart, wagon and carriage, made possible by the introduction of the wheel in combination with the horse, dramatically improved the transport of people and goods. The first graded road in Canada was built by Samuel de Champlain in 1606 and linked the settlement at Port Royal to Digby Cape, 16 kilometers away. By 1734 Quebec City and Montreal were connected by a road, Le chemin du roi, along the north shore of the St Lawrence. The 267 distance could be traversed with great difficulty and discomfort by horse drawn carriage in four to five days. The period also saw the construction a number of important canals including: the Rideau Canal, Ottawa - Kingston, 1820, the Lachine Canal, Montreal, 1825, the Ottawa River Canals at Grenville and Carillon, Quebec, 1834 and the Chambly Canal, Chambly, Quebec, 1843.

The introduction of written language to the new world was of paramount importance. The 26 letter, Roman based alphabet that formed the basis for French and English words was arguably much more flexible that the pictographs that characterized eastern languages. The pen along with ink and paper made written communication possible and allowed private individuals, businessmen, the clergy and government officials to produce the documents essential for social, commercial, religious and political intercourse. This created a need for mail service. Messages were originally carried bwtween settlements on the St. Lawrence by canoe. After 1734 the road between Montreal and Quebec was used by a special courier to carry official dispatches. In 1755 a post office was opened in Halifax by Benjamin Franklin, the Post Master of the British colonies, as part of a trans-Atlantic mail service that he established between Falmouth, England and New York. In 1763 Franklin opened other post offices in Quebec City, Trois Rivieres and Montreal with a link from the latter city to New York and the trans-Atlantic service. The War of American Independence seriously disrupted mail service in Canada but by 1783 peace had been restored and Hugh Finlay was appointed Post Master for the northern colonies in 1784. That same year Finlay hired Pierre Durand to survey an all-Canadian mail route to Halifax. The path chosen took 15 weeks for a round trip!

Although the written word was a vital part of communications, French colonial policy opposed the establishment of newspapers in New France. Canada's first paper, the Halifax Gazette produced on a simple printing press, began publication in 1752 under the watchful eye of John Bushell. In 1764, the Quebec Gazette was established in Quebec City by William Brown and Thomas Gilmore. The Montreal Gazette was founded in that city in 1785 by Fleury Mesplet. Other newspapers followed including the Upper Canada Gazette at Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake)in 1793, the first newspaper in what is now Ontario, the Québec City Mercury, 1805, the Montréal Herald, 1811, Le Canadien 1806, La Minerve, 1826, and the Colonial Advocate and Novascotian both in 1824. These publications were simple affairs, type set by hand, consisting of only a few pages, produced in limited quanties on simple presses and of limited distribution.

Between the 1530s and 1626 Basque whalers frequented the waters of Newfoundland and the north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence from the Strait of Bell Isle to the mouth of the Sagenuay River. They constructed stone ovens ashore for fires to melt whale fat. However as whales became scarce, the cod fishery off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland became hotly contested by the British and French, in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The British used small boats close to shore from which they caught the cod with hook and line. They practiced the "dry fishery" technique which involved shore based settlements for the drying of cod on flakes or racks placed in the open air for their subsequent transport back to Europe. The French on the other hand practiced the "green fishery" which involved processing the catch with salt aboard ship. At the same time fleet of schooners fishing for cod, halibut, haddock, and mackerel became prominent off the Atlantic coast. The use of the long line and purse seine net increased the size of the catch.

It is ironic that a phenomenon as fickle as fashion would be responsible for the economic development and exploration of half a continent but such was the case with the fur trade in North America between 1650 and 1850. The subject of bitter rivalry between the British and French Empires and inter-corporate rivalry among a number of business organizations, notably the Hudson's Bay Company and the Northwest Company, the technology of the trade was the picture of simplicity. Traders, be they French or British would set out in birch bark canoes, loaded with trade goods (knives, ax heads, cloth blankets, alcohol, firearms and other items) and travel west along Canada's numerous rivers, streams and lakes in search of Indians and exchange these items for beaver skins. The skins came from animals trapped by the native peoples and worn as clothing during the long cold Canadian winter. The skins were worn with the fur side next to the skin and by the spring the long hairs would be worn away leaving the short hairs which were used to make felt. The skins were them transported by the traders in their canoes back to trading posts in Montreal or on Hudson Bay and transported by sailing ship to England or France. There they were processed by a technique involving mercury, and the felt that resulted from the treatment was used to make beaver hats, and coincidentally gave rise to an associated phenomenon, the mad hatter. A combination of declining beaver stocks and a change in fashion that saw a decline in the popularity of the beaver hat put an end to the trade.

Agriculture was an essential colonial activity. The settlers who founded Port Royal in Acadia in 1605 drained coastal marshes with a system of dikes and grew vegetables, flax and wheat and raised livestock. After 1713 the British promoted the Maritimes as a source of hemp for the rope for the Royal Navy, with moderate success. Mixed farming, the growing of wheat and the raising of livestock would characterize the nature of maritime agriculture well into the mid-nineteenth century. In 1617, Louis Hebert in Quebec began to raise cattle and grow peas, grain and corn on a very small plot. In the 1640s charter companies promoted agriculture and settlers cleared forested land with the use of oxen, horses and asses. In 1663 Louis XIV, through his colonial administrators Colbert and Jean Talon took steps to promote the cultivation of hops and hemp and the raising of livestock. By 1721 the harvest of the farmers of New France consisted predominantly of wheat and the census of horses, pigs, cattle and sheep registered 30,0000 animals. In the latter part of the century the British promoted the cultivation of potatoes. The arrival of the Loyalists (American Revolution)|Loyalists in Upper Canada (where they were given the title United Empire Loyalists) in the late eighteenth century resulted in the cultivation of hemp but agriculture was dominated by the wheat culture well into the mid-nineteenth century.

The Europeans brought with them metal and textiles and a knowledge of the means to make them. Les Forges de St. Maurice which began producing iron in 1738 at facilities near Trois Rivieres and the Marmora Ironworks established in 1822 near Peterborough were the first iron works in Canada. Both ceased operations in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Early sixteenth century female settlers along the St Lawrence and in Acadia were almost all were familiar with the techniques of spinning yarn and weaving cloth for everyday clothes and bedding and the home production of textiles eventually became an important cottage industry. The spinning wheel and loom were features of many colonial homes and weaving techniques included the "à la planche" and "boutonné" methods. Loyalist women settling in Upper and Lower Canada, grew flax and raised sheep for wool to make clothing, blankets and linen. The Jacquard loom, introduced in the 1830s, featured a complex system of punch cards to control the pattern and was the first programmable machine in Canada. With the arrival of industrial textile mills in Montreal and Toronto in the late nineteenth century, the economic advantage of home weaving faded.

Money, then as now was of vital interest to individuals and to the functioning of the economy. The first coin produced for use in New France was the "Gloria Regni" a silver piece, struck in Paris in 1670. The first paper money in New France consisted of playing cards signed by the governor and issued in 1685 to help deal with the chronic shortage of coins. After 1760 the British introduced the sterling which officially stood as Canada's currency for almost a century. However the monetary system in reality was a chaotic affair and the British coins and paper circulated along with, Spanish dollars, Nova Scotia provincial money, US dollars and gold coins and British paper "army bills" used buy supplies in the War of 1812. In 1858 the government of the Province of Canada begn keeping its accounts in Canadian dollars and to circulate its own paper currency alongside the paper dollars circulated by the Bank of Montreal and other banks.

Medical treatment at this time reflected techniques available in France and was provided by a barber-surgeon. The first in New France was Robert Giffard who arrived in Quebec City in 1627 and "practiced" at Hotel-Dieu, Canada's first hospital, a very modest four-room structure, founded by the church. The panacea was bleeding, which involved the use of a knife to cut open a blood vessel and drain way a quantity of the patients blood. There was some surgery but it was undertaken with primitive instruments and without anesthetic or any familiarity with the concept of infection and both the procedure and results were usually quite gruesome. Another figure of repute, Michel Sarrazin, a noted botanist as well as doctor arrived from France in the latter half of the sevententh century and served as the surgeon-major of the French troops in New France. He too practiced at Hotel-Dieu and while there treated hundreds of patients infected during a typhus epidemic. Eyeglasses for the correction of vision became available at this time. The mercury thermometer, invented in 1714, became a useful diagnostic tool for doctors as did the stethescope invented in 1816. Because doctors were few and far between people with medical problems often had to treat themselves. They used Indian medicines or home remedies based on the internal and external application of various herbal and animal products. Advances in surgery came in the early 1800s with the innovative work of Dr. Christopher Widmer who practiced at York Hospital (later known as Toronto General Hospital) and R.W. Beaumont made a name as a noted inventor of surgical instruments. The early part of the nineteenth century also witnessed the first halting steps with respect to the use of inoculation, in Nova Scotia, in this case against smallpox. However it would take another one hundred years for the practice to become widespread. General hospitals were established in Montreal in 1819 and York (Toronto, Ontario) in 1829.

The first domestic homes in Canada were constructed at Port Royal on the Annapolis River in what is now Nova Scotia in 1605. The colonists built simple wooden frame homes with peaked roofs around a central courtyard. This established a house building tradition that lasts to this day, for by far the most common domestic structure in Canada for the last 400 years has been the wood frame peak roofed house. Most domestic homes both urban and rural in New France from about 1650 to 1750 were simple wooden structures. Wood was inexpensive, readily available and easily worked by most residents. Rooms were small, usually limited to a living/dining/ kitchen space and perhaps a bedroom. Roofs were usually peaked to deflect the rain and very heavy snow. After fires in Quebec City in 1682 and Montreal in 1721 building codes emphasized the importance of stone construction but these requirements were mostly ignored except by the most affluent. The most popular type of domestic dwelling in Loyalist Upper Canada in the late 1700s was the log house or the wood frame house or less commomly the stone house. When homes were heated it was by a fire place burning wood or a cast iron wood stove, which was also used for cooking and they were lit by candle light or whale oil lamp. Kerosene lamps became popular in the 1840s when Gesner of Halifax developed an effective way to manufacture that product. Water for drinking and washing was carried to the home from an outside source and the chamber pot or outdoor prive served as a toilet.

Musical instruments did much to enliven the colonial life. In the well known documents The Jesuit Relations, there is reference to the playing of the fiddle in 1645 and the organ in 1661. Quebec City boasted of Canada's first piano in 1784.

The Europeans introduced extremely important innovations relating to warfare, gunpowder, the cannon and the musket. The cannon was used to arm a number of important military structures including: the Citadel of Quebec, Quebec City, Quebec, 1745, the Fortress of Louisburg, Louisburg, Nova Scotia, 1745 and Fort Henry, Kingston, Ontario, 1812. They were also the primary weapon aboard the warships of the era. French regular soldiers stationed in New France and British regulars stationed in British North America after 1763 were equipped with a musket and bayonet. Ironically in the Battle of Quebec, one of the great battles of history, the French General Montcalm ordered his troops out of the ultra-modern stone-walled Citadel, with its heavy defensive cannon and onto the adjacent Plains of Abraham where they were felled by a single volley of musket fire from the British line. Both the British/Canadian/Indian troops and American troops were equipped with cannons and muskets when invading American armies attacked Canada in 1775 and again during the period from 1812 to 1814 with the intent of annexation. In both cases the invaders were defeated.

[edit] The Steam Age: Trains, telegraphs, water, and oil (1830 – 1880)

The pace of diffusion quickened in the 1800s with the introduction of such technologies as steam power and the telegraph. Indeed it was the introduction of steam power that allowed politicians in Ottawa to entertain the idea of creating a transcontinental state. In addition to steam power, municipal water systems and sewer systems were introduced in the latter part of the century. The field of medecine saw the introduction of anesthetic and antiseptics.

It was via the paddle powered steam boat that steam power was first introduced to Canada. The Accommodation, a side-wheeler built entirely in Montreal by the Eagle Foundry and launched in 1809, was the first steamer to ply Canadian waters, making its maiden voyage from Montréal to Québec that same year in 36-hours. Other paddle-wheel steamboats included: the Frontenac, Lake Ontario, 1816, the General Stacey Smyth, Saint John River, 1816, the Union, lower Ottawa River, 1819, the Royal William, Québec to Halifax, 1831 and the Beaver, BC coast,1836. Transatlantic steam service was introduced by the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company founded Sir Hugh Allan in Montreal in 1854.

The first steam powered railway service in Canada was offered by the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad, Quebec, in 1836. Other railway systems soon followed including: the Albion Mines Railway, Nova, Scotia, 1839, the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad, 1853, the Great Western Railway, Montreal to Windsor, 1854, the Grand Trunk Railway, Montreal to Sarnia, 1860, the Intercolonial Railway, 1876, the Chignecto Marine Transport Railway, Tignish, Nova Scotia, 1888, the Edmonton, Yukon & Pacific Railway, 1891 and the Newfoundland Railway, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, 1893, the White Pass and Yukon Railway, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, 1900, the Kettle Valley Railway, British Columbia, 1916 and Canadian National Railways, 1917.

One of the great engineering works of the world, the Canadian Pacific Railway and its associated Canadian Pacific trans-Canada telegraph system, was completed in 1885. Between 1881 and 1961 CPR would operate 3,267 steam locomotives.

Canada's initial telegraph service introduced in 1846, was offered by the Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Co. Others soon followed including: the telegraph system of The Montreal Telegraph Company, 1847 and the telegraph system of the Dominion Telegraph Company, 1868.

The newspaper benefitted from the introduction of the telegraph and the rotary press. This latter device, invented in the US, was first used in Canada by George Brown in Toronto starting in 1844 to print copies of the Globe. This process permitted the printing of thousands of copies of each daily paper rather than the mere hundreds of copies possible with previous technologies.

The lumber industry grew to become one of Canada's most important economic engines during this period. A market for Canadian wood developed in Britain where access to traditional sources of lumber for the construction of ships for the Royal Navy, as well as industrial structures, was blocked by Napoleon in 1806. As a result Britain turned to her colonies in North America to supply masts for her ships as well as sawn lumber and square timber. Other wood products included barrel staves, shingles, box shooks and spoolwood for textile factories. Growth during this period was staggering. In 1805, 9000 loads of lumber arrived in Britain from Canada. In 1807, the total shipped rose to 27,000 loads, in 1809, 90,000 and by 1846, 750,000 loads.

Water was necessary for the transport of lumber to saw mill and ports as well as providing the power for the saw mills themselves and as a result the industry developed along the rivers of New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, including the Mirimachi, St. John, Ottawa and Gatineau. The logging itself was a winter activity and began with the first snowfall when roads and camps were built in the forest. Trees were cut with steel axes until about 1870 when the two-man crosscut saw was introduced. The felled trees had their branches removed and were hauled over the snow roads by teams of oxen or horses to the nearest frozen stream or river. In the spring melt they would be carried by the rushing water downstream to the mills. Often the logs "jammed" and on the way the lumberjacks would undertake the very dangerous lob of breaking the "jam". Where there were rapids or obstacles, special timber "slides" were constructed to aid transport. Large numbers of logs were often assembled into rafts to aid their movement or into very large booms which drifted down river to mills and market. A number of large firms appeared as a result of this activity including, Cunard and Pollok, Gilmour and Co. in New Brusswick, William Price in Chicoutimi, Quebec and J.R.Booth in Ottawa. It is important to note that the introduction of the railway at mid-century served to decrease the importance of water transport for the industry.

The industry in western Canada and in particular British Columbia did not develop as quickly as in the east but with the exhaustion of the eastern forests and the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, it eventually overtook the scale of activity in eastern Canada. Different conditions there required different logging techniques. Because the trees were much larger and heavier, three times as many horses or oxen were required to haul them. The more moderate climate meant that the winter snow roads could not be used and instead necessitated the use of log skid roads. Trees were so tall that springboards were wedged into notches cut into the trunk to serve as work platforms for two loggers using heavy double bit steel axes. Human and animal muscle, powered the industry until 1897 when the steam-powered "donkey engine" was introduced in B.C. from the US. This stationary machine drove a winch connected to a rope or wire which was used to haul logs up to 150 metres across the forest floor. A series of such engines placed at intervals could be used to haul large numbers of logs, long distances in relatively short periods of time. The "high lead system" in which a wire or lead suspended in trees was used to haul logs, was also introduced about this time.

A naissant manufacturing capability began to develop during this period. Canada's first paper mill was built in St. Andrews, Quebec in 1805 by two new Englanders and produced paper for sale in Montreal and Quebec City. By 1869 Alexander Burtin was operating Canada's first groundwood paper mill in Valleyfield, Quebec. It was equipped with two wood grinders imported from Germany and produced primarily newsprint. North America's first chemical wood-pulp mill was constructed in Windsor mills, Quebec in 1864 by Angus and Logan. C.B.Wright & Sons began to make "hydraulic cement" in Hull, Quebec in 1830. Leather tanning gained prominence and James Davis among others made a mark in this field in Toronto beginning in 1832. Canada became the world's largest exporter of potash in the 1830s and 1840s. In 1840 Darling & Brady began to manufacture soap in Montreal. E.B.Eddy began to produce matches in Hull, Quebec in 1851. Explosives were manufactured by an increasing number of companies including the Gore Powder Works at Cumminsville, Canada West, 1852, the Canada Powder Company, 1855, the Acadia Powder Company 1862, and the Hamiltom Powder Company established that same year. In 1879 that company built Canada's first high explosives manufacturing plant in Beloeil, Quebec. Rubber footwear was produced by the Canadian Rubber Company in Montreal starting in 1854. The first salt well was drilled at Goderich, Canada West in 1866. Phosphate fertilizer was first made in Brockville, Ontario in 1869.

Glass manufacturing took hold at this time. Glass was manufactured at Mallorytown, Upper Canada beginning in 1825. Window glass was produced at the Canada Glass Works in St. Jean, Canada East (Quebec)from 1845 to 1851 and the Ottawa Glass Works at Como in Ottawa, Canada West (Ontario) from 1847 to 1857. Glass was blown to form tubes which were cut lengthwise, unrolled and flattened. Glass bottles were produced starting in 1851 by the Ottawa factory and Foster Brothers Glass Works, in St. Jean starting in 1855. Other manufacturers included: the Canada Glass Works, Hudson, Qué, 1864-1872 and the Hamilton Glass Company, Hamilton, Ont, 1865-96, which produced "green" glass and the St. Lawrence Glass Company, Montréal, 1867-73 and Burlington Glass Company of Hamilton, Ont, 1874-98 which produced "flint" or clear glass.

Industrial textile production also took its first steps during these years. In 1826, Mahlon Willett established a woollen cloth manufacturing factory in L'Acadie, Lower Canada and by 1844 the Sherbrooke Cotton Factory in Sherbrooke was producing cotton cloth. This establishment also had powered knitting machines and may therefore have been Canada's first knitting mill before burning down in 1854. There were cloth manufacturing mills in operation at Ancaster, Ontario by 1859, as well as Merritton, Ontario (the Lybster Mills, 1860). In Montreal a cotton mill operated on the banks of the Lachine Canal at the St-Gabriel Lock from 1853 until at least 1871 and Belding Paul & Co., operated Canada's first silk cloth manufacturing factory in that city starting in 1876.

The mass production of clothing began at this time. Livingstone and Johnston, later W.R. Johnston & Company, founded in Toronto in 1868, was the first in Canada to cut cloth and sew together the component pieces with the help of the newly introduced sewing machine, as part of a continuous operation.

The growing agricultural activity in southern Ontario and Quebec provided the basis for farm mechanization and the manufacturing industry to meet the demand for agricultural machinery. The area around Hamilton had become attractive for iron and steel industries based on railway construction and the source of this raw material made the same area attractive to aspiring farm implement manufacturers. By about 1850 there were factories producing plows, mowers, reapers, seed drills, cutting boxes, fanning mills threshing machines and steam engines, established by entrepreneurs including the well known Massey family, Harris, Wisner, Cockshutt, Sawyer, Patterson, Verity and Willkinson. Although the industry was located mostly around Hamilton there were other smaller manufacturers in other locations including, Frost and Wood of Smith Falls, Ontario, Herring of Napanee, Ontario Ontario, Harris and Allen of Saint John and the Connell Brothers of Woodstock, both in New Brunswick and Mathew Moody and Sons of Terrebonne and Doré et Fils of La Prairie both in Quebec.

Meat processing had been a local undertaking since the beginning of the colony with the farmer and local butcher providing nearby customers with product. Health concerns were evident from the start and regulations for the butchering and sale of meat were promulgated in New France in 1706 and in Lower Canada in 1805. Activity grew to reach an industrial scale by the middle of the nineteenth century. Laing Packing and Provisions was founded in Montreal in 1852, F.W. Fearman began processing operations in Hamilton, Ontario and in Toronto William E. Davies established Canada's first large scale hog slaughter house in Toronto in 1874.

Drilling for oil was first undertaken in Canada in 1851 in Enniskillen Township in Lambton County by the International Mining and Manufacturing Company of Woodstock, Ontario. There was fierce competition for oil drilling, refining and distribution in southern Ontario until 1880 when 16 oil refineries merged to form Imperial Oil. This company was in turn acquired in 1898 by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust. Oil discovery and development in the west dates from the early twentieth century with Imperial becoming a major player by 1914, at Turner Valley, Alberta and in 1920 at Norman Wells, NWT. British based corporations such as Royal Dutch Shell and Anglo-Persian Oil (British Petroleum) also became involved in oil exploration in the west at this time.

The refining of oil required sulfuric acid and two entrepreneurs, T.H. Smallman and W. Bowman, established the Canadian Chemical Company in London, Ontario in 1867 to manufacture this product for the region's oil industry. This marked the beginning of the mass production of heavy industrial chemicals in Canada.

The discovery of oil and gas lead to the construction of Canada's first energy pipelines. In 1853 an iron pipeline from the Maurice River area carried natural gas 25 kilometers to Trois Rivieres, Quebec, where it was used to provide street lighting. In 1862 an pipeline was built to carry oil from from wells in Petrolia, Ontario to Sarnia for refining and in 1895 another natural gas pipeline, 20 centimeters in diameter, linked wells in Essex County, Ontario to Windsor and passed under the Detroit River to Detroit.

The founding of the Canadian Manufacturers Association in 1871 was symptomatic of the growth of this sector of the economy with its related technologies.

The retail industry also experienced considerable innovation during these years at the hands of Timothy Eaton of Toronto. He offered for sale large numbers of "consumer" goods such as clothes, shoes and household items under the roof of one large store and sold then at fixed prices eliminating the concept of barter. This had become possible because of the recent stabalisation of the Canadian currency through the creation of the Canadian dollar. In 1884 he created the iconic Eaton's catalogue which formed the basis for his catalogue sales operation which allowed rural dwellers to order and receive by mail or train the products that were available to those who had access to his growing chain of giant urban department stores.

Coal gas public street lighting systems were introduced in Montreal in 1838 in Toronto in 1841 and in Halifax in 1850. Horse drawn street rail coaches for public transport were introduced in large Canadian cities about his time. Water distribution systems also became a feature of many Canadian cities during this period and their installation represented the most significant development in public health in Canada's history. Gravity feed systems were in operation in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1838 and Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1848. Steam powered pumping stations were in service in Toronto in 1841, Kingston, Ontario in 1850 and Hamilton, Ontario in 1859. Most large cities had steam powered municipal systems by the 1870s. Sewer systems necessarily followed and with them the flush toilet in the 1880s made popular by Crapper in Great Britain at that time.

There were dramatic developments in the field of medicine during these years. In 1834, a British surgeon with the Royal Navy suggested a link between sanitation and disease. This lead to the establishment of departments of public health across the country by the end of the century and provided an impetus to municipalities to supply clean water to their citizens as noted above. The use of the hypodermic syringe, invented in 1853 was quickly adopted by Canadian doctors. Two other medical innovations also appeared at this time, anesthetic and antiseptic. The use of ether and chlorophorm as anesthetics became common in England and the US after 1846. In Canada, Dr. David Parker of Halifax is credited as the first to use anesthesia during surgery. Antiseptic was being used in the operating rooms of the Montreal and Toronto General hospitals by 1869.

Notable works of civil engineering realized during this period included: the Reversing Falls Bridges, St. John, New Brunswick, 1853 and 1885, The Halifax Citadel, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1856, Victoria Bridge, Montreal, Quebec, 1859, Canada's first tunnel, the Brockville Railway Tunnel, Brockville, Ontario, 1869, the Kettle Creek Bridge, St. Thomas, Ontario, 1871 and the Grand Rapids Tramway, Grand Rapids, Manitoba, 1877.

The grand hotel made its first appearance during these years with the opening of the Clifton Hotel in Niagara Falls, Upper Canada in 1833. Other hotels of note included: St. Lawrence Hall, Montreal, 1851, the Queen's Hotel, Toronto, 1862 and the Tadoussac Hotel, Tadoussac, Quebec, 1865.

The Militia Act of 1855 passed by the Parliament of the United Provinces of Canada established the basis for the Canadian military. The act established seven batteries of artillery which grew to 10 field batteries and 30 batteries of garrison artillery by 1870. Weapons used by these units included the 7-pounder smooth bore muzzle loading and the 9-pounder Rifled Muzzle-Loading (RML) guns.

[edit] The Electric Age: Light, street railways, telephones, skyscrapers and central heating (1880 – 1920)

No event in the history of Canada has had a greater continuous, positive, daily impact on the daily lives of every man, woman and child than the introduction of electricity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Public electric lighting received its first Canadian demonstration in Manitoba at the Davis House hotel on Main Street, Winnipeg, March 12, 1873. In 1880, the Manitoba Electric and Gas Light Company was incorporated to provide public lighting and power and in 1893 the Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Company was established. A number of corporations offered commercially available power to Manitobans until Manitoba Hydro was formed in 1961. Halifax had electric lights installed by the Halifax Electric Light Company Limited in 1881. The Nova Scotia Power Commission was in turn established in 1919. After a number of corporate transactions the Nova Scotia Power Corporation was established in 1974. The year 1883 saw the introduction of electric street lighting in Victoria, the first city in British Columbia to get public electric power. Vancouver got electricity in 1887. New companies joined the electric business in the twentieth century and after a number of corporate mergers and nationalizations, BC-Hydro, was formed 1962. In 1884, the Royal Electric Company began offering commercial power to Montreal. After a chaotic half century the electric companies in that province were acquired by the Quebec Hydro Electric Commission (Hydro-Québec) between 1944 and 1963. Also in 1884, Saint John, New Brunswick was the first city in that province to have commercially available power delivered by the Saint John Electric Light Company. Other companies entered the field and in 1917 merged to form the New Brunswick Power Company. In 1948 the assets of this company were purchased by the New Brunswick Electric Power Commission. The Toronto Power House and the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario began offering electricity to that city and the province respectively in 1906. The Commission became Ontario Hydro in 1974. Edmonton's first power company was established in 1891 and placed street lights along the city's main street, Jasper Avenue. The power company was purchased by the Town of Edmonton in 1902 and to this day remains a municipal government enterprise known as EPCOR. Electricity in Saskatchewan was provided by Saskatchewan Power Commission established in 1929. It became the Saskatchewan Power Corporation in 1949 while the abbreviated name SaskPower was officially adopted in 1987.

The telephone began to make its mark in Canada, modestly at first. The telephone system of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada was established in 1881. Telephone penetration rates had reached 1.2% of the population by 1901, 3.9% by 1910 and 7.6% by 1915. The telephone system of Maritime Telephone and Telegraph, Halifax was established in 1910. The Trans-Canada Telephone System providing Canadians with the first all-Canadian transcontinental telephone connection was established in 1932.

The bicycle made its appearance at this time. The "boneshaker", with the pedals connected directly to the front wheel appeared in the Maritimes in 1866 followed by the penny-farthing bicycle after 1876. The machine evolved and was improved with the addition of pneumatic tires, a central crank for the pedals and a coasting back wheel with brake. The increasing popularity of bicycles lead to the formation of a national bicycle club, the Canadian Wheelsman in London, Ontario in 1879. In 1899 five important Canadian bicycle manufacturers, Gendron, Goold, Massey-Harris, H.A. Lozier and Welland Vale, combined to form what would become the very well known Canadian Cycle and Motor Company or CCM, with 1700 employees and an annual production of 40,000 bicycles.

In 1891, the newly formed Canadian Pacific Steamship Lines began offering trans-Pacific steamship service from Vancouver with three large steel-hulled ships, the "Empress", liners, India, China and Japan. From 1903, additional Empress liners were being used for service across the Atlantic. One of these, the Empress of Ireland, sunk after a collision in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1914 with the loss of 1000 lives. A fleet of smaller "Princess" steam ships were used for coastal service and the Great Lakes. Of note is the fact that Canadian Pacific, with its combination of steam ships and steam locomotives built a transportation empire that spanned more that half the globe. Few other companies anywhere in the world at that time could boast of such an accomplishment. Canada Steamship Lines, founded in 1913, as the result of the amalgamation of other companies, has offered cargo shipping services on the Great Lakes since that time.

The first airplane flight in Canada took place on 23 February, 1909 when pilot J.A.D. McCurdy became airborn in the AEA Silver Dart and flew almost a kilometer over the frozen Bras d'Or Lake in Nova Scotia. Canada's first aerodrome (airport) was located at Long Branch Toronto and operations there began modestly in 1915. It was here that the Curtiss Aircraft company manufactured the Curtis JN-3 Jenny for the Royal Flying Corps Canada. Air stations were also built at Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia in 1918 for anti-submarine operations.

Mining also became significant industry during this period. The invention of the electric dymano, electroplating and steel in the 1870s created a strong demand for copper and nickel. Hard rock mining became a practical consideration because of the concurrent development of the hard rock drill and dynamite. A copper mine was established in Orford County Quebec in 1877, by the Orford Company while the Canadian Copper Company was founded in 1886 to exploit copper deposits at Sudbury made accessible by the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The ore from that mine was found to contain nickel as well as copper and a technique known as the Orford process using nitrate cake (acid sodium sulphate ) was developed to separate the metals. The International Nickel Company (Inco) was established in 1902 through the fusion of the two companies. A refinery using the Orford process was built in Port Colborne, Ontario in 1918 and then moved to Copper Cliff, Ontario where that technique was replaced by the matte flotation process in 1948. Hard rock gold mining became practical in 1887, with the development of the potassium cyanidation process, by Scott MacArthur, which was used to separate the gold from the ore. This technique was first used in Canada at the Mikado Mine in the Lake-of-the-Woods Region again made acdcessible by the CPR. The CPR also provided access the B.C. interior where lead, copper, silver and gold ores had been discovered in the Rossland area in 1891. The ores were transported to Trail, B.C. where they were roasted. After CPR built the Crowsnest Pass it purchased the Trail roasting facility and in 1899 built a blast furnace to smelt lead ore. In 1902 the first electrolytic lead refining plant using the Betts Cell Process began operation in Trail. The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Ltd. was founded as a CPR subsidiary and began to develop the Sullivan Mine with its lead, zinc and silver ores, in Kimberley in 1909.

The techniques of coal mining were introduced to Canada in 1720 in what is now Cape Breton, on a coal seam on the north side of Cow Bay. The coal was used as fuel for the inhabitants at Louisburg. Large scale mining developed the Sydney area in particular and continued until 1876 by which time easily reached deposits had been exhausted. However mining continued with tunnels extending out under the sea. The coal was used to power steam locomotives and in latter years to make steel, provide fuel for central heating and provide the volatile gases that formed the basis for the coal gasification and related chemical industries. In 1893, a number of Nova Scotia collieries including the Bridgeport, Caledonia, Clyde, Gardiner, Glace Bay, Gowrie, Lingan, Lorway, Schooner Pond and Victoria were united to form the Dominion Coal Company which by 1912 produced 40% of Canada’s total coal output.

The pulp and paper industry also developed during these years. The sulphite pulp process developed in the US in 1866 became the basis for the Canadian industry. The first sulphite pulp mill in Canada, the Halifax Wood Fibre Company, was established in Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia in 1885. Others followed including plants in Cornwall, Ontario, 1888, Hull, Quebec, 1889, Chatham, Quebec, 1889, the biggest, the Riordon Company in Merritton, Ontario in 1890 and in Hawkesbury, Ontario, 1898. The closely related sulphate pulp process was introduced in Canada in 1907 when the Brompton Pulp & Paper Company began operation in East Angus, Quebec. This process dominates the industry to this day. The pulp slurry was fed in a continuous stream into a paper making machine that flattened, pressed and dried it into newsprint on huge rolls many metres wide and containing thousands of meters of paper.

New printing technologies and the availability of this new material, newsprint, had a dramatic effect on the newspaper industry. By the 1880s the rotary press had evolved into a high speed machine and with the use of stereotyping allowed the production of large numbers daily papers. In 1876 daily newspaper circulation in Canada's nine major urban centres stood at 113,000 copies. By 1883 it had more than doubled. The introduction of typecasting machines such as the linotype in the 1890s lead to an expansion in size of the indiviual paper from eight to 12 pages to 32 or 48 pages. This was also made possible by the availability of cheap newsprint manufactured in huge continuous rolls that could be fitted directly into the high speed presses.

The distillation of products from wood characterized the transition from the use of natural chemical products to that of fully synthetic products. The Rathburn Company of Toronto began to produce distillates including, wood alcohol and calcium acetate, used to make acetic acid or acteone, in 1897. The Standard Chemical Company of Toronto established in 1897, initiated the production of acetic acid in 1899 and formaldehyde, from the oxidation of wood alcohol, in 1909. This later product was an essential element in the production of the fully synthetic, phenol-formaldehyde plastic.

The wheat economy developed on the prairies during these years. Agriculture in that region had begun around the Red River Colony in 1812, based on French Canadian survey techniques for land division and Scottish farming practices. The "infield" consisting of long narrow strips of land rising from the Red River Valley gave way to the "outfield" of pasture lands. Confederation spurred interest in western agriculture with the government of Canada subsequently purchasing Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1870 and suppressing Metis resistance to eastern intervention with armed force that included the use of the gatling gun in 1885. Conditions were best suited for the growing of wheat but a naturally dry climate and a short growing season as well as low grain prices made the 1890s difficult. However the difficulties were overcome. Reduced rail transportation costs which helped ease the burden of getting wheat to market and a rise in wheat prices served to encourage the development of the industry. The introduction in 1907 of the Canadian developed genetically modified Marquis wheat with its hardy growing characteristics helped overcome arduous climatic conditions. Immigration stimulated by the policies of Federal Minister Clifford Sifton provided labour for increased production. The introduction of steam and gas tractors and the threshing machine also caused a dramatic increase in crop yield. Between 1901 and 1931 land under cultivation on the prairies grew from 1.5 to 16.4 hectares. In the 1870s and 1880s ranching gained prominence as well in southern Sasketchewan and Alberta where dry and even drought like conditions were eventually overcome with irrigation after the introduction of irrigation in 1894.

The growth of western agriculture stimulated the growth of the eastern farm implement industry. Companies such as Bell, Waterloo, Lobsinger, Hergott and Sawyer-Massey were soon shipping their large metal threshing machines and other types of equipment, via the CPR to western farms. Arguably the most notable of these corporations was Massey-Harris Co. Ltd. of Toronto, created in 1891 through the merger of Massey Manufacturing Co. (1847) and A. Harris, Son & Co Ltd. (1857) which became the largest manufacturer of farm machinery in the British Empire. Innovation was the key to the company's success, highlighted by best selling machines like the Toronto Light Binder at the turn of the century and the Wallis Tractor in 1927.

The dairy industry with its associated techniques took root in Canada in the 1860s. The process for the factory production of cheese was developed by Jesse Williams in New York in 1851. The first Canadian cheese factory was built in Oxford County, Ontario in 1864 and was followed by a factory in Dunham, Quebec in 1865. By 1873, Canada was home to about 200 cheese factories. The first creamery of note was built at Helena, Quebec in 1873 while in 1883 the first Canadian producer of condensed milk began operation in Truro, Nova Scotia. In 1904 a company in Bowmanville, Ontario began Canada’s first powdered milk production operation. The large scale home delivery of milk began in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal in 1900.

The very popular and practical tin can was introduced during this period. In the 1880s George Dunning built Canada's first canning factory in Prince Edward County, Ontario, for the canning of fruits and vegetables. By 1900 there were eight such factories in Canada, four of which were in that same county and within a few years canning factories were found all across the country. In the forties, high-temperature canning, which sterilized the contents of the can and permitted long-term storage, was introduced.

Railway construction in the latter nineteenth century created a huge demand for steel. The Bessemer furnace at the Algom steel mill in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario went into operation in 1902. The Montreal Rolling Mills Co, The Hamilton Steel and Iron Co, the Canada Screw Company, the Canada Bolt and Nut Company, and the Dominion Wire Manufacturing Company were consolidated in 1910 to form the The Steel Company of Canada headquartered in Toronto. With mills located in Hamilton and other cities it was the largest producer of steel in Canada for most of the century. Its competitor, the Dominion Steel Castings Company Limited founded in 1912, renamed the Dominion Foundries and Steel Company in 1917 and Dofasco in 1980, had its Hamilton facilities located next to those of Stelco.

Portland cement was imported from England to Canada in barrels during the nineteenth century complimenting the modest production of hydraulic cement that began in in Hull, Quebec in 1830. By 1889 there were noted increases in the output of cement in Hull and other cement factories were built in Montreal, Napanee and Shallow Lake Ontario and in Vancouver in 1893.

Business and public administration was improved and simplified with the introduction of the typewriter which acquired a familiar standaridized form by about 1910. Features included the "qwerty" keyboad, the typebar, ribbon, cylinder and carriage return lever. Popular models in Canada were manufactured by the U.S. Remington and Underwood companies among others. The introduction of the mechanical desk top calculator complimented that of the typewriter. Most machines used in Canada we manufactured in the U.S. by companies such as Friden, Monroe, and SCM/Marchant.

The techniques of film making were introduced to Canada in 1897. In that year Manitoban James Freer made a series of films about farm life in western Canada. In 1889-1899 the Canadian Pacific Railway sponsored a successful tour by Freer to present these films in Britain to encourage immigration from that country for the development of the prairies and therefore boost the business of the railway. This inspired the railway to finance the production of additional films and hire a British firm, which created a Canadian arm, the Bioscope Company of Canada and produced 35 films about Canadian life. In 1910 the CPR engaged the Edison Company from the US to produce a further series of 10 films about the prairies. A number of Canadian firms became involved in feature film making with little success. These included: The Canadian Bioscope Company, Halifax, Nova Scotia, which produced Evangeline, Canada's first feature in 1913, the British American Film Company, Montreal, which produced Battle of the Long Sault, 1913, the Conness Till Company, Toronto, 1914-1915 and the All Red Feature Company, Windsor, Ontario, producing The War Pigeon, 1914.

In Montreal in 1900, Emile Berliner, inventor of the gramophone sound recording technique, established the Berliner Gramaphone Company and began to manufacture the first phonograph records in Canada. First produced were seven inch single sided discs, followed by 10 inch in 1901, 12 inch in 1903 and the two sided disc in 1908. These discs were played on a gramophone, also manufactured by Berliner, which produced sound through purely mechanical means.

The introduction of the medical x-ray during this period dramatically improved medical diagnostics. Discovered by Roentgen in Germany in 1895, x-ray units were in operation at the Toronto and Montreal General Hospitals by the turn of the century. The sphygmomanometer or blood pressure meter, that familiar device employing a cuff placed around the patients arm, found its way into the office of most Canadian doctors in the early twentieth century. The spread of bovine tuberculosis a crippling childhood disease, was curbed through the introduction of pasturized milk in Montreal and Toronto at the turn of the century. This practice was soon followed by the dairy industry across Canada. Bayer began marketing the wonder drug of the age, Aspirin, in 1899. It was an instant success and quickly became popular in Canada. Originally sold as a powder, the tablet was introduced in 1914. A very important step in the mass production of medical products was taken that same year when Dr. John Fitzgerald founded an institution that would be named the Connaught Laboraties in 1917, at the University of Toronto. Initially the laboratories produced vaccines and antiooxins for smallpox, tetanus, diphtheria and rabies. In 1922 after the Nobel Prize winning work on Dr. Banting and Dr. Best the facility began to manufacture insulin.

Notable works of civil engineering realized during these years included: the Lakehead Terminal Grain Elevators, 1882, the Naden First Graving Dock, Esquimalt, British Columbia, 1887, the St. Clair Railway Tunnel, Sarnia, Ontario, 1890 and the Alexandra Bridge, Ottawa, Ontario - Hull, Quebec, 1900. The new century witnessed the completion of: the Lethbridge Viaduct, Lethbridge, Alberta, 1909, the Spiral Tunnels, Hector to Field BC, 1909, the St. Andrew's Lock and Dam, Lockport, Manitoba, 1910, the Brooks Aqueduct, Brooks, Albert, 1914, the Quebec Bridge, Ste-Foy, Quebec, 1916, the Connaught Tunnel, Rogers Pass, BC, 1916, the Ogden Point Breakwater and Docks, Victoria, British Columbia, 1917, the Prince Edward Viaduct, Toronto, Ontario, 1919, the Shoal Lake Aqueduct, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1919 and the Trent-Severn Waterway, Ontario, 1920.Baseball in Canada received its first permanent home with the construction in 1877 of Tecumseh Park, built in London, Ontario for the London Tecumsehs baseball team. Other fields followed including Sunlight Park, in Toronto, 1886, Atwater Park, Montreal, in 1890 and Hanlan's Point Ball Field, 1897, in Toronto home of the Maple Leafs.

It was the age of the skyscraper. The first in Canada was the eight floor New York Life Insurance Co Building in Montréal, 1887-89, although it did not have a steel frame. The first self-supporting steel framed skyscraper in Canada was the Robert Simpson Department Store at the corner of Yonge and Queen in Toronto with its six floors and electric elevators, built in 1895. The race to build the tallest structure in the British Empire set off a competition among cities across Canada. Successive record holders included: the Traders Bank of Canada, 15 floors, Yonge St, Toronto, 1905, the Dominion Building, 13 floors, Vancouver, 1910, World (Sun) Tower, 17 floors, Vancouver, 1912, the Canadian Pacific Building, 16 floors, Toronto, 1913, the Royal Bank, 20 floors, Toronto, 1915, the Royal Bank, Montreal, 1928, the Royal York Hotel, Toronto, 1929 and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Toronto, in 1931.

A number of grand hotels also opened during these years including: the Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, Alberta, 1888, the Algonquin, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, 1889, the Chateau Frontenac, Quebec, City, 1893, the Queen's, Montreal, 1893, the "new" Chateau Lake Louise, Lake Louise, Alberta, 1894, the Manoir Richelieu, Point-au-Pic, Quebec, 1899, the Royal Muskoka Hotel, Muskoka, Ontario, 1901, the King Edward Hotel, Toronto, 1903, the Royal Alexandra Hotel, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1906, the Empress Hotel, Victoria, British Columbia, 1908, the Ritz-Carleton, Montreal, 1912, the Chateau Laurier, Ottawa, Ontario, 1912, the Fort Garry Hotel, Winnipg, 1913, the Palliser Hotel, Calgary, Alberta, 1914 and the Hotel MacDonald, Edmonton, 1915.

The construction of skyscrapers, grand hotels and other large buildings lead to the development of central heating, an essential feature in Canada's cold climate. Up to that time large buildings and homes were heated with fireplaces and iron stoves that used wood or coal as fuel. The construction of large multi-story buildings made this impractical. Fireplaces and stoves on the lower floors would have long flues and would not draw properly. On the upper floors it would be necessary to transport fuel and to remove ashes up and down many flights of stairs or with an elevator. Central heating solved these problems. In 1832 Angier March Perkins a British inventor developed a steam heating system for domestic use. This inspired the use of closed circuit hot water systems for large buildings. A metal furnace in the basement using wood or coal was used to heat water in a tank which was in turn was circulated by an electric pump through a system of iron pipes throughout the building to radiators in rooms where it lost its heat to the ambient air. The cooler water then returned to the water heater with the help of gravity where it was reheated and recirculated. Large systems could be used to heat several buildings in a city block. In the twentieth century such systems were used to provide heat to small communities such as university campuses, northern industrial towns or military bases. Smaller systems were used in private homes. Another technique, the “convection method” was introduced to domestic dwellings at this time. A metal furnace in the basement, using wood or coal as fuel, would heat air in a plenum which would rise by convection through a series of metal ducts into the rooms of the house above. When the air cooled it would fall to the floor and return to the plenum through another series of metal return ducts. In later years an electric fan was used to “force” the hot air from the plenum through the ducts.

Suburbia made its first appearance on the edge of the commercial/industrial core of most large cities. The growing popularity of the automobile and the extension of electric street railways radiating from the city centre provided transport for a newly affluent middle class. Houses which were often based on common designs of the bungalow type and were sited away from the street with a front and back yard and usually a back ally which served as a service route for coal, ice, milk and bread delivery. Houses were often made of brick and built with a full basement which provided space for a coal fired furnace for central heating. Plaster walls and hardwood floors were standard. They were equipped with all the modern conveniences including electricity, an electric or gas stove, an ice box, which was eventually replaced by an electric refrigerator, running water, a flush toilet and a sewer pipe running underground to the street.

In 1885 the newly introduced gatling gun was first used by Canadian troops during the Riel Rebellion. The 12-pounder field gun was used by Canadian soldiers in the Boer War. The 13 and 18 pound muzzle loading gun with modern recoil and sighting systems were acquired at the turn of the century. A notable acquisition was the first breech loading gun, in Canadian use, the 13-pounder quick-firing (Q.F.) and 18-pounder Q.F. firing shrapnel and high explosive rounds, in 1905. The Royal Canadian Navy founded in 1910, took possession of two tired steel-hulled former Royal Navy cruisers, the Rainbow, in 1910, stationed Esquimalt on the west coast and the Niobe at Halifax on the east coast.

A reflection of this intense engineering activity is seen in the founding of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering in 1887.

[edit] Killing Machines I: Artillery and machine guns (1914 – 1918)

In Europe the most deadly weapon by far was the artillery piece. The Canadian Army acquired hundreds of guns during the war and used them with deadly effect on the German army. Guns included : the 13-pounder with the RCHA, the “turned up” anti-aircraft 13-pounder mounted on a truck, the 18-pounder and 4.5-inch howitzer in the field artillery, the 60-pounder, 6-inch, 8-inch and 9.2-inch heavy guns in garrison, 12-inch howitzers and 15-inch howitzers and 6-inch Newton mortars and 9.45-inch mortars. Of note is the fact that these weapons were moved about the battlefield with teams of horses. The infantry took the machine gun into battle for the first time and was equipped with the Colt machine gun, the Vickers machine gun and the Lewis machine gun. The infantry also used the .303 rifle, including the much despised Canadian Ross Mark III from 1913 to 1916 and the British Lee Enfield (SMLE) Mark III, from 1916.

The Royal Canadian Navy was a coastal defence organization during the First World War, equipped with a rag-tag collection of small ships that patrolled the east coast for German submarines. Built in shipyards in Ontario and Quebec notable classes of vessel included: the TR 1 to 60 series of large minesweeping trawlers based on the Royal Navy Castle Class, the C.D. 1 to 100 series of wooden-hulled drifters used for minesweeping and patrol duties and 12 Battle Class trawlers armed with a single small deck gun in the bow.

Canadians flew in large numbers with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force during the war, but Canada did not provide any combat aircraft of note in that conflict. The Royal Flying Corps Canada in 1917 established a number of bases at and around Camp Borden in southern Ontario to train pilots for the front in Europe. To meet the need for aircraft Curtiss of Toronto supplied hundreds of Curtiss Jenny training planes using assembly line techniques, making it the first mass produced aircraft in Canada.

The wrist watch was introduced during the war as a tool to help the precise timing of attacks. It was used by Canadian gunners, infantry and airmen. After the war, returning soldiers now civilians, continued to use their watches as part of their daily routine and it became popular with other civilian men and women.

Canada produced vast quantities of explosives in the form of Cordite, nitrocellulose and trinitrotoluene (TNT) during the Great War. Cordite was manufactured at Beloeil and Nobel, Quebec, by Canadian Explosives Limited and at Nobel by British Cordite Limited. Nitrocellulose was produced by a number of companies including, Aetna Chemical Company of Drummondville, Quebec, British Chemical Company at Trenton, Ontario and O'Brien Munitions Limited of Renfrew, Ontario. TNT was produced in Desoronto starting in 1915.

[edit] The Automobile Age: Cars, planes and radios (1920 – 1950)

The post-WWI era saw the introduction of a plethora of technologies including: the car, paved roads, refrigeration, the telephone, radio, air service, air navigation, hard runways, the medical X-ray and wonder drugs and powered farming, mining and forestry equipment.

The Ford Motor Company of Canada, founded in Windsor, Ontario in 1904, was the first major company to introduce the automobile to Canada. It manufactured cars in that city and was the first company to use the assembly line manufacturing technique in Canada. In 1918 the McLaughlin Motor Company, Ltd. of Oshawa, Ontario and the Chevrolet Motor Company of Canada Ltd. merged to form General Motors of Canada and became a subsidiary of the US-owned General Motors Corporation. The company manufactured Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Oaklands on its assembly line in Oshawa. Chrysler Canada, established in Windsor began vehicle assembly in that city in 1936. The car was a hit with Canadians. In 1904 there were 535 cars in Ontario, by 1913 there were 50,000 in Canada, by 1916, 123,000, by 1922, 513,000 and by 1930, 1,076,000. As the car gained in popularity local automobile clubs were founded. In 1913 nine of these clubs from across the country got together to form the Canadian Automobile Association.

Cars required gasoline and the first service station in Canada was built in Vancouver on Smythe Street in 1907. Most early stations were informal curb-side affairs and it was not until the twenties that the filling station as we know it began to appear with Imperial Oil building architect designed stations for its customers. By 1928 Imperial had evolved three standard filling station designs for different locations, business district, urban residential and small town/leased property.

The popularity of the car also had a dramatic impact on urban infrastructure and roads in particular. The dirt, gravel, tar and occasionally cobblestone that characterized most city roads was inadequate for the automobile and towns and cities across Canada began paving projects creating roads of asphalt and concrete that were more suitable. The traffic light was also introduced to help regulate the congestion that began to arise in the twenties especially in larger cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

The car began to compete with the street railway in the thirties and forties and many cities reduced or abandonned streetcar service. New suburbs were built without streetcar lines and urban deisel powered buses were used to provide public transport. Only a handful of cities continued to maintain streetcar service into the fifties and beyond, most notable Toronto which to this day has a very elaborate public streetcar network.

The auto-craze gave rise to a booming do-it-yourself car maintenance and repair movement with businesses specializing in car parts and tools becoming popular. One of the notable firms in this field, the familiar, Canadian Tire, began operations in Toronto in 1922 and has become one of Canada's largest retailers.

In the twenties and thirties the Canadian north was developed with the help of hundreds of small float equipped "bush planes" used to fly men and supplies to mining, forestry, trapping and fishing camps. The first commercial air passenger flight in Canada was made in 1920, when two bush pilots flew a fur a buyer from Winnipeg to The Pas, Manitoba. National passenger air service was introduced by Trans-Canada Airlines beginning in 1937 and Canadian Pacific Airlines starting in 1942.

Of note was the attempt by Britain to establish an airship service between that country and Canada and test flight by the British built dirigible the R-100 was made in July 1930. After a successful crossing of the Atlantic the giant craft moored at a mast especially constructed for that purpose at St.Hubert near Montreal. The ship flew on to Toronto before finally returning to Britain. However technical problems with the craft prevented further flights and the idea of a Trans-Atlantic lighter-than-air passenger service was abandoned.

To facilitate the development of a national aviation service the Government of Canada created a kind of national highway in the sky called the Trans-Canada Airway consisting of airports, radio and weather services and lighting for night flying at various locations across Canada. Construction started in 1929 but was slowed by the depression. The western leg from Vancouver to Winnipeg was completed in 1938. The section from Winnipeg to Toronto and Montreal was inaugurated in 1939 and the extensions to Moncton, Halifax and St. John's completed in 1940, 1941 and 1942 rspectively.

In Montreal, XWA (now CFCF) became the first commercial AM radio broadcaster in the world. The following year CKAC became the first French language AM radio broadcaster in Canada. State operated national radio broadcasting chains were established beginning in the late twenties including: the CNR National Radio Network, 1927, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission Radio Network, 1932 and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio Network, 1936. Private independent AM broadcast operations sprouted like mushrooms in cities large and small across Canada during the thirties and forties. Canadian Marconi and Northern Electric manufactured radios for home use, the first mass produced electronic equipment in Canada.

With the rail building era coming to an end, the rise of the automotive industry in southern Ontario provided the Hamilton steel mills of the Steel Company of Canada and the Dominion Foundries and Steel Company with a new market. Dofasco introduced the Basic Oxygen Process for steel-making at its mills in Hamilton in 1954. In the latter part of the century, Algoma built coke oven batteries and blast furnaces, the open hearth and Bessemer steel-making processes were phased out and plant for the basic oxygen steel-making process was installed.

Another metal, aluminum also became popular during these years. In 1902, attracted by the availability of cheap hydro power, the Aluminum Company of America established a Canadian subsidiary, the Northern Aluminum Company at Shawinigan Falls, Quebec to produce that metal using the electrolysis technique. Corporate changes lead to the creation of the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan)in 1925 and in 1926 the company constructed a giant aluminum smelter at a place it named Arvida, Quebec, that location again being chosen because of the availability of cheap hydro electricity as well as the proximity of a deep-water port at Bagotville for large ships carrying bauxite or aluminum ore. World War II acceleratd the demand for aluminum the principle material in aircraft production and the Arvida facility wasw greatly expanded. In 1958 another huge smelter was built at Kitimat, British Columbia.

The growth in popularity of the car also created a need for rubber for automobile tires. Accelerated by the emergency of World War II a substantial synthetic rubber production industry was established at Sarnia, Ontario in the early forties. The refining of crude oil provided the raw resources for the manufacture of synthetic rubber and the oil refineries in Sarnia provided a ready source of raw materials. In particular, the Suspensiod crackers operated there by Imperial Oil produced large quantities of hydrocarbon gases. These were used by a new Crown enterprise, Polymer Corporation Ltd. created in 1942, and associated private companies, St. Clair Processing Corporation Ltd., Dow Chemical of Canada Ltd., and Canadian Synthetic Rubber Ltd., itself a subsidiary of four Canadian rubber companies, Dominion, Firestone, goodyear and Goodrich, to produce both GR-S and butyl type synthetic rubber. Initially production was destined for war time use on military vehicles but in post-war years output was quickly redirected to civilian automobile production.

Plastics were also introduced during these years. In Toronto, Plastics Ltd., began to produce Bakelite soon after its invention in 1909. Another firm, Canadian Electro Products of Shawinigan, Quebec invented polyvinyl acetate which was used in copolymer resins and water based paints. The wartime production of nitrocellulose naturally lead to the manufacture at Shawinigan in 1932, of transparent cellulose film used for packaging.

The closely related synthetic textile industry appeared in the years just after the First War. The production of artificial silk, more properly known as viscose rayon, made from bleached wood pulp, began in Cornwall, Ontario in 1925, in a factory built by Courtaulds (Canada). A year later Celanese Canada began making acetate yarn in a new plant in Drummondville, Quebec. DuPont Canada was the first to manufacture nylon yarn in Canada at its factory in Kingston, Ontario in 1942. This secret material was initially used for parachutes but following the war was used to make nylon stockings.

The industrial production of bread became notable during these years. At the beginning of the twentieth century it is estimated that only about 8% of Canadian wives bought bread commercially. However the industrial production of bread grew impressively and by the 1960’s, 95% of homemakers purchased bread commercially. One bakery of note The Canada Bread Company Limited was founded in 1911 as the result of the amalgamation of five smaller companies. Industrial bakeries such as this were characterized by large machines for the mixing of dough and the use of slow moving conveyor belts that transported thousands of metal pans of this dough through giant ovens where they were baked. Large automated packaging machines wrapped the finished loaves at great speed. Improvements in transportation and packaging technology throughout the decades allowed a shrinking number of bakeries to serve every larger markets. In 1939 there were about 3200 commercial bakeries across the country but by 1973 the figure stood at 1700, while in 1981 there were 1400.

Meat packing grew to become Canada's most important food processing industry during this period. In Calgary, Alberta, in 1890, Pat Burns established P. Burns and Company which became the largest meat processor in western Canada. In Toronto in 1896 the innovative Harris Abbatoir was established to export chilled sides of beef to the British market. The industry grew rapidly during the war supplying meat to Canadian and British troops overseas. However it underwent a period of consolidation in the twenties. The loss of markets lead to the merger of two major players, William Davies and the Harris Abattoir to form Canada Packers in Toronto. By 1930, "The Big Three", meat packers in Canada were Canada Packers, Swift Canadian and P.Burns and Company in Calgary, Alberta.

The increasing popularity of the electric refrigerator in Canadian restaurants and homes made in practical for manufacturers to make available various frozen foods. The first such offering, a frozen strawberry pack was produced in Montreal and Ottawa beginning in 1932 by Heeney Frosted Foods Ltd.

The Canadian film industry experienced mixed success during the twenties and thirties. Film maker Ernest Shipman produced five features between 1920 and 1923 before meeting with financial failure. The successful Canadian owned Allen Theatre chain attained an important place in the exhibition market but was taken over by Famous Players Canadian Corporation in 1923. Associated Screen News in Montreal produced two notable newsreel series, Kinograms in the twenties and Canadian Cameo from 1932 to 1953. The thirties saw the regular production of short films by the newly created Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau. British law encouraging filmmaking in the Commonwealth lead Hollywood to circumvent the spirit of the concept by establishing film production companies to make American films in Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Victoria. These companies produced a small number of features but closed operations when the British law was changed to exclude their films. in the late thirties Canadian Odeon opened a new cinema chain to compete with Famous Players.

The making of documentary films grew tremendously during World War II with the creation of the National Film Board of Canada in 1939. By 1945 it was one of the major film production studios in the world with a staff of nearly 800 and over 500 films to its credit including the very popular, The World in Action and Canada Carries On, propaganda series with films released monthly.

The grand hotel continued to make a mark with new structures including: the Bigwinn Inn, Muskoka, Ontario, 1920, the Jasper Park Lodge, Jasper, Alberta, 1922, the Hotel Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, 1926, the Hotel Saskatchewan, Regina, Saskatchewan, 1927, the Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, 1927, the Lord Nelson Hotel, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1928, The Pines, Digby, Nova Scotia, 1929, the Royal York Hotel, Toronto, 1929, the Chateau Montebello, Montebello, Quebec, 1930, the Nova Scotian Hotel, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1930, the Charlottetown Hotel, Charlottetown, P.E.I. and the Bessborough Hotel, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 1935.

In 1875 in Montreal a McGill student, J. Creighton, established the basic rules for hockey as we know it today. The world's first facility dedicated to hockey, the Westmount Arena was built in Montreal in 1898 while the first industrial refrigeration equipment for making artificial ice in Canada was installed in 1911 by Frank and Lester Patrick for their new arenas in Vancouver and Victoria. With the development of wide span roof structures the construction of large indoor ice rink stadiums became possible. These two technologies were used to build the Montreal Forum, home of the legendary Montreal Canadiens hockey team, in Montreal in 1924 and Maple Leaf Gardens home of the Toronto Maple Leafs, in that city in 1931. Baseball's facilities were upgraded with construction of the new Maple Leaf Stadium on Lakeshore Drive in Toronto in 1926 and the De Lormier Downs Stadium (Hector Racine Stadium), in Montreal in 1927. Civic Stadium, now Ivor Wynne Stadium, was built in Hamilton, Ontario in 1930, to host the British Empire Games held there that year.

Other notable engineering works of the period included: the R.C. Harris Filtration Plant, Toronto, Ontario, 1926, the Ocean Terminals, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1928, the Ambassador Bridge, Windsor-Detroit, 1929, the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel, 1930, the Broadway Bridge, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 1932, the Lion's Gate Bridge, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1938, the Queen Elizabeth Way, Ontario, 1939 and the Alaska Highway, Dawson Creek, British Columbia, 1942.

Medical treatment benefited from the introduction of the electrocardiograph, used to diagnose heart problems, in large hospitals in the late twenties. There were also important innovations with respect to the treatment of epilepsy during this period. In Montreal, Dr. Wilder Penfield, with a grant from the US Rockefeller Foundation founded the Montreal Neurological Institute at the Royal Victoria Hospital, in 1934 to study and treat epilepsy and other neurogical diseases.

The military suffered a huge decline in the twenties and thirties. The Royal Canadian Air Force founded in 1924 was largely a bush and float plane operation. Only in the thirties did it acquire a modest combat capability with a handful of British Siskin fighters and a squadron of Hurricanes as the clouds of war grew menacing. The Royal Canadian Navy, perpetually starved for equipment acquired its first custom-built ships, the destroyers HMCS Saguenay and HMCS Skeena on May 22, 1931. In 1929 the army began to retire its horses and was issued four 6-wheeled Leyland tractors in 1929 to tow its 60-pound guns. Four 3-inch 20-cwt anti-aircraft guns were taken on strength in 1937.

As a reflection of this intense and diverse engineering activity, the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers was established in 1936. This organization was renamed Engineers Canada in 2007.

[edit] Killing Machines II: Bombers, tanks, corvettes, radar, and explosives (1939 – 1945)

Under the emergency of World War II and almost from a standing start, the government of Canada acquired an impressive array of war machines and became a major combatant.

Home defence came first. An integrated air-defence system, based on the one built by the RAF during the Battle of Britain was established. Radar chains were constructed on the east and west coasts to guide the squadrons of Hurricane fighters based there, to enemy targets. Fortunately none came! Within the context of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, dozens of airfields were built across Canada and thousands of training aircraft purchased to train aircrew for the commonwealth nations.

Off the east coast the Royal Canadian Navy acquired hundreds of corvettes to hunt for and kill Nazi submarines. The RCAF joined the hunt with Hudson, Canso and later long range Liberator bombers. The merchant marine took possession of hundreds of cargo ships including the versatile Fleet and Fort series of vessels to deliver vital supplies to Britain.

In Britain a squadron of RCAF Hurricane fighters participated in the Battle of Britain. RCAF squadrons equipped with Wellington, Halifax and later Lancaster bombers rained destruction on the Nazis throughout the war.

The Canadian Army, RCAF and RCN were an essential part of the invasion at Normandy on D-Day. Royal Canadian Navy landing craft carried Canadian Army troops, tanks and artillery ashore while RCAF Typhoon fighter-bombers pounded the German 7th Army. RCAF Spitfires patrolled the skies for enemy fighters and RCAF heavy bombers were used for tactical bombing.

Radar and explosives were an essential part of all this.

The war created an urgent demand for medical drugs which were put to vital use in the treatment of wounded soldiers. Mallinckrodt Chemical Works Ltd. of Montreal began to produce sulfa drugs in 1939. The Connaught Laboratories and Ayerst, McKenna& Harrison of Toronto were innovators in the mass production of penicillin using the surface culture method starting in 1943. In Montreal Merck & Company as well as Ayerst, produced the drug using the deep fementation process. Connaught also produced dried blood plasma.

The cinema and radio went to war as well. The National Film Board of Canada produced its, "Canada Carries On", series of propaganda films and the Government of Canada beamed French-language short-wave radio programmes across the Atlantic to the French in the hopes of inciting them to overthrow the Vichy regime.

On the home front Canadian industry using the assembly line techniques pioneered by Ford Canada, General Motors of Canada, Chrysler Canada, Canadian Marconi, Northern Electric and others, produced thousands of aircraft, tanks, guns, vehicles, small arms, ships, radar and radio sets and huge quantities of shells, bullets and explosives.

[edit] The Television Age: TV, nuclear weapons, atomic energy, and computers (1950 – 1980)

The years following WWII introduced even more innovations including: television, the transistor radio, synthetic fabrics, plastic, computers, super highways, shopping centres, atomic energy, nuclear weapons, transcontinental energy pipelines, long range electric transmission, transcontinental microwave networks, fast food, chemical fertilizer, insecticides, the birth control pill, jet aircraft, cable TV, colour TV, the instant replay, the audio cartridge and audio cassette, satellite communications and continental air defense systems.

Television was introduced to Canada by CBC, first in the French language by CBFT in Montreal on 6 September 1952 and two days later, in English, in Toronto by CBLT. By 1958 the CBC had established its transcontinental television network. The CTV network went on the air in 1961 and colour TV came to Canada in the late sixties. Cable TV, which began in the early sixties, as a way of bringing US border TV stations to Canadians living beyond the range of "rabbit ear" reception, rapidly gained popularity as the decade progressed. FM radio was phased in gradually during the sixties and seventies. In the early eigthties Canadian Satellite Communications (Cancom) assembled a package of Canadian and American television channels which it offered to remote communities throughout the northern regions of Canada. The signals were distributed by Anik satellite and made available to the local populace through cable. By the later part of the decade several hundred communities were using this service.

The arrival of television created a demand for programming. Initially, many shows were produced live and broadcast directly from the camera in the studio. Film was also used. There were large numbers of Hollywood films available for broadcast and the broadcasters, CBC and CTV, also produced some of their programming on film for eventual broadcast. In the mid-sixties video technology became available and programmes were produced using this medium. Video also permitted the, "instant replay", which quickly became popular for the live broadcast of sporting events. It was first used on a regular basis in Canada for the broadcast on the very popular, "Hockey Night In Canada". The portable transistor radio also became fashionable in the early sixties, especially among teenagers who used it to listen to popular music on the local AM radio station.

In the post-war years Canada formalized its wartime shortwave radio broadcasting activities with the creation of Radio Canada International. In 1945, this international radio broadcasting service was established with production facilities in Montreal and a huge shortwave transmitter site at Sackville, New Brunswick.

With the advent of the Cold War, Canada rearmed through the fifties taking steps to defend the homeland from the Soviet bomber threat and to contribute to the NATO defence of Europe. The RCAF acquired a series of successively more capable interceptors, the Vampire, the CF-100 Canuck and the CF-101 Voodoo for the air-defence of Canada. Huge air-defence warning systems, the Pinetree Radar Network, 1954, the Mid-Canada Line, 1957, the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, 1957 were constructed across Canada's north. The Neptune and Argus long range aircraft entered service with the RCAF. The Royal Canadian Navy took possession of the Magnificent and the Bonaventure aircraft carriers for anti-submarine warfare off the east coast. Embarked aircraft included the Avenger and Tracker ASW machines and the Sea Fury and Banshee fighters. The Navy also acquired modern ASW destroyers and with the innovative Bear Trap landing system pioneered the use of the embarked ASW Sea King helicopter. Three diesel powered Oberon class attack submarines was also acquired. In Europe the RCAF was equipped with several hundred Sabre and subsequently CF-104 fighters based in France and Germany. Army Aviation received a boost at home with the acquisition of the Chinook helicopter and the CF-5 ground support fighter. Canada's Army permanently based in Germany took possession of the Centurion tank, the 155 mm self-propelled howitzer and M-113 armoured personnel carrier.

After considerable political turmoil Canada acquired nuclear weapons from the Americans under a "dual key" arrangement on 1 January 1963. Genie air-to-air rockets armed with atomic warheads were based at RCAF Stations, Comox, British Columbia, Batotville, Quebec and Chatham, New Brunswick as the primary weapon for the newly acquired CF-101 interceptor. The nuclear armed BOMARC (Boeing Michigan Air Research Corporation) anti-aircraft missile was based at RCAF Stations, North Bay, Ontario and Lamacaza, Quebec. In Germany, as part of Canada's NATO commitment, nuclear free fall bombs were acquired for the RCAF CF-104 strike fighter and the Canadian Army in Germany took possession of a battery the Honest John surface-to-surface battlefield rockets armed with nuclear warheads. By 1984 all these atomic weapons had been returned to the US.

It is ironic that for all its peace-loving rhetoric Canada took possession of nuclear weapons before making atomic generated electricity available to the public. A demonstration power reactor, the NPD was built at Rolphston, Ontario in 1962, however it was not until 1971 that electricity first became commercially available from the CANDU equipped Pickering Atomic Electric Power Plant in Pickering, Ontario and the mammoth Bruce Atomic Electric Plant, near Kinkardine, Ontario in 1978. These were followed by the Gentilly Atomic Electric Plant, Trois Rivieres, Quebec and the Point Lepreau Atomic Electric Plant, Point Lepreau, New Brunswick both in 1982.

Computers were introduced in a variety of areas at this time. The National Research Council of Canada experimented with fire-control computers towards the end of the war. In the fifties the Pinetree, Mid-Canada and DEW Line air-defense radar chains built aross Canada relied heavily on computers. Certainly the largest and most powerful computer in Canada at the time was installed in 1957 in the underground complex at RCAF Station North Bay as the "brain" of the DEW Line System. AVRO Canada in Toronto worked unsuccessfully to develop the fire-control computer for the Velvet Glove air-to-air missile for the ill-fated AVRO Arrow interceptor. Other military users included the Royal Canadian Navy with its DATARS system for the command and control of warships. The NRC used large computers in the late fifties for the hydrographic modeling of the Saint Lawrence Seaway then under construction. One of the first commercial users of computers was Air Canada which introduced a computer based reservation system in the early 1960s. The large Canadian banks, Toronto Domminion Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Bank of Nova Scotia introduced large head-office computers for the keeping of records relating to customer accounts in the late sixties. When they introduced the credit card about the same time these records were kept on large central computers as well. It was this experience with large computer systems linking hundreds of branch offices across the country that enabled the banks to introduce the ATM and the debit card, across Canada in the 1980s. Computers were also introduced to control complex industrial processes. Interprovincial Pipe Line Limited of Edmonton was one of the first Canadian companies to employ computers as a means of controlling the flow of gas in its very large pipeline system. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited used computers to control atomic fission in its power reactors.

The field of transportation saw the completion of a number of significant works including: the Toronto Subway, 1954, the Trans-Canada Gas Pipeline, 1959, the St Lawrence Seaway, 1959, Trans-Canada Highway, completed in 1962, the Montreal Subway, 1966, GO Transit, Toronto area, 1967 and Highway 401, Ontario, completed in 1968. Air Canada and Canadian Pacific Airlines introduced jet passenger service with the DC-8, DC9, B727 and B-737. The B-747 was introduced by these companies in the early seventies. In the sixties and early seventies De Havilland Aircraft of Canada in Toronto developed the DHC-7 and DHC-8 STOL aircraft. These were used to provide passenger service to small city centre airports in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. A number of international carriers also acquired these aircraft to provide similar services elsewhere in the world. Of note was the transit of the Northwest Passage in 1954 by HMCS Labrador, Canada's first purpose built icebreaker, which was acquired that same year, in service with the Royal Canadian Navy. Of particular significance was the conversion from steam to deisel by Canada's two great railways. Beginning in the mid fifties the CPR and Canadian National Railways began replacing their steam locomotives with deisel locomotives. By 1960 the conversion was mostly complete.

The modern era of oil production in Canada began in 1947 when Imperial made its major discovery at Leduc, Alberta. The industry has grown tremendously since then, mainly to meet the demand for gasoline created by the popularity of the car and for home heating oil. Major oil refineries have been built in Vancouver, British Columbia, Edmonton, Alberta, Sarnia, Ontario, Montreal, Quebec and Saint John, New Brunswick.

Energy projects included: the Lakeview Generating Station, Mississauga, Ontario, 1962, the W.A.C.Bennett Dam, British Columbia, 1967, the Gardiner Dam, Saskatchewan, 1968, the Churchill Falls Hydro Dam, Labrador, 1971, the Nanticoke Generating Station (largest coal fired plant in North America), Nanticoke, Ontario, 1978 and La Grande 2 Hydro Dam, Quebec, 1979. The energy crisis of 1973 had domestic repercussions with many consumers taking steps to reduce energy costs through the installation of improved home insulation and wood burning stoves.

The forestry industry underwent a notable process of mechanization in the post-war years. The most visible change was the introduction of the chain saw. When originally developed for modern use in the twenties, this heavy gasoline engine driven machine required two men for its operation. However improvements in engine technology eventually made the saw small and light enough to be operated easily by one person. In 1944 one of the first industrial users, Bloedel Stewart and Welch Ltd. in British Columbia had 112 chain saws in operation but their use accounted for only a small part of total forestry tree cutting. In 1950 less that one percent of pulpwood in Canada was cut with chain saws, however by 1955 this figure had grown to more that 50%. Other machines were also introduced during this period. The first feller-bunchers were used by the Quebec North Shore Paper Company in 1957. Hydraulic tree shears were first used in 1966 by the Abitibi Pulp and Paper Company Limited. Snowmobiles and tracked machines replaced animals for the hauling of logs. In 1948 several Bombardier machines were employed to this end by the Ste. Anne Power Company Limited in Quebec. In 1959 Timberland Machines of Woodstock, Ontario developed the Timberbuncher a self- propelled machine which could move through the forest, cut a whole tree at its base (a process known as full tree harvesting) and using a hydraulic arm, place it into a pile for hauling. Machines that stripped the branches from felled trees a process known as delimbing were also introduced at this time. With the help of these technologies the Canadian pulp and paper industry grew to become one of the major suppliers of newsprint in the world through the operations of companies such as Macmillan Bloedel Ltd, Repap Enterprises Inc., Kruger Inc., Great Lakes Forest Products Ltd, British Columbia Forest Products Ltd., Consolidated-Bathurst Inc., Canadian Forest Products Ltd., CIP Inc., Domtar Pulp & Paper Products Group and Abitibi Consolidated.

The use of pesticides was a prominent feature of post war agriculture across Canada. Insecticides based on fluorine, arsenic, rotenone, nicotine pyrethrum as well as herbicides using sulphiric acid, arsenites and salt and finally fungicides based on sulphur, mercury or copper have been very effective in controlling life forms that degrade agricultural output. At the same time these compounds have also had a negative effect beyond their intended sphere of use.

Business administration underwent technological change. The ball point pen was marketed in the US in October in 1945 and in Canada shortly thereafter. The IBM Selectric typewriter, introduced in 1961 quickly became popular with businesses in Canada as did the Xerox photocopier in the sixties.

The car, cheap gasoline and post war affluence created boom conditions for the expansion of suburbia. Several standard designs for the single family home on a standard lot were reproduced cookie-cutter style row-upon-row in cities across Canada as subdivision after subdivision sprang up radiating from the central core. The designs were thoroughly modern, reflecting the optimism of the era, usually with a peaked roof, asphalt shingles and a brick or wood siding exterior and included a living room, kitchen and occasionally dining room and two, three or four bedrooms and a full basement made of poured concrete or cinder block. Floors were usually made of varnished hardwood planks and the walls and ceilings of gyprock. Copper piping brought running water from the serviced street and copper wiring electricity from the rear lot line. Clay tile pipe carried the sewage from the flush, sit toilet to the main sewer line running under the street. There was usually a driveway beside the house for the family car, and less frequently a carport or garage. Most homes were equipped with a telephone often with a "party" line but these became rare by the sixties. A television set was also common in almost all homes by the end of the fifties and the record player gave way to the hi-fi stereo. Almost all kitchens were equipped with electric refrigerators and electric or less commonly gas, stoves. Where there was gas it was usually piped to the home through a main line running under the street. There were a variety of electrical "labour saving" devices including electrical mixers can openers and carving knives. Central heating was a standard feature and coal, delivered to the home by a diesel powered truck, was the dominant fuel source in the early post-war years. However as the fifties progressed coal gave way to oil and gas heating. Home furnishings were almost all mass-produced and made from wood, fabric and various types of stuffing for cushions. In the kitchen metal chrome tube chairs and formica topped tables were popular. The small front and back yard were maintained with the help of a gasoline powered lawn mower and the hedge and bushes were trimmed with electric clippers. In the early sixties the high-rise apartment building bagan to make its appearance in large cities. The self-supporting steel structures were usually seven stories or more in height and large buildings contained hundreds of dwelling units. Initially they were especially visible along Highway 401 in Toronto, Metropolitan Boulevard in Montreal and the north shore of English Bay in Vancouver.

Detergent, a replacement for soap, introduced in the post war years, was used to keep clothes and dishes clean through the action of its active ingredient, tetrapropylene, a derivative of petroleum.

The booming growth of the suburbs lead to the appearance of the shopping centre, a low rise steel frame, commercial structure housing a number of retail outlets and surrounded by acres of asphalt parking lot for large numbers of cars. The first in Canada included: the Norgate Shopping Centre, Saint-Laurent, Québec, 1949, the Dorval Shopping Centre, Dorval, Québec, 1950, the Park Royal Shopping Centre, West Vancouver, British Columbia, 1950, the Sunnybrook Plaza, Toronto, 1951 and York Mills, Toronto, 1952.

The hospitality industry was similarly effected and fast food drive-in restaurants began to appear. In 1951 the first St. Hubert BBQ restaurant opened its doors on St-Hubert street in Montreal. A&W opened its first Canadian operation in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1957. In 1959 Harvey's opened its first eatery on Yonge Street in Richmond Hill. Hamilton, Ontario saw the opening of the first Tim Horton's restaurant in 1964. The first McDonald's restaurant outside the United States was opened in Richmond, British Columbia in 1967 and the well known Pizza Delight was founded in Shediac, New Brunswick, in 1968.

There was important progress in medical technology during this period. In 1945 Dr. Stuart Stanbury established a National Blood Transfusion Programme for the Canadian Red Cross Society, thus making available to those in need, a dependable source of blood for medical purposes. The associated test for blood typing was introduced at the same time. Blood tests would become increasingly sophisticated in the coming years. The electroencephalograph, used for the diagnosis of neurological disorders was introduced in major Canadian medical institutions in the late forties. Antibiotics such as penicillin were quickly made available to the general public in the post-war years, as were vaccines produced by the Connaught Laboratories. Of particular note was the role played by that company in the mass production of the polio vaccine used for the mass inoculation of young primary school children throughout Canada in the early fifties. There was also progress with respect to the treatment of heart disease. The pacemaker invented with significant Canadian participation was used to treat patients with arrhythmia. For more serious problems open heart surgery became an option for patients and permitted the repair of faulty heart valves, the clearing of blocked coronary arteries and the resolution of other problems. Neurosurgery was introduced in a substantive way in the sixties. Cancer patients were provided with a new option, radiation therapy, through what was popularly known as the "Cobalt Bomb", again developed with important Canadian input. Chemotherapy also became an option. In 1960 the use of a subcutaneous arteriovenous shunt along with the artificial kidney machine allowed hemodialysis for patients with chronic renal failure. Developments in orthodontics made the straightening of the teeth of children with "braces" commonplace. Children were also often on the receiving end of the tonsillectomy a fashionable surgical procedure during these years. The surgical replacement of body parts also became possible and was used to treat ailing kidneys and joints such as knees and hips. The heart transplant was practiced in some instances after the seventies but has remained a rare procedure because of the difficulty in finding donor hearts and the uncertain outcome. Pharmaceuticals attained a high profile. The availability of the birth control pill in 1960 made it possible for women to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy. Stress could be treated with tranquilizers, such as valium, introduced in 1963. The use of vitamins also became widespread and supplements were added to staple foods such as milk and bread and were taken in pill form.

Cinema attendance boomed after the war and with it innovations in cinema design. The first double screen cinema, The Elgin, opened its doors in Ottawa in 1946 and the drive-in cinema became popular after the war. However the long cold Canadian winters discouraged the widespread diffusion of this type of film exhibition. The dramatic Imax large scale cinema format was invented as the result of developments in cinematic technology during Expo'67 in Montreal. The world's first permanent Imax cinema, Cinesphere was built at Ontario Place in Toronto in 1971. Others were built in Vancouver for Expo'86 and at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau , Quebec, in 1989. By 1995 there were 129 Imax cinemas entertaining audiences around the world. The audio cartridge and audio cassette became popular in the early seventies with the cassette eventually winning the battle of the formats. This compact medium lead to the appearance of high quality in-car sound systems.

This was also an era of gigantism and there were both successes and failures. Northwest of Montreal thousands of acres of fertile farmland were expropriated to build the huge new Mirabel International Airport. The facility was to be linked to the heart of Montreal with a fast train. The train was never built and both passengers and air carriers stayed away in droves. The site eventually became a quiet industrial airport, home to the production facilities for Bombardier regional jets. On the other hand the James Bay Hydro Project undertaken in Quebec at the same time was a booming success. Several large dams on the La Grande River with their associated long distance transmission lines provide Hydro-Québec with an important source of electricity.

The Anik series of communications satellites initially built by Hughes Aircraft and operated by Telesat Canada starting in 1972 formed the basis of the world's first domestic satellite communications service.

Place Ville Marie (Royal Bank), Montreal, 1962, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Tower Montréal, 1962, the Edifice Trust Royal (C.I.L. House), Montréal, 1962, the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower, Toronto, 1967, The Simpson Tower, Toronto, 1968, the Hôtel Château Champlain, Montréal, 1967, the Royal Trust Tower, Toronto, 1969, Royal Centre, Vancouver, 1972, Inco Superstack, Sudbury, Ontario, 1972, First Canadian Place, Toronto, 1975, Harbour Centre, Vancouver, 1976, the Complexe Desjardins, la Tour du Sud, Montréal, 1976, the Scotia Tower, Calgary, 1976, the Scotia Tower, Vancouver, 1977, Royal Bank Plaza, South Tower, Toronto, 1977 and the First Bank Tower, Toronto, 1979, represented significant civil engineering and architectural achievements during this period.

Notable large sports facilities included, Empire Stadium, Vancouver, 1954, McMahon Stadium, Calgary, Alberta, 1960, the Montreal Automobile Stadium (Autostad) 1966, the Olympic Stadium, Montreal, 1976 and Commonwealth Stadium (Edmonton), 1978.

However the stand-out architectural and civil engineering achievement of this period was certainly the construction of the CN Tower, the world's tallest free standing structure in Toronto in 1975.

[edit] The PC Age: The Microchip and Mobile Communications (1980 – 2000)

Microelectronics became a part of everyday life during this period. The personal computer became a feature of most homes and the microchip found its way into a bewildering variety of products from cars to washing machines.

In 1977 the first commercially produced personal computers were invented in the US, the Apple II, the PET 2001 and the TRS-80. They were quickly made available in Canada. In 1980 IBM introduced the IBM PC in response to the Apple II and in 1983 Microsoft began to sell its operating system, through IBM where it was referred to as PC-DOS and as a stand alone product known as MS-DOS. This created two rivals for personal computer operating systems, Apple and Microsoft which undures to this day. A large variety of special use software “applications” have been developed for use with these operating systems. There has also been a multiplicity of hardware manufacturers which have produced a wide variety of personal computers and the heart of these machines the central processing unit has increased in speed and capacity by leaps and bounds. There were 1,560,000 personal computers in Canada by 1987 of which 650,000 were in homes, 610,000 in businesses and 310,000 in educational institutions. Canadian producers of micro-computers included Sidus Systems, 3D Microcomputers and Seanix Technology.

In 1987 there considerable numbers of larger computers in Canada including 25,000 mainframe and mini-computers in Canada but the most powerful of all is the supercomputer. Canada's weather service has been a noted user of large computers and has pioneered the Canadian use of supercomputers. Machines used have included: the Bendix G20, 1962, an IBM 360-95 scientific mainframe computer, 1967, its first super computer a CDC 7600 from Control Data Corporation, 1973, a Cray 1S supercomputer, 1983, a NEC supercomputer, 1993 and an IBM supercomputer in 2003. At the time of its installation this latter machine was the most powerful computer in Canada.

The laptop computer also appeared during these years and achieved notable popularity in Canada beginning in the nineties. In 1981 the first commercially available portable computer the Osborne 1 became available. Other models followed including the Kaypro II in 1982, the popular Compaq Portable and Tandy Corporation TRS-80 Model 100 both in 1983, the IBM PC Convertible, 1986, the Macintosh Portable, 1989 and Power Book, 1991 and the IBM Power PC in 1994. The latter models in particular were popular with both professionals and consumers.

The seventies and eighties witnessed the development of word processing, a method for “typing” documents, using a keyboard linked to a computer and a video screen. Early machines were dedicated exclusively to this function and a notable Canadian contribution the Superplus IV, produced by AES Data in Montreal in 1981, became widely popular. However the rise of the personal computer and the invention of PC compatible word processing software such as WordPerfect, in 1982 and Word in 1983 made stand alone word processors obsolete. These new machines with their new software quickly dominated the market and became an almost universal feature of any Canadian office.

Video games have become a wildly popular form of entertainment especially for youth since the eighties. The earliest video game dated from 1947 and a number of devices were produced in the fifties and sixties. However it was the development of the computer chip that lead to their popularization. The coin operated arcade game “Pong” introduced by Atari in 1972 was the first to become widely available. The next phase of development saw the introduction in the mid-seventies the home console, first with a hardwired game, but then complimented in 1977 by, “plug and play” which allowed the use of game cartridges for variety. Beginning in 1985 PC gaming became popular, exploiting the flexibility and increasing popularity of the personal computer. In 1989 Nintendo released its Game Boy, the first of the hand held electronic games. Game imagery became more elaborate with the introduction of the 32 bit chip that was featured in the Sony Play Station released in 1994. The 128 bit, sixth generation of video games was born with the introduction of the Sega Dreamcast in 1998. These technologies found a place in the Canadian consumer market from the moment of their introduction and Canadian companies have played a role in their development, with hardware makers like ATI, developing high-powered video chips for game imagery and software companies developing a number of games.

The use of computer controlled robots in manufacturing (computer-aided manufacturing) was pioneered in Canada by the auto manufacturers who introduced these machines to improve the efficiency of their assembly lines. These were found in new auto manufacturing plants were built, by Honda Canada in Alliston, Ontario and Toyota Canada in Cambridge (, Ontario (1988). Bombardier's invention of a new class of aircraft, the regional jet or RJ, allowed airlines to introduce jet passenger service to smaller centres. The design of this machine was facilitated through the use of comupter aided design (computer-aided design) software.

During the eighties the bar code became a familiar feature on consumer products ranging from food to clothes as did the bar code scanner at the retail check-out counter. These two technologies greatly improved the effectiveness of the check-out procedure and improved inventory management as well through the associated computer accounting of stock. This was one of the factors leading to the technique of just-in-time inventory management for retail, commercial and industrial undertakings.

Canada's major telephone companies introduced digital technology and fibre optics during this period paving the way for more advanced business and customer telecommunications services. In the nineties, Microcell, Cantel, Bell and Rogers begn to offer cell phone service.

Smaller vehicles became popular in response to the oil crisis of 1973. The 18 wheel transport truck which became popular after WW II became the dominant vehicle on the heavily used Highway 401 (Ontario). Containerization, which had made headway in ocean shipping with the construction of terminals in Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver also lead to the eventual elimination of the railway box car and began to make inroads in the trucking industry. Light rail systems were built in Edmonton, Alberta in 1978, Calgary, Alberta, in 1981, Toronto, Ontario, in 1985 and Vancouver, British Columbia in 1986.

Notable energy works included, the ill-fated east coast Ocean Ranger drilling platform, the Nova Scotia Power Corporation tidal generating station, Annapolis, 1984, the Hibernia oil platform off the east coast of Newfoundland, the Terra Nova Platform in the same area and the Sable Offshore Energy Project off the coast of Nova Scotia and the Darlington Atomic Electric Plant, Darlington, Ontario, 1990.

Large civil engineering and architectural works of note included: BC Place, Vancouver, 1983, Petro-Canada Centre, West Tower, Calgary, 1984, the West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, Alberta, 1986, Scotia Plaza, Toronto 1988, the Canterra Tower, Calgary, 1988, the Sky Dome, Toronto, 1989, Bankers Hall, Calgary, 1989, BCE Place–Canada Trust Tower, Toronto, 1990, the Bay Wellington Tower, Toronto, 1990, Tour du 1000 de la Gauchetière, Montréal, 1991, Tour IBM-Marathon, Montréal, 1992, GM Place, Vancouver, 1995 and the Confederation Bridge, NB-PEI, 1997. New arenas for Canada's National Hockey League teams were built, including GM Place, Vancouver, home of the Vancouver Canucks in 1995, the Corel Centre in Ottawa, home of the Ottawa Senators and Molson Centre in Montréal, new home of the Montreal Canadiens, both in 1996.

Medical treatment advanced during these years. The use of lasers and computers became important parts of medical treatment. Computers were essential in the development of new medical imaging devices such as the CAT scan and the MRI. Minimally invasive surgery, also known as laparoscopic surgery reduced surgical damage to patients. Lasers were used with catheters for clearing blocked arteries and catheters with small cameras provided images of conditions inside the body. Coronary bypass surgery became commonplace. Laser eye surgery became popular in the nineties and was used to improve visual acuity for the near-sighted. New chemical chemotherapy combinations helped prolong the lives of cancer patients. These years also saw the appearance of techniques for the long term application of medication through the use of a skin patch or implants. Male erectile difficulties could be treated with the use of Viagara and other medications.

There were innovations in home design and construction during this period. Houses generally became bigger. New materials such as vinyl siding became common and often replaced the use of more expensive brick for home exteriors. The car port and garage became widespread features and the latter was ofter located close to the curb creating a rather crowded streetscape. The kitchen saw the introduction of the home dishwasher and the microwave oven. Large screen televisions usually of the cathode ray or projection type were found in many homes. The Sony Walkman, introduced in 1979, quickly gained popularity as a means for listening to music on the go.

The slot machine, so dear to gamblers, was introduced during this period. Casinos were built in Windsor, Niagara Falls and Orillia Ontario, Montreal, Gatineau and Baie St. Paul, Quebec, Halifax, Nova Scotia and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Canada's military suffered a long period of technological decline. Atomic weapons were relinquished. New technologies were acquired, including the CF-18 fighter, the Aurora ASW patrol Aircraft, the Halifax class guided missile frigate, the four ill-fated Victoria class diesel attack submarines, the Leopard tank and the air-defence-anti-tank missile system. The DEW Line was updated and renamed the North Warning System. But these developments were not enough to prevent a general loss of military capability.

Other technologies were introduced during this period: the microwave oven, ATM, the cell phone, genetically modified food, remote sensing, the CD and DVD, medical imaging (PET, MRI, etc.), bar codes, the checkout scanner, tailored production runs, direct to home satellite TV and fuel cell cars to name a few.

[edit] The Internet Age: Wireless Technology, Mega Oil and Ecological Friendliness (2000 – Present)

The internet has become as essential part of daily life and is found in most Canadian homes. In December 2006 there were 22,000,000 Internet users representing 65.9% of the population and 7,675,533 internet broadband connections. By 2006 internet providers began making wireless internet connection available to their customers with companies such as Bell Canada offering their "unplugged" service. This type of service, using the laptop computer and other portable devices has evolved to allow mobile internet connection in many places across Canada. Mobile communications have also been facilitated through the introduction of the widely popular Research In Motion, Blackberry handheld email and telephone machine.

Other communications projects have included the series of 4 Nimiq DBS satellites operated by Telesat Canada since 1999. Using these satellites, Star Choice and Expressvu began offering direct-to-home satellite television service and Sirius and XM Canada direct-to-car satellite radio service. In Toronto the CBC bagan broadcasting digital HD over-the-air TV in 2005. A national government regulatory body, the Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission has stated that all over-the-air TV broadcasting will be digital by August 2011.

Global Positioning technology has become an important feature of business and consumer life. After 23 years of military development the US military global positioning system became operational in 1995. Originally designed for the precise targeting of weapons and other military purposes, the US government made the system available to civilians in 1996. Industrial users such as transportation companies and resource companies began to make use of the technology for the tracking of vehicles and the location of field operations. Receivers for the consumer market, were also produced and made available in Canada and became popular with outdoorsmen and women. In 2004 a GPS feature became available on some mobile phones and stand alone units for car navigation were available by 2008.

In 2008 the Government of Canada announced the initiation of two important transportation projects. In the first instance the government stated that it will acquire, for the Canadian Coast Guard, a new $700 million, Polar class icebreaker for patrolling the Northwest Passage. The ship will enter service in 2017. The government also announced the construction of a second international bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan, to help relieve the pressure on the heavily overloaded, 80 year old Ambassador Bridge. The $5 billion project will include connections from the Canadian ends of both bridges to the nearby Highway 401 (Ontario).

In this new century the largest engineering undertaking by far is the tar sands project in northern Alberta. This has seen the investment of up to $60 billion to develop and build gigantic tar sand mining, transportation, separation and refining facilities to produce oil from the gritty bitumen tar. The project is highly controversial for a number of reasons not the least of which is environmental. As of 2005 operations included the: Suncor Mine, Syncrude Mine, Shell Canada Mine and others producing 760,000 barrels of oil a day. A large number of corporations from a number of countries plan to invest in the tar sands including: Suncor Energy, Syncrude, Shell/Chevron/Marathon, Petro-Canada, EnCana Energy, ConocoPhillips, Japan Canada Oil Sands (JACOS) Japan, Nexen, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Devon Energy US, Synenco Energy, Sinopec China, Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil US, Husky Energy, Total S.A., Enerplus France, Chevron US, Value Creation Inc., StatoilHydro Norway and the Korea National Oil Corporation, Korea. Recovery techniques include, steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and cyclic steam stimulation (CSS).

These concerns have inspired the development of wind farms that use modern windmills to generate electricity from this renewable resource. One of the first modern windmills was built at Cap Chat in Quebec in the eighties but most wind farms have been built since 2000. As of 2008, 10 megawatt wind farms in Canada were distributed as follows: Alberta 10, Quebec 5, Ontario 5, PEI, 4, Sasketchewan, 3, Manitoba 2 and Nova Scotia 2. Recently Hydro Quebec has announced the construction of 1000 windmills at 15 new sites located mostly in the St. Lawrence River Valley. By 2015 that utility expects that 10% of the province's electricity will be provided by wind power.

They have also had a large impact on automobile manufacturers. Fuel efficient hybrid vehicles such as the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon, Saturn Vue, Toyota Prius, Toyota Camry Hybrid, Toyota Highlander Hybrid, Ford Escape Hybrid, Honda Insight and Honda Civic Hybrid have become available to Canadian consumers since the turn of the century and the rising cost of gasoline is making them increasingly attractive in spite of their generally higher cost. The field of transportation also saw the Premiers of Ontario and Quebec in 2007 talking of yet another study of a high speed train in the Windsor - Quebec corridor.

Efforts to save fuel have also led to efforts to reduce the weight of vehicles through the increased use of composite material. Aircraft manufacturers have been especially notable in this regard and produced new large but relatively light aircraft such as the Boeing B-787 Dreamliner with this new material. Orders for this new machine have been made by a number of major world airlines, including Air Canada.

Lasers made their way into routine dentistry by the middle of the first decade, offering faster treatments, less pain and more precise results. They are used to remove tartar, treat soft tissues such as gums and to prepare cavities for filling. Of particular interest in the latter instance is the fact that this treatment is so painless that the use of a needle to inject a local anesthetic us usually unnecessary. Laser treatment results in little bleeding, a lower risk of infection and a quicker healing. Another innovation was the use of computer milled ceramic implants for repairing cavities.

Domestic construction has witnessed the introduction of improved building techniques and the smart home. Hydraulic lift equipment is now commonly used for home construction, minimizing or eliminating the need for scafolding. Furthermore homes are built with the electronics necessary for internet connection throughout the premises. Household systems, such as heating/cooling, lighting, communications, entertainment and even food storage and cooking are now all linked to each other through the web. In the kitchen the glass topped stove has become popular. The living room has seen the introduction of the very large, plasma TV which has undergone dramatic price reduction in the last few years and has replaced the cathode-ray TV in consumer appliance/electronic stores. Also popular with consumers is the iPod portable music player introduced to Canadians in 2001 and more recently the iPhone which will be made available to Canadians by Rogers Wireless in 2008. The digital camera which was introduced to Canadians in the eighties has for the most part replaced the film camera in recent years.

In the new century Canada's government has shown renewed interest in the acquisition of military technology, especially with its commitment to the war in Afghanistan. Equipments have been improved including the CF-18 fighter with addition of a laser guided bombs and there are plans to update the Aurora patrol aircraft. The airforce has also recently taken possession of the gigantic new C-17 Globemaster III long range transport aircraft and announced plans to renew the fleet of Hercules transport aircraft. The army has acquired the new Leopard tank and C-777 long range gun. Other acquisitions pending include the Cyclone ASW helicopter, the Chinook helicopter, new Arctic patrol vessels for the navy and a new ice breaker for the Canadian Coast Guard. The Canadian Forces have also acquired electronic equipment to face the new cybernetic threat and to conduct cybernetic warfare.

The public has also been introduced to such technologies as bio-metrics, genetically modified foods and RFID to name a few.

In the earlier parts of Canada's history, the state often played a crucial role in the diffusion of these technologies, in some cases through a monopoly enterprise, in others with a private "partner". In more recent times the need for the role of the state has diminished in the presence of a larger private sector.

[edit] Scientific research in Canada

This section outlines the history of the natural sciences in Canada. The social sciences are not treated here.

[edit] The beginnings of science (14,000 BC – 1850)

[edit] Native peoples and nature (14,000 – 1600)

Native peoples of Canada did not undertake scientific research in a formal sense but they did study and have a profound understanding of their natural environment in ways that allowed them to survive and flourish.

[edit] The Europeans: Explorers, universities, and talented amateurs (1600 – 1850)

Marine Science: The early European explorers were responsible for charting much of what would become the east and west coasts of Canada as well as the Arctic. John Cabot, the Italian explorer sailing under the British flag made two voyages to North America in 1497 and 1498 along the coast of what is now called Newfoundland. Gaspar Corte-Real, the Portuguese explorer is thought to have explored the area along the Newfoundland, Labrador and Greenland coasts in 1500 ad 1501. In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano sailing under the French flag, explored the east coast of North America from Cape Fear to Newfoundland. During voyages of exploration in 1534 and 1535-1536, the French explorer Jacques Cartier "discovered" and mapped the St. Lawrence River as far inland as Hochelaga (Montreal). Samuel de Champlain is well known for his explorations of the St Larwrence and Acadia, in 1603 and 1604. The search for fabled Northwest Passage to the orient intrigued European explorers for 300 years. The first efforts in this regard were made by British explorers Martin Frobisher in 1576 and by John Davis in 1585. In 1610 Henry Hudson made his ill fated voyage in search of the Passage. William Baffin and Robert Bylot sailed the Arctic sea in the area around what became known as Baffin Island in 1616. While these voyages not successful, in that they did not discover the Northwest Passage, they provided valuable information on the nature of the Arctic ocean. Voyages by Edward Perry in 1819 and John Ross in 1829 added to the growing body of knowledge relating to the north. The Hudson Bay Company also played a role in Arctic exploration and during the period 1837 – 1839, Peter Warren Dease and Thomas Simpson of that company explored the Arctic coast from Point Barrow to Rae Strait. In 1845, Sir John Franklin with two ships the Erebus and Terror set sail to find the Passage. He died in the attempt but is generally credited with its discovery. In 1774, Captain Juan Perez Hernandez, aboard the Spanish ship Santiago, became the first white man to explore the west coast and is reported to have sailed as far north as the Dixson Entrance. The following year Spanish hydrographer, Bodega Y Quadra, drew the first charts to show a part of the west coast of Canada. The renowned, Captain James Cook explored the west coast in 1778 as part of an attempt to find the Northwest Passage from the Pacific, rather than the Atlantic side. In 1791 – 1792 Captain George Vancouver of Britain and Dionisio Alcalá-Galiano and Cayetano Valdés of Spain conducted further surveys in the area.

Universities and Talented Amateurs: The Jesuits, learned men who arrived with the first colonists had some interest in science and their activities complimented the observations of the explorers. In particular they founded Le college de Quebec in 1635, eventually know as L'universite Laval, in Quebec City which would become one of the Group of 13 large research universities in Canada. Other future G-13 members founded during this period, included, Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1818, McGill University in Montreal in 1821, the University of Toronto in 1827, Queens University in Kingston, Ontario in 1841 and the University of Ottawa in 1848.

Colonial scientific curricula between 1750 and 1850, included rudimentary studies in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, chemistry, natural philosophy, natural history and moral philosophy. As the colony grew by the beginning of the 1800s, a number of amateur "scientists" , notably in Montreal and Toronto, began to record and study nature as a gentlemanly pursuit and established local learned societies.

Mathematics: Mathematics is the language of science and was introduced very early on in New France. The teaching of mathematics began at the College de Quebec in 1651 and was of a quality that equalled the teaching in France. Students were exposed to arithmatic, quadratic equations, geometry, trigonometry, and integral and differential calculus in the final years of an eight year course. In 1778, the first full professor at the College, Martin Boutet de St-Martin, was appointed by Louis XIV to the newly created Royal Chair of Mathematics and Hydrography in Quebec City. The most notable appointee to this post was Louis Joliette the "discoverer" of the Mississippi River. In 1760 the College de Quebec was closed but the new Seminaire de Quebec, under the leadership of Abbé Jérôme Demers, continued in a vigorous fashion, the science and mathematics tradition of the former institution. However after 1840, for religious and social reasons these disciplines floundered. For example, L'ecole polytechnique de Montréal, Montreal's premier engineering school, founded in 1873, only taught intermediate mathematics until 1910. It was not until the twenties and thirties in Quebec that the importance of science and mathematics was once again recognized, a fact reflected in the establishment of the faculties of science at Laval in 1837 and at L'universite de Montreal.

Astronomy: Astronomy was one of the first scientific disciplines practiced in the northern North America. There are records of astronomical observations made by Arctic explorers dating from 1612 and by French missionaries in New France who noted eclipses as early as 1618 and 1632. The Marquis de Chabert is reported to have built one of the first observatories in North America at Fort Louisbourg in 1750. A small observatory was built by Joseph Desbarres at Castle Frederick, Nova Scotia, in 1765.

Chemistry: Elementary courses in chemistry were introduced into the curriculum of the Seminaires de Quebec by l'abbe John Holmes in 1830 and l'abbe Isaac Desaulniers in Saint-Hyacinthe as well as the Seminaire de Montreal in 1842.

Biology: Interest in biology in Canada dates from the times of European exploration. Botany attracted explorers and scientists such as Cartier 1503, Clusius 1576, C. Bauhin 1623 , J. Cornuti 1635, P. Boucher 1664, M. Sarrazin 1697, J.F. Gauthier 1742, A. Michaud, 1785, W.J. Hooker 1820, A.F. Holmes 1821, L. Provencher 1862 and J. Macoun 1883, who collected and/or named various plants found in Canada. Zoology as well was the subject of much early activity. Reports and studies by J. Cabot 1497, N. Denys 1672, C. Perrault and M. Sarrazin 1660, T. Pennent 1784, J. Richardson 1819, P.H. Gosse 1840 and M. Perley 1849, related to the nature of animals found throughout Canada’s eastern and northern regions.

A reflection of this activity is seen in the founding of the Botanical Society of Canada in Kingston, Ontario in 1860 and the Entomological Society of Canada in 1863. .

[edit] The rise of professional science (1850 – 1900)

Scientific research in Canada as a formal undertaking dates from the 1850s and was the result of the impetus provided by the establishment of government scientific research organizations, new universities and the evolution of academic disciplines.

[edit] Government research organizations

Government organizations specializing in science established during this period included the Geological Survey of Canada, the Dominion Experimental Farms, and the Biological Board (fisheries research).

[edit] New universities and changing curricula

Additional future members of the G-13 were founded, including l'universite de Montreal and the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario in 1878 and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario in 1887. University science curicula also changed during this period. Natural philosophy evolved into physics and became closely allied with mathematics. Natural history evolved into geology, biology, zoology and botany.

Canada's first, "national" scientific/learned/professional association, the Canadian Medical Association was created during this period, in Quebec City in October 1867. In 1882 the founding of the Royal Society of Canada reflected the maturation of Canada's intellectual development by becoming the first "national" organization to recognize and promote among other things achievement in science.

[edit] Disciplines (1850 – 1900)

Geology: Professional science in Canada began with the founding of the Geological Survey of Canada, by the Legislature of the Province of Canada, in 1841. William Logan was appointed the first Director in 1842 and after establishing headquarters in Montreal in 1843 began field work searching for coal in the area between Pictou, Nova Scotia and the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. His assistant Alexander Perry conducted a similar search in the area between Lakes Huron and Erie. Although no coal was found the surveys demonstrated the importance of systematic study of Canada's land mass. The Survey grew during the forties and in 1851 participated in the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London, England, as well as the Universal Exposition in Paris, in 1855. The efforts of the Survey were so successful that in 1863 it was able to publish its first major work, the Geology of Canada. With Confederation the Survey's area of geographic responsibility grew dramatically as did its reputation, being recognized by the government as an important agent in the establishment of a mining industry in Canada. This recongition also resulted in the headquarters being moved to Ottawa in 1881. As Canada grew the Survey studied the routes of the new Canadian Pacific Railway as well as other areas of the west and north. Director Dawson surveyed British Columbia and the Yukon; Robert Bell studied the north and the coastal areas of Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait. Geologist Tyrell found coal and fossils in Alberta and J. Mackintosh Bell studied the area from Lake Athabasca to Great Bear Lake in 1900. Sailing aboard the Neptune geologist Low explored the Arctic archipelago in 1903-04.

Mathematics: English language universities in Canada, had professors teaching mathematics as part of the discipline of natural philosophy from the early years of their founding. The first professorships in natural philosophy were established at Dalhousie in 1838 and at Kings College, later the University of Toronto, in 1843. By 1859 the University of Toronto offered specializations in both fields and formed separate mathematics and physics programmes in 1877, a move that was copied by other universities, notably, Queens, McGill and Dalhousie. By the 1890s most Canadian universities had at least one professor of mathematics on faculty. Mathematicians of repute during this era included Professors J. Bradford Cherriman and James Louden of the University of Toronto, Nathan Fellowes Depuis at Queen's and Alexander Johnson at McGill, all of whom were members of the Royal Society of Canada.

Physics: The first full professorships in physics were established at Dalhousie, in Halifax in 1879, Toronto, 1887 and McGill, in Montreal in 1890. Although these were mainly teaching positions there was some research activity. At Dalhousie, Professor J.G.McGregor, the first to hold the position at that university, published about 50 papers during his tenure from 1879 until 1899. Other prominent researchers in the field at this time included H.L. Callendar and E. Rutherford, Macdonald professors of physics at McGill and J.C. McLennan at U of T.

Astronomy: The discipline experienced modest growth during this period. New but small observatories were built including: the Toronto Magnetic Observatory in 1840, a facility at the Citadel in Quebec City in 1850, one at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton in 1851, in Kingston, Ontario in 1856, in Montreal in 1862 and another in Quebec City on the Plains of Abraham in 1874.

Chemistry: The study of chemistry in Canada began in a modest way in 1829 with courses on the subject at the Montreal General Hospital given as part of medical training. At King's College (University of New Brunswick) in Fredericton, as early as 1837, Dr. James Robb taught a course in natural science that included the study of chemistry within the context ot botany, zoology, mineralogy and geology. Isaac Chipman of Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia introduced chemistry at that institution in 1840 as did Henry How at King's College in Windsor, Nova Scotia. Henry Croft was appointed professor of chemistry and experimental philosophy at King's College (University of Toronto) in Toronto in 1842 where he specialized in toxicology and inorganic chemistry. In 1843 Dr. William Sutherland of the Montreal Medical and Surgical School began teaching chemistry in its own right at the McGill University and the University of Montreal. Growth during the decades that followed was steady but modest. However by the 1890s buildings with well equipped laboratories devoted to the study of chemistry had been built including Carruthers Hall, 1891 at Queen's, in Kingston, the Chemistry Building, 1895 at the University of Toronto, and the Macdonald Chemistry and Mining Building at McGill in Montreal in 1898.

The Geological Survey of Canada also developed expertise in the field, hiring Thomas Sterry Hunt in 1847 as a chemist and mineralogist. He was succeeded in this role by G.C. Hoffmann a charter member of the Royal Society of Canada.

Biology: Professional biology in Canada dates from the creation of departments of natural history, which included the study of biology, at the Universities of Toronto and McGill in 1854 and 1858 respectively. Government interest in biology was reflected in the establishment of the Experimental Farm Service in 1886 with Professor William Saunders as the first Director. A Central Experimental Farm was established in Ottawa that year as well as regional farms in Nappan, Nova Scotia in 1887, and Brandon, Manitoba, Indian head, NWT and Agassiz, BC in 1888. A number of divisions for the study of topics of special interest to Canadian farmers were established including, entomology and botany, horticulture, chemistry, poultry, cereal, agriculture and tobacco.

Public interest in biology lead to the creation of the Botanical Garden at Queen's College in Kingston, Ontario in 1861, the Riverdale Zoo in Toronto, in 1887, the Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Ottawa that same year and the Stanley Park Zoo in Vancouver in 1888.

Medical Research: Medical research in nineteenth century Canada was modest to say the least. The first medical schools were founded during the early part of the 1800s. The Medical Faculty of the University of Montreal was established in 1824 as was that of the University of Toronto. La faculte de medicine de l’universite de Montreal offered the first French language course in medicine in Canada beginning in 1843. The medical faculties at Queen’s in Kingston, Ontario and Dalhousie in Halifax, Nova Scotia were established in 1854 and 1867 respectively followed by those at the University of Western Ontario in 1881 and the University of Manitoba in 1888. While they were excellent institutions of instruction there was no systematic emphasis on medical investigation. Research began almost “accidentally” with the curiosity of Dr. Beaumont in Quebec who was able to investigate gastric digestion in 1825 through the “fistula” created by injury in the abdomen of Alexis St. Martin a voyageur.

[edit] Scientists of note (1850 – 1900)

Scientists of this period included: William Logan,1798-1875 (geology) and John William Dawson, 1820-1899 (paleobotany), Sir William Osler (medicine), C.H. McLeod (astronomy), W.F. King (astronomy), O.J. Klotz (astronomy) and E.G.D. Deville (astronomy).

[edit] Research laboratories, Nobel Prizes and the NRC (1900 – 1939)

[edit] University laboratories

At the beginning of the twentieth the "research laboratory" was introduced to Canadian universities. The physics laboratory established at McGill in Montreal was home to the discovery of the atomic nucleus by Ernest Rutherford, an achievement for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1908. The University of Toronto established the Connaught Laboratories where Sir Frederick Banting and Best discovered insulin, and won a Nobel Prize as well in 1923. The Dunlap Observatory at the same university was built in 1935. In 1938, l'Institut de microbiologie et d'hygiène de Montréal (l'Institut Armand-Frappier) was founded.

The new century witnessed the founding of other future G-13 schools, the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, both in 1908 as well as the Canadian Society for Chemistry in 1917. In 1931 the need to recognize and support scientific study and research in the French language lead to the founding of L'association canadienne francaise pour l'avancement des sciences (ACFAS).

In the early twentieth century moral philosophy evolved into what is today recognized as "social science", economics, sociology, political science etc....This new field of scientific research contributed significantly to the efforts of the Rowell-Sirois Commission studying the effects of the depression on Canada's political economy.

The thirties also saw the creation in 1935 of the Fields Medal, the "Nobel Prize" of mathematics, named in honour of its champion, Charles Fields a prominent mathematician at the University of Toronto.

[edit] Government laboratories

The support of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (1903) stimulated the establishment of the Dominion Observatory (1905). The Federal government established the National Research Council of Canada in 1916 and equipped that organization with laboratories in 1932. The Dominion Bureau of Statistics was also created during this period.

The provinces became involved in science as well during these years. The Scientific and Industrial Research Council of Alberta was established in 1921 and the Ontario Reseearch Foundation in 1928.

[edit] Disciplines (1900 – 1939)

Mathematics: The increased importance of mathematics in fields such as engineering, lead to the growth of the number of mathematics departments in universities across Canada in the new century. Specialization also occurred, as seen for example at the University of Toronto with the creation there, of the first programme in actuarial science in North America. The Canadian Institute of Actuaries was subsequentially established in 1907. In 1915 he first Canadian doctorate in mathematics was awarded to Samuel Beatty, again at the University of Toronto, who went on to eventually become the head of the department there. J.C. Fields another mathematician at U of T was instrumental in reviving the annual meetings of the International Congress of Mathematics, suspended because of World War I and the first post war meeting of that organization was held in Toronto in 1924. As mentioned above he was also instrumental in the creation in 1932 of the "Nobel Prize" of mathematics, posthumously named the Fields medal, after his untimely death. The reputation of the department grew with the addition of the geometer and algebraist Harold S.M. Coxeter to the department in 1936.

Physics: The growth of physics was notable during this period.

The landmark event, one of the greatest discoveries in the history of physics and the greatest event in the history of Canadian physics, was the discovery of the atomic nucleus by Dr. Ernest Rutherford, Chairman of the Department of Physics at McGill University from 1898 until 1907.

J.C. McLennan director of the physics laboratory at U of T from 1906 to 1932 undertook studies in atmospheric conductivity and cathode rays, but in 1912 was inspired by the work of Bohr, to conduct research into atomic spectroscopy. He along with G.M.Shrun, constructed the first machine for the liquification of helium in North America, which was used for cryogenic studies of metals and solid gases. Research into colloid physics in the twenties and thirties by E.F. Burton and his students lead to the construction of the first electron microscope in North America. Geophysics research was also undertaken at the U of T at this time by L. Gilchrist. At McGill, L.V.King studied mathematical physics while D.A. Keys and A.S. Eve conducted research into geophysics and J.S Marshall, into atmospheric physics. McGill also established the first theoretical physics group at a Canadian university. At the University of Alberta, R.W. Boyle became the first professor of physics in 1912 and conducted research into ultrasound while F. Allen established the physics department at the University of Manitoba and bent his efforts towards the physics of physiology. At the University of Saskatchewan, E.L. Harrington was the first physics department head from 1924 to 1956, during which time that institution developed expertise in upper atmospheric research, begun by B.W. Currie in 1932. From 1935 to 1945, Gerhard Herzberg studied atomic and molecular physics there. Physics began at Queen's with the work of A.L.Clark and nuclear research was conducted there by J.A. Gray, B.W. Sargent, A.T. Stewart and others. H.L. Bronson, department head at Dalhousie was active in physics research from 1910 to 1956.

Astronomy: The first significant Canadian astronomical facility, the Dominion Observatory, was built in Ottawa in 1905 by the federal government. It featured a refracting telescope and a reflecting solar telescope. This was followed in 1918 by the new Dominion Astrophysical Observatory near Victoria, British Columbia. The 1.88 m (72 inch) reflecting telescope there had been proposed and designed by John Plaskett in 1910 with the backing of the International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research and when it began operation was briefly the largest telesciope in the world. The University of Toronto established the first astronomy department in a Canadian university in 1904 and through the efforts of department head Dr. Chant and the generosity of a private citizen, a large facility, the David Dunlap Observatory was built there in 1935.

Geology: The early twentieth century was a difficult time for geology in Canada. The Geological Survery experienced funding and staffing difficulties as the pressures of the Great War placed the focus of government elsewhere. However field studies continued to emphasize the importance of mineral wealth and the survey's activities proved fruitful in spite of strained resources. In the lean Depression Years annual budgets hovered in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 1935 in an effort to stimulate the economy and create employment the budget of the Survey was dramatically increased to $ 1 million and field work increased tenfold. During these years the Survey made use of aircraft in its activities for the first time.

One of the great geological finds of all time was made during this period. In 1909,Charles Doolittle Walcott, discovered what came to be known as the Burgess Shale, near Field, British Columbia, a rock formation that contained the very well preserved fossil remains of animals from the Cambrian geological era.

Oceanography:The establishment of two professional scientific organizations, the Hydrographic Survey of Canada and the Biological Board, the precursor of the Fisheries Research Board, at the turn of the century, marked the beginning of modern Canadian oceanography. As the result of a tragic marine accident on Georgan Bay the Government of Canada created the Georgian Bay Survey in 1883 to produce reliable navigation charts for safe navigation on that Bay and Lake Huron. The Survey began the hydrographic charting of the west coast in 1891, tidal and current metering in 1893 and the charting of the St. Lawrence River below Quebec City, in 1905. In 1904 under an Order-in -Council it became the Hydrographic Survey of Canada with an expanded mandate. In 1908, the federal government established permanent biological research field stations at St. Andrews, New Bruncwick and Nanaimo, British Columbia, for the scientific study of the fisheries on the east and west coasts. These operations were managed by the Biological Board created in 1912 and renamed the Fisheries Research Council in 1937. Originally staffed by university summer student volunteers, professional full time scientific staff were hired and laboratories related to the fisheries and food processing established on both coasts, in the twenties. Joseph-Elzéar Bernier aboard the Arctic undertook voyages to the Arctic in 1904, 1907 and 1909. During the latter he unveiled a plaque on Melville Island and claimed the Arctic Islands as part of Canada.

Chemistry: The growth of the discipline continued in the new century. Departments were established in a number of universities including, chemistry and physical chemistry, at Toronto, 1900, the University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1909, Saskatchewan, 1910, a unified chemistry department at McGill, 1912, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 1915, L'universite de Montreal, 1920, McMaster, Hamilton, 1930, Sir George Williams College, Montreal, 1936, neurochemistry, the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, 1947 and at Bishop's University, 1948.

Graduate programmes in chemistry emphasizing original research were also introduced including: an M.Sc., McGill, 1900, Ph.D., Toronto, 1901, M.Sc., McMaster, 1909, Ph.D.,McGill, 1910, M.Sc., University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1915, M.Sc., University of Saskatchewan, 1923, M.Sc., University of New Brunswick, Fredricton, 1948 and an M.Sc., at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 1949.

Noted university chemists of the period with their date of departmental appointment, included, A.L.F. Lehmann, University of Alberta, 1909, R.D. MacLaurin, University of Saskatchewan, 1910, R.F. Ruttan, McGill, 1912, Lash Miller, Toronto, 1914, D. McIntosh, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 1915, T. Thorvaldson, University of Saskatchewan, 1919, G.Baril, L'universite de Montreal, 1920 and C. E. Burke, McMaster, Hamilton, 1930. The discipline evolved during these years with specializations in physical chemistry and biochemistry.

The National Research Council became involved in chemistry during these years. In 1929 the Council founded the Department of Industrial Chemistry with G.S. Whitby as the Director. The Department studied the industrial production and uses of magnesium, natural gas, asbestos, wool, maple products and rubber among other things using new laboratories built on Sussex Street in Ottawa in 1932. In 1939 E.W.R. Steacie became the Director of the Division of Chemistry and lead that organization through the difficult war years. He championed the independence of the Council and the importance of pure sciencific research.

Biology: Biochemistry, the chemical basis for biology developed significantly during these years. Departments were established at Toronto, 1907, The Western University of London, 1921, McGill, 1922, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 1923, Dalhousie University, Halifax, 1923, L'universite de Montreal, 1925, L'universite Laval, Quebec City, 1928, Queen's, Kingston, 1937, University of Saskatchewan, 1946 and the University of Ottawa, 1946. The research in these departments was closely related to that of their associated biology departments.

The Experimental Farm Service grew dramatically in the early part of the new century. A large number of farms were created across the country at locations including, Summerland 1914, Vancouver 1925, Kamloops 1935, Creston 1940 and Prince George 1940, all in British Columbia, Lethbridge 1906, Lacombe 1907 and Fort Vermillion 1907, in Alberta, Rosthern 1909, Saskatoon 1917, Swift Current 1921, Regina 1931 and Melfort 1935, in Saskatchewan, Morden 1918, Winnipeg 1924 and Portage La Prairie 1944 in Manitoba , Harrow 1913, Kapuskasing 1916, Delhi 1933 and Thunder Bay 1937 in Ontario, La Pocatiere 1912, Lennoxville 1914 and L’Assomption 1928, in Quebec, Fredericton 1912, New Brunswick 1912, Charlottetown 1909, PEI and Kentville, Nova Scotia 1911. The Service also established an Entomological Branch in 1914 to study the control of field crop insects, forests insects, foreign pests and stored product insects. A Science Service was created in 1937 which included divisions for bacteriology, biology and plant pathology, animal pathology, chemistry, entomology and forest biology. Of particular note was the development of Marquis wheat by researcher Charles Saunders during this period.

In 1928 the National Research Council created the Division of Biology and Agriculture. Initially working at the University of Alberta the Division moved into the new laboratory in Ottawa in 1932 and studied the biochemistry of wheat rust, gluten proteins and mutation in cereals among other things.

Medical research: Medical Research: Medical investigation grew dramatically in the new century. Almost immediately after Roentgen’s discovery of the x-ray, was used for clinical examination in Montreal on & February in 1896. There were as well, investigations into septicemia at the Montreal General Hospital in 1907. Dr. J.B. Collip isolated the hormone of the parathyroid gland in 1926 and Dr. Maud Abbott of McGill studied congenital diseases of the heart. Drs. Lucas and Henderson of Toronto discovered the anesthetic properties of cyclopropane in 1929 and Dr. Norman Bethune of Montreal developed the first blood bank and battlefield transfusion techniques.

Three institutional pillars of medical research were established during these years. The Connaught Laboratories in Toronto, in 1917, the Montreal Neurological Institute in 1934 and L’institute de microbiologie de Montreal.

In 1914 Dr. John Fitzgerald established laboratories in Toronto to produce vaccines for smallpox, rabies, diphtheria and tetanus. The facility was named the Connaught laboratories in 1917 in honour of Prince Albert, the Duke of Connaught the recently retired Governor General. Beginning in 1922 the laboratories began to mass produce the newly discovered hormone insulin.

The discovery of insulin by Sir Frederick Banting, C. H. Best, J.J.R. MacLeod and J.B. Collip in 1921-22 at the University of Toronto stands as a landmark in Canadian medical research.

With a grant of $1,000,000 from the US Rockefeller Foundation, McGill University established the Montreal Neurological Institute in 1934. In these facilities Dr. Wilder Pennfield undertook research into the surgical treatment of epilepsy and scientific inquiry into the nature of the temporal lobe of the human brain.

In 1938 Dr. Armand Frappier after years of effort obtained $75,000 from the government of Quebec for the establishment of L’institute de microbiologie de Montreal an organization devoted to the teaching of microbiology, research into the field and the industrial production of vaccines. In 1941 after moving into facilities at the newly constructed Universite de Montreal the Institute began producing vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus and typhoid as well as blood plasma for the war effort.

In 1936 the NRC significantly created the Associate Committee of Medical Research to fund medical research in Canada. This organization became the Division of Medical Research in 1956 and the Medical Research Council in 1960.

[edit] Scientists of note (1900 – 1939)

Scientists who made their mark during this period included: Charles Edward Saunders,1867-1937 (botany), Maude Abbott,1869-1940 (medicine), Harriet Brooks Pitcher, 1867-1933 (atomic physics), Steven Leacock (economics), C.A. Chant (astronomy), J.S. Plaskett (astronomy), Frances Gertrude McGill, 1877-1959 (forensic pathology), Alice Evelyn Wilson, 1881-1964 (geology), Frere Marie Victorin, 1885-1944 (biology), Margret Newton, 1887-1971 (biology), Wilder Pennfield, 1891-1976 (neurology), Harold Innis (economics) and Avery (biology, 1944).

[edit] Science at war (1939 – 1945)

[edit] Funding and pure science

The fortunes of scientific research during WWII were mixed.

The social sciences did not do well. The Social Science Federation of Canada (1940) and the closely related Canadian Social Science Research Council and well as the Canadian Federation for the Humanities (1943) and the associated Humanities Research Council of Canada, were all created to counter wartime conditions that threatened the funding of the social sciences and humanities in Canadian universities. Ironically, both research councils relied on funding from US philanthropic organizations, including the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, to administer their programs, until the establishment of the Canada Council in 1957.

Of note is the fact that the demands for war research personnel by the National Research Council during these years threatened to deplete the science staff at Canadian universities.

However it is also important to note that the scale and achievement of wartime atomic research inspired the founding of both the Canadian Association of Physicists and the Canadian Mathematical Society in 1945.

Finally, WWII mobilization, created an acute public familiarity with the breathtaking power of science (the atomic bomb), large organizational structures, complex management techniques and state sponsored funding programmes that would characterize post-war university as well as industrial research.

[edit] Disciplines (1939 – 1945)

Mathematics: Cryptology became an important activity, both ensuring that Canadian codes were secure and could not be broken by the enemy and attempting in turn to intercept and decode the enemy's radio transmissions. The Examination Unit of the National Research Council engaged in the later activity and both intercepted enemy radio traffic and used mathematics to attempt to break these coded signals.

Physics: The use of theoretial and applied physics were an extremely important part of Canada's war effort as reflected in activities involving the development of atomic energy. The Tizard Mission, a delegation of British scientists and military experts, visiting North America to promote wartime allied scientific cooperation, met with NRC nuclear physist George Laurence in Ottawa in 1940. As a result of this meeting, beginning in 1942, a Montreal based British-Canadian project under the aegis of the National Research Council, undertook the construction of a heavy-water atomic reactor. An experimental device with graphite control rods, ZEEP, (Zero Energy Experimental Pile) was built at Chalk River Ontario, before the end of the war and on 5 September 1945 achieved, "the first self-sustained nuclear reaction outside the United States". This momentous event was followed by the construction of a larger full sized reactor the NRX in 1947, also at Chalk River. Studies in radar and optics were also of importance and the practical results of these efforts were seen in the radar sets and range finders, manufactured by Research Enterprised Limited, a crown corporation.

[edit] Explosive growth (1945 – 1985)

[edit] Universities and government research agencies (1945 – 1985)

With the end of the war these factors resulted in the release of a pent-up demand. Universities, the home of academic research, experienced explosive growth as students, the baby boomers and public funds swelled newly created campus science faculties and research institutes. An example of this growth can be seen in the proliferation of learned societies in the field of biology. Their numbers were sufficient to lead to the creation of an umbrella group, The Canadian Federation of Biological Societies in 1957. Similarly the Canadian Geoscience Council, a federation of seven Canadian geoscience societies was founded in 1972, including among its members the Geological Association of Canada formed in 1947. Of special note was the growth of the social sciences in the sixties.

Future G-13 institutions founded during this period included the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ontario in 1957 and the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta in 1966.

At the same time a number of federal governmental research organizations were spun off from the National Research Council. These included the Communications Security Establishment(1946), Defense Research Board (1947), Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (1952) and the Medical Research Council of Canada (1966). Provincial governments continued to establish research organizations as well with the BC Research Council being founded in 1944, the Nova Scotia Research Foundation in 1946 and the Saskatchewan Research Council in 1947. The Government of Quebec established L'institute nationale de recherche scientifique in 1967.

A private virtual organization, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research was founded in 1982 and studies topics related to cosmology, nanotechnology and biodiversity among others.

[edit] Funding agencies (1945 – 1985)

In the pre-war era, the NRC had provided meager resources for the funding of university research in natural science, engineering and medicine. The post war-era changed this. Medical research funding became the responsibility of the Medical Research Council founded in 1960. Natural science and engineering funding was passed to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council in 1977. Funding for university social science research handled by the Canada Council created in the 1957, was handed over to the newly established Humanities and Social Science Research Council in 1977.

[edit] Disciplines (1945 – 1985)

Mathematics: The dramatic success of the Canadian nuclear programme during the war acted as a catalyst for the convening of the first meeting of Canadian mathematicians, in Montreal in 1945. This lead to the establishment of the Canadian Mathematical Congress that same year. The Congress began publishing the Canadian Journal of Mathematics in 1949. The Summer Research Institute in mathematics was established at Queens in 1950 under the leadership of Professor R.L. Jeffrey who assembled ten researchers there. This idea has since been copied by other universities. The CJM was expanded to include the Canadian Mathematical Bulletin in 1958 and the Canadian Mathematical Congress Notes in 1968.

In the fifties, professors J.L. Synge and L. Infield at the department of applied mathematics at U of T, conducted research in the field of theoretical physics. This changed however, in 1958, with the appointment of J. Van Kranendonk, who became the director of the new theoretical physics section of the physics department.

The lead in mathematics held by the U of T began to fade in the sixties as other universities across Canada experienced dramatic increases in the quality of their faculties and research, which was boosted in no small measure by the increase in the number of graduate programmes. The growing importance of fields such a statistics, operational research and computer science also gave mathematics a high public profile and lead most dramatically to the creation of separate departments of mathematics and computer science in most universities. Waterloo was a leader in this regard and in 1966 established departments of pure mathematics, applied mathematics, statistics, combinatorics and optimization and applied analysis and computer science. The extent of the growth in mathematics can be seen in the fact that while there were 11 doctorates in mathematics awarded in 1961, there were 94 in 1973. Furthermore, in 1961 there were 250 professors of mathematics but by 1973 that figure had mushroomed to about 1300. At the same time grants for research by the NRC grew from $87,000 in 1961 to $8,400,000 in 1987. This growth is also reflected in the establishment of new societies including, the Statistical Society of Canada, 1971, the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Mathematics, in 1973 and the Canadian Applied Mathematics Society, in 1980.

In post war Quebec science experienced a renaisance of sorts and with it mathematics, which regained equal stature with the discipline in the rest of Canada. The establishment, by Maurice L'Abbe, of the Centre de recherches en mathematiques at L'universite de Montreal in 1970 stood as a testament to this recovery.

Physics: The NRC continued atomic research at Chalk River Laboratories until the scale of activity necessitated its transfer to a newly created organization, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, dedicated exclusively to atomic research, in 1952. It should be noted that although Canada had the scientific, engineering and industrial means to design, built and test nuclear weapons, the government decided not to pursue this option. AECL took over responsibility for the operations of NRX but coincidentally shortly after the transfer that reactor experienced a serious accident. It was repaired and rebuilt. In 1957 AECL commissioned a new research facility, the heavy-water moderated and cooled National Research Universal Reactor (NRU) at Chalk River. In 1963 a new site, the Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment, became operational at Pinwa, Manitoba. Here a new organically cooled and operated research reactor was built and work was undertaken on the development of the Slow Poke reactor and the thorium fuel cycle. In 1978 research on the safe storage of nuclear waste was initiated.

In 1974 India detonated an atomic bomb with plutonium made from a commercial version of the NRX reactor, CIRUS, built in Bombay by AECL in 1956. As a result the government of Canada terminated nuclear co-operation with that country.

The wartime research in physics and in particular the efforts of scientist, J.S. Foster, known for his work relating to the Stark effect, resulted in the establishment at McGill, of the Radiation Laboratory, equipped with Canada's first cyclotron (atom smasher) in 1949. Nuclear physicist J.M. Robson was the physics department head at McGill and R.E. Bell the head of the laboratory.

In the post war years at U of T, M.F. Crawford, H.L. Welsh, Elizabeth J. Allin and B.P. Stoicheff studied spectroscopy, optics and lasers and J. Tuzo Wilson became noted for his leadership in the field of geophysics. The early sixties saw the initiation of studies in atmospheric physics and K.G. McNeill and A.E. Litherland became active in high-energy particle physics research. H.E. Johns gained a reputation as a bio-physicist.

The University of British Columbia developed a notable presence in physics in the post-war years through the activities of professors G.M. Shrum, department head from 1938 to 1961, as well G.M. Volkoff, M. Bloom, R.D. Russell, J.B. Warren and others. Their efforts saw that institution chosen as the site for the Tri-University Meson Facility, Canada's premier particle accelerator, in the seventies.

McMaster in Hamilton, Ontario also gained prominence under the leadership of physics department head, H.G. Thode whose studies in the field of mass spectroscopy and isotopes paved the way for research in nuclear physics by M.W. Johns, H.E. Duckworth and B.N. Brockhouse at that institution. The first university research reactor in the Commonwealth was built at McMaster in 1957, followed by particle-accelerator laboratory in the seventies and McMaster became renowned in fields including spectroscopy, solid state physics, biophysics and theoretical physics through the research of A.B. McLay, M.H. Preston, J. Carbotte and others.

Post-war francophone universities have also become important research centres. Physics at Laval advanced through the efforts of, F. Rasetti, from 1939 to 1947 and his colleague E. Persico, from 1947 to 1950. Others of note included J.L. Kerwin, P. Marmet and A. Boivin who undertook studies in the fields of nuclear and theoretical physics, atomic and molecular physics and optics. P. Demers, P. Lorrain and others at L'universite de Montreal studied nuclear and plasma physics.

The University of Manitoba saw growth after the war. Studies in nuclear physics undertaken by R.W. Pringle lead to further research in that field by B.G. Hogg. Magnetism has been studied by A.H. Morrish. At the U of Sasketchewan, research in photonuclear physics and medical radiation therapy undertaken with Canada's first betatron (25 MeV) facility built in 1948 lead to the development of a cobalt 60 apparatus by H.E.Johns and others. In 1964 the Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory (SAL) was completed and remained operational until 1999. It has since been integrated into the Canadian Light Source Synchrotron.

Physics at the University of Western Ontario in London received a boost during the war through the initiation of studies in radar by R.C. Dearle, G.A. Woonton and others. Post-war research in the field, under P.A. Forsyth lead to the establishment in 1967 of the Centre for Radio Science which included research into atmospheric and ionospheric physics. J.W. McGowan has undertaken studies in the scattering of positrons there.

The growth in physics during this period can be measured by the fact that 1075 doctorates in physics, almost a third of which were at the U of T, were awarded by 28 Canadian universities between 1974 and 1985.

Astronomy: Radio astronomy became a prominent feature of post war astronomy in Canada with the construction of the Algonquin Radio Observatory in Algonquin Park, Ontario in 1959. This facility built under the direction of noted astronomer Dr. Arthur Covington, featured a large 150 foot receiving dish. The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in Penticton, British Columbia, built shortly thereafter, features an interferometric radio telescope, a 26-m single-dish antenna and a solar flux monitor. In 1962 another optical telescope, a 48 inch reflector fitted with a Coude focus and a room sized spectrograph, was added to the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria. The establishment in 1975, of the Herzberg Institute for Astrophysics by the National Research Council of Canada consolidated the work of Canadian astronomy at the institution and this new organization became the prime mover for the construction of the new Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, on Mount Mauna Kea in Hawaii, that saw first light in 1979.

Space Science: Canada's initial achievements in space science came as a result of military initiatives. Because the effectiveness of the huge air defence radar chains across Canada's north, as well as radio communications, were effected by the electrical properties of the ionosphere, studies of those properties were undertaken in the fifties. In 1954 the Canadian Army built a rocket launch facility at Fort Churchill (rocket launch site), Manitoba for the launching of rockets with payloads designed to study the upper atmosphere. There were further launches in 1957 and 1958 as part of Canada's participation in the activities of the International Geophysical Year. The site was subsequently used by the National Research Council in the seventies and eighties for the launching of rockets as part of the Canadian Upper Atmosphere Research Programme.

In 1958 the newly formed NASA in the US sought international partners for its naissant satellite programme. The Canadian response came from the Defence Research Establishment where Dr. John Chapman proposed that Canada build a satellite to study the properties of the ionosphere from above (the rockets from Fort Churchill studied them from below). NASA accepted the proposal and the DRE in Ottawa with the help of RCA in Montreal, and SPAR Aerospace in Toronto, overcame daunting engineering difficulties and built Alouette I, a 145 kg. satellite which was launched by NASA from the Pacific Missile Test Range in California on 29 September 1962. Alouette I was a great success and contributed significantly to the understanding of the electrical properties of the upper atmosphere. As a result of this success Canada and the US signed an agreement relating to International Satellites for Ionospheric Studies, ISIS, and Canada launched Alouette II in 1965, ISIS I in 1969 and ISIS II in 1970.

Geology: Under the pressure of World War II the Survery redoubled efforts to find strategic mineral recources and map the territory of Canada. The exploration of western Canada received major attention with the discovery of oil at Leduc, Alberta in 1947 and Canada's world lead in atomic energy resulted in a successful search for uranium deposits in the north. The Survey's methods became more effective, as seen with the use of the helicopter which greatly accelerated the process of mapping. In 1955 the Survey launched "Operation Franklin" its largest field study up to that time. With air support and under the leadership of Y.O. Fortier the 28 member team mapped 260,000 square kilometers of the high Arctic. The Survey's reputation grew under the leadership of directors G. Hanson from 1953 to 1956 and J.M. Harrison, from 1956 to 1963. In 1966 organizational changes saw the Survey become part of the new Department of Energy, Mines and Resources and as a result new emphasis was placed on the quantitative analysis of Canada's mineral energy wealth. Land use became an important focus in the seventies with the Survey conducting studies of the environmental impact of the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline corridor. During those same years, the extension of Canada's off-shore boundaries to include a new 371 kilometer economic zone increased the Survey's area of responsibility by 40 percent. To deal with the question of energy security the Survey initiated the Frontier Geoscience Program in the eigthties. It also became the agent for Canada's participation in the international Ocean Drilling Program in 1984. That same year the Survey participated in the founding of Lithoprobe, the largest geoscience programme ever undertaken in Canada. This undertaking involving more that 700 scientists from, governments, universities and industry uses state-of-the-art techniques to provide a three dimensional image of the earth's crust to an astonishing depth of 50 kilometers.

Oceanography: In the post-war years the Hydrographic Survey continued its work with an expanded mandate. The entry of Newfoundland and Labrador into Confederation in 1949 saw the Survey's charting activities extended to the new coasts. As the air defence of Canada became of paramount importance in the fifties the Survey extended its research, to the Canadian Arctic, especially between 1954 and 1957 and charted routes for the ships carrying the supplies necessary to build the long range radar stations of the DEW Line. Arctic survey activity was further accelerated starting in 1959, the first year of the Polar Continental Shelf survey. The Fisheries Research Board continued its excellent work after the war and up until 1979 when it was disbanded as the result of government reorganization and its responsibilities passed to other organizations. The defence activities of the NRC during the war years, including anti-submarine warfare research were spun off and handed to the newly created Defence Research Board in 1947. That organization established research facilities in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Esquimalt, British Columbia to conduct studies in support of the ASW mission of the Royal Canadian Navy. Research activities focused on physical oceanography as it related to the transmission of sound underwater, including ocean temperature, salinity, currents, tides, surface noise and biological sound sources.

The signature event in the history of Canadian oceanography was the founding of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Instrumental in the establishment was Dr. W. E. van Steenburgh, Director-General of Scientific Services of the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, who recognized the need for scientific organization to deal with questions relating to defence, sovereignty, fisheries and the environment. As a result of his initiative the Institute and was created in 1962 and acquired the new state-of-the-art research vessel, the CCGS Hudson. In many ways the story of the Institute is the story of that ship. Launched in 1962 and commissioned in 1964 the Hudson undertook five geophysical surveys of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, contributing to the understanding of the new theory of continental drift. In the 1966 the Hudson carried out a detailed survey of the Labrador Sea and studies of the Labrador current. The following year it surveyed the Denmark Strait. In 1970 the ship undertook the "Hudson '70' voyage, an 11 month, first ever, circumnavigation of North and South America and in the latter part of the decade carried out the first surveys of the chemistry of Baffin Bay. In the eighties and nineties surveys within the framework of the international Joint Global Ocean Fluxes Study and World Ocean Circulation Experiment were completed by the Hudson.

Chemistry: University chemistry underwent explosive growth in the post-war years, especially in the sixties. The fifies saw the creation of six new universities each with a chemistry department, including, Le College Militaire Royal, 1952, Assumption, 1953, Sherbrooke, 1954, Carleton, 1957, York, 1959 and Waterloo, 1959. But during the sixties, nineteen new universities with their associated departments of chemistry, saw the light of day, including, Sir George Williams, 1960, Laurentien, 1960, Alberta at Calgary, 1960, Saskatchewan at Regina, 1961, Moncton, 1963, Victoria, 1963, Guelph, 1964, Brock, 1964, Trent, 1964, Lakehead, 1965, Simon Fraser, 1965, Lethbridge, 1967, Brandon,1967, Winnipeg, 1967, Quebec, 1969 and PEI, 1969. Laboratory work became more significant and saw the introduction of spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, flame photometry, and gas chromatography.

Original research blossomed during this period. In 1965 there were 664 doctoral students in chemistry at universities across Canada. This figure had jumped to 771 in 1966 and about 40% of the research was devoted to organic chemistry. By the same token in 1964 there were 19 graduate programmes in chemistry while a mere two years later there were 25. The spectacular growth is reflected in the evolution of graduate chemistry at the University of British Columbia where in 1955, seven professors supervised two graduate students compared to a faculty of 50 supervising 150 graduate students in 1968.

Research efforts of note included the work of R.U. Lemieux, at the University of Alberta, in the field of carbohydrate chemistry (1953), P.A. Giguere at Laval, in the field of hydrogen peroxide spectroscopy and N. Bartlett at the University of British Columbia in compounds of the so called "inert" xenon.

The NRC Division of Chemistry continued its research throughout these years.

Biology: In the post war years the number of universities offering courses of one type or another in biology increased significantly as compared to the pre-war situation and stood at 41 in 1971. The connection between biochemistry and microbiology became more pronounced with 10 universities offering at least both courses, including: Victoria, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan (Saskatoon), Manitoba, Western Ontario, Queen’s, Ottawa, McGill, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Laval and Dalhousie. The NRC offered grants in support of animal, plant, cellular and population biology and in 1967 those universities receiving the most money included: British Columbia, $878,000, Guelph, $644,000, Toronto, $559,000, Alberta, $524, 000 and Manitoba, $519,000.

The excellent work of the Experimental Farms continued in the post war years. However change was in the wind and in 1959 the Experimental Farm Service was united with the Science Service to form the Research Branch of the Department of Agriculture. To compliment the existing network of farms the new organization created a number of research instututes to deal with a variety of research topics including: genetics, microbiology, cell biology, etomology, plants, animals, soils and insect pathology.

Medical Research: The Associate Committee of Medical Research created in 1936 to fund medical research in Canada became the Division of Medical Research in 1956 and the Medical Research Council in 1960. This organization funded medical research at a number of university medical schools and associated teaching hospitals across the country including, Laval/Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, 1639, McGill/Montreal General Hospital, 1819, U of T/the Toronto General Hospital, 1829, Ottawa U/The Ottawa Hospital, 1845, Queen’s/Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston, 1845, U of T/Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, 1875, UBC/Vancouver General Hospital, 1886, Dalhousie/Victoria General Hospital, Halifax, 1887 and the U of A/ the University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, 1906.

The Connaught Laboratories in Toronto conducted ground breaking research in the fifties with respect to the world’s first polio vaccine. Working with Dr. Jonas Salk in the US the laboratories developed a safe inactive vaccine using a new synthetic base, Medium 199. This permitted large volume production through a technique that came to be known as the “Toronto Method” which in turn allowed the mass vaccination campaigns of millions of Canadian and US children against this horrible crippling disease beginning in 1954. The laboratory also produced the first trivalent Sabin live oral polio vaccine in 1959, as well as influenza, measles and a freeze-dried smallpox vaccine which was of crucial importance in the global elimination of that terrible disease.

In Montreal L’institute de microbologie continued its research in the fifties and with a $1,000,000 grant from the Quebec government began the production of polio vaccine in 1956. In the sixties the organization initiated research into immunology, in particular as related to organ transplants, as well as infectious mononucleosis, leprosy, cancer and measles. In 1975 the institute became part of the Universite de Quebec network and was renamed L’Institute Armand Frappier.

[edit] Big science (1945 – 1985)

The post-war years saw dramatic growth in "big science'. In the fifties large atomic research reactors were built in Chalk River Ontario (NRX and NRU) and smaller ones in many universities across the country. Space research satellites (Alouette and ISIS) were built in Ottawa and launched in the US. Upper atmosphere Black Brant research rockets were launched from Churchill, Manitoba. A large state of the art radio telescope was built in Algonquin Park.

Although plans to build an Intense Neutron Generator and a large astronomical telescope, to be named the Queen Elizabeth II in the sixties were canceled due to financial pressures, (the later in 1968), the seventies saw the construction of the TRIUMF large meson generator at the University of British Columbia, the Canada-France-Hawaii Observatory in Hawaii and the experimental Tokamak fusion reactor in Varennes, Quebec.

[edit] Science policy

The long standing science policy of the Government of Canada has been to consider science and technology as supporting activities for the development of Canadian business and industry. The first government science agencies, the Geological Survey of Canada (1842, minerals), the Dominion Experimental Farms (1886, agriculture) and the Biological Board (fisheries) were established to support their respective industries. The National Recearch Council (1916) was founded to support manufacturing research and to provide science and technology advice to the government. The series of post-war NRC spin-offs saw this advisory role handed over to a newly created agency the Science Council of Canada founded in 1966. It provided scientific advice to the government until it was abolished in 1993 as part of federal budget cutbacks.

Special circumstances, such as war, have seen the government mobilize science to deal with a national emergency.

The government has also for the last fifty years considered the health and more recently the public safety of Canadians to be of great importance and has therefore invested in medical research through the NRC, the Medical Research Board and lately the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Other health and safety science activities include the laboratory investigations of Health Canada and the recently created Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

However government policy with respect to what might be described "pure" science has been ambiguous. Early in the twenieth century the government funded the construction of one of the largest astronomical telescopes in the world. Other "big science" projects such as those listed here have also been funded over the last one hundred years. However when the overall funding for this type of activity during the past century is considered there has been a notable lag when Canada's efforts are compared to those of other countries.

[edit] Nobel Laureates and other scientists of note (1945 – 1985)

A number of Nobel Prizes were awarded to Canadian scientists, during this period including: William Giauque, (Chemistry, 1949), Charles B. Huggins, (Physiology or Medicine, 1966, Gerhard Herzberg, (Chemistry, 1971) and David H. Hubel, (Physiology or Medicine, 1981),

Other scientists of note included: Ned Stacie, 1900-1962 (chemistry), Carlyle Beals (astronomy), Marshall McLuhan (sociology/communications), Helen Sawyer Hogg, 1905-1993 (astronomy), John Tuzo Wilson, 1908-1993 (geology), Pierre Dansereau, 1911 (ecology), Douglas Harold Copp, 1915-1998, (medicine), David Suzuki, (genetics, TV personality), Fernand Seguin (scientist, TV personality), Raymond Urgel Lemieux, 1920-2000 (chemistry), Charles Robert Scriver, 1930 (medicine) and Hubert Reeves, 1932 (cosmology).

[edit] Cutbacks and recovery (1985 – Present)

[edit] Universities and government research agencies (1985 – Present)

Growth continued until the mid-eighties when a crisis in public funding curtailed much scientific research at the university and government level. Space activities spread across federal departments were brought under the roof of the Canadian Space Agency, created in 1989. The Defence Research Board was reorganized and emerged as Defence Research and Development Canada. The province of Quebec established the Centre de recherche industriel de Quebec in 1989.

The last two decades have witnessed a slow but steady recovery. The mid-nineties saw the voluntary creation of the Group of Ten, large research universities in Canada. Three members were added to create the Group of 13 in 2006. In 1995 the Social Science Federation of Canada and the Canadian Federation for the Humanities amalgamated to form the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

A recent event, the formation in Waterloo, Ontario, of the Perimeter Institute, for the study of quantum mechanics and relativity, is refreshingly novel in that it represents the initiative of a private individual who has entered a field previously occupied by public institutes.

[edit] Funding agencies (1985 – Present)

In 2000 the Medical Research Council was reorganized and emerged as the new Canadian Institutes of Health Research. At the beginning of the new century the creation of two new funding agencies, the Canada Research Chairs Programme and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, have aided the recovery from government cutbacks.

[edit] Disciplines (1985 – Present)

Mathematics: The continuing importance of mathematics has been reflected in the establishment of organizations such at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences at Waterloo (later moved to U of T) in 1991. In the new century there are about 2400 mathematicians in Canadian universities and in 2005 the Canadian Mathematical Society celebrated its sixtieth anniversary. Waterloo has surpassed the University of Toronto in stature and in 2008 is a world leader in mathematics with over 5300 students, 200 full time professors and 180 different courses in mathematics, statistics and computer science. Research institutes include: the Business and Industrial Statistics Research Group, the Centre for Advanced Studies in Finance, the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research,Centre for Computational Mathematics in Industry and Commerce, the Institute for Computer Research, the Institute of Insurance and Pension Research, the Institute for Quantitative Finance and Insurance and the Institute for Quantum Computing.

Physics: Atomic fusion was a significant field of study in this period. From in 1987 to 1999, at Varennes Quebec, Hydro-Quebec operated a Tokomak fusion reactor. Researchers from the Institut de Recherche en Électricité du Québec (IREQ) and the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) investigated various elements of fusion science at this facility.

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) studied the nature of the sub-atomic particle known as the neutrino from 1999 until 2006. The facility is located about 2 km underground in the former Creighton nickel mine of CVRD Inco in Sudbury, Ontario and was designed to detect solar neutrinos by sensing their interaction with deuterium nuclei and atomic electrons. Observations resulted in a major discovery, demonstrating among other things that solar neutrinos oscillate as they travel through space and therefore have mass. The facility is presently undergoing an upgrade that will result in SNO+ that will permit new experiments. These will involve the study of the proton proton chain reaction, geo-neutrinos (neutrinos produced by natural phenomena in the earth) and neutrinoless double beta decay.

One of the largest science projects in Canadian history, the Canadian Light Source Synchrotron at the University of Sasketchewan in Saskatoon began operation in 2004. Covering an area the size of a football field and built at a cost of $175 million it is operated by CLS Inc. a U of S not-for-profit corporation. It is used to investigate the nature of matter at very small scales.

Small scale physics is also the focus of the National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta. Operated by the NRC the institute was created in 2001 and moved into a state of the art facility which is among the largest and quietest of its type in the world, in 2006. It will study a wide range of nanoscale phenomena including, the synthesis of nanocrystals and nanowires and of supramolecular-based nanomaterials, the fabrication of molecular-scale devices, the development of nano-scaled materials for chemical reactions at semiconductor surfaces, protein design and genetic engineering and nanoelectricalmechanical systems.

The University of Toronto is the most prominent member of the G13 Canadian research universities and remains one of Canada's premier physics research organizations. In 1997 the physics department celebrated the centenary of its graduate programme. In 2007 it conducted research in a wide ranging number of fields including: planetary physics, quantum optics and condensed matter physics and subatomic physics. A number of research institutes play an important part in this activity including: the Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Control, the Institute for Optical Sciences, the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (C.I.T.A.), Photonics Research Ontario, IsoTrace, the Institute for Aerospace Studies, the Institute of Particle Physics (I.P.P.) and the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

The University of British Columbia continues to play an important role in physics research. Fields of study include: applied physics, atomic, molecular and optical physics, biophysics, condensed matter, medical physics, particle, subatomic and string theory and theoretical physics. Important research institutes include, the Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory, the Pacific Institute of Theoretical Physics and of course TRIUMF, Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics.

TRIUMF is also Canada's centre for participation in the construction and eventual operation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva. Canadian universities and Canadian industry have contributed components to ATLAS, one of that accelerators large particle detectors. TRIUMF also hosts a Tier 1 Computing Centre for ATLAS, one of ten in the world.

Canada's number three research university, the University of Alberta in Edmonton, maintains its strong position in physics research in Canada in 2008. Fields of stude include: the astrophysical sciences, condensed matter physics, geophysics and particle physics. Research institutes of note include: the Center for Nanoscale Physics, the Centre for Particle Physics (Center for Subatomic Research), the Institute for Geophysical Research, the Mitpan International Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory, the Space Physics Laboratory and the Theoretical Physics Institute.

The reputation of physics research at McGill in Montreal continues to be strong. Fields of study include: astrophysics, condensed matter physics, high energy physics, nuclear physics and nonlinear physics. Research centres of note include: the Centre for the Physics of Materials, the Centre for High Energy Physics, the Interuniversity Centre for Subatomic Physics, and the McGill Institute for Advanced Materials.

Arguably Canada's most significant theoretical physics research organization is the newly created Perimeter Institute associated with the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. Founded in 1999 by Mike Lazaridis, inventor of the Blackberry, and under the leadership of Founding Executive Director Howard Burton, the 60 resident researchers have, since 2001 conducted research in a number of fields including: cosmology, particle physics, quantum foundations, quantum gravity, quantum information and superstring theory.

Astronomy: Cutbacks in funding hit Canada's premier astronomical research organization the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics hard. Money could not be found to resurface the Algonquin Park Radio Telescope and it along with the solar telescope near Ottawa were closed in 1986. However that same year, the HIA did establish the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC) which created special software for the archiving of astronomical date. In 1987, the HAI took a 25 percent stake in the 15-m James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (submillimetre radio) and in the nineties a 15 percent stake in the optical 8 metre Gemini Telescope which became operational in 1999. Headquarters for the HIA moved from Ottawa to Victoria in 1995. In the new century the Institute designed instruments for its international telescope programme including the CFHT adaptive optics bonnette, the Gemini multi-object spectrograph and the JCMT auto-correlation spectrometer and imaging system. The HAI is also the principle player in the 1998 – 1999 Long-Range Plan for Astronomy and recently has moved towards a more supportive role for Canadian university astronomy.

In 2003 the Canadian Space Agency launched Canada's first astronomical satellite, the Microvariability and Oscillations of STars telescope or MOST, developed by the Agency, Dynacon Enterprises Limited and the astronomy departments at the University of Toronto and British Columbia.

Astronomy in the new century at the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the U of T is wide ranging in scope and makes use of some of the world's greatest observatories. Fields of study include: cosmology, the early universe, galaxy clusters, galaxy, star and planet formation, the interstellar medium, high energy astrophysics and stellar structure and evolution. Researchers at the department have access to a number of high quality telescopes including: Gemini North and South, 8.1 m , Magellan 6.5 m, the CFHT, 3.6 m, Dupont, 2.5 m and the JCMT, sub-mm as well as other optical, radio and satellite facilities and the use of stratospheric balloons for galactic and cosmological research.

Astronomy research in the twenty first century is combined with the work of the physics department at the University of British Columbia. The 22 staff researchers there engage in an active programme of investigation and have access to cutting edge facilities including the CFHT and Gemini telescopes. The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory near Victoria and the two radio telescopes of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory near Penticton are also used. Furthermore department members have built several liquid mirror telescopes the biggest being the 6 metre Large Zenith Telescope near Vancouver.

Other Canadian universities including, Queen's, York, Calgary, the U of Alberta, the U of Victoria, Montreal, Laval and the University of Western Ontario offer graduate astronomy programmes and have their own observatories.

Space Science: During this period Canadian space science developed a manned component in addition to unmanned activities. In the early eighties the government of Canada signed an agreement with the US regarding participation by Canada in the NASA space shuttle programme. Canada would design, build and donate four Remote Manipulator System devices, (popularly known as the Canadarm), used to handle cargo and equipment in the bay of the shuttle when it was in orbit, in exchange for the training of a Canadian astronaut corps by NASA and the assignment of Canadian astronauts as crew members aboard space shuttle flights. Shuttle flights have included those by, Marc Garneau, Canada's first astronaut, 1984/1996/2000, Roberta Bondar, 1992, Steve MacLean, 1992/2006, Chris Hadfield, 1995/2001, Robert Thirsk, 1996, Bjarni Tryggvason, 1997, Dave Williams, 1998 and Julie Payette, 1999. Science studies during these missions involved investigations of human physiology including space sickness, intracorporal fluid displacements, spacial orientation and the loss of bone and muscle mass during prolonged periods of weigthtlessness. There were also experiments in materials science and biology amongst others.

Canada's unmanned programme included the first launching of a Canadian earth observation satellite, RADARSAT-1 in 1995 and an improved version RADARSAT-2 in 2007. Placed in polar orbits each of these satellites images almost all of the earth's surface, every 24 days using a powerful synthetic aperature radar, SAR. The images have both operational and sciencific applications and their data is of use in geology, hydrology, agriculture, cartography, forestry, climatology, urbanology, environmental studies, meteorology, oceanography and other fields.

The Canadian Space Agency launched the Microvariability and Oscillations of STars (MOST) astronomical and SCISAT-1, satellites in 2003. A year later MOST observed that the star, Procyon, did not oscillate, a finding that has importance with respect to theories relating to the formation and aging of the sun and other stars.

Canadian instruments have also flown aboard a number of international satellites. Akebono, a Japanese satellite launched in 1989, to study the earth's magnetosphere, was equipped with the Canadian suprathermal ion mass spectrometer. In 1996, the Canadian auroral ultra-violet imager, flew aboard the Russian satellite Interball-2. FUSE, an international ultraviolet space observatory, launched in 1999, has aboard, the Canadian designed and built Fine Error Sensor camera system for tracking the telescope. Canada provided the $37 million "weather station" aboard the Phoenix Mars unmanned mission scheduled to land on that planet in 2008.

In 2008, the Agency plans to launch a bybrid satellite, Cassiope, which includes a scientific package equipped with the "enhanced polar outflow probe", that will study the ionosphere. The Agency has also coordinated Canada's contribution to the HIFI and SPIRE instruments aboard the Herschel Space Observatory and to the Low Ferquency Instrument and the Hight Frequency Instrument aboard the Planck Surveyor astronomical/cosmological satellite both of which which will be launched in 2008. Finally Canada is contributing the Fine Guidance Sensor and Tuneable Filter Imager for the James Web Space Telescope scheluled for launch in 2013.

A rather imaginative recent undertaking is one by the Mars Society, an international non-profit space advocacy organization and its Canadian branch, the Mars Society of Canada, which established, as part of their Mars Analogue Research Station Programme, the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS), near the Haughton Meteor Impact Crater on Devon Island, Nunavut in 2002. Designed to develop procedures for an eventual manned mission to Mars, the "crew members", inhabiting a simulated Mars base and wearing simulated space suits conducted microbiological and geological studies and simulated Mars field explorations.

Geology: The Geological Survey has continued its research during this period. In 1986 the Survey merged with the Earth Physics Branch of the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources and acquired the national seismology and geomagetic observatory networks of that organization. In the nineties this new organization took the lead in the development of the National Geoscience Mapping Program (NATMAP)with other governments, universities and industry to optimize the use of funding for the new mapping of bedrock and surface geology of Canada. Activity in environmental studies has involved establishing norms for the geochemical profiles of naturally occurring substances and work with respect to climate change as well as hydrogeology and natural radioactivity and the risks associated with natural dangers including earthquakes and tsunanis. The Intergovernmental Geoscience Accord, signed in 1996, clarified the role of the Survey with respect to relations with provincial and territorial governments. As the result of a reorganization the Survey became part of the Earth Sciences division of Natural Resources Canada in the mid-nineties. In recent years the evolution of digital electronics and the internet has seen the Survey undertake the development of the Geoscience Knowledge Network with the aim of making geological information available on line.

The budget of the Survey is now about $60 million a year and the staff of 550 are located at headquarters in Ottawa and regional offices in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, St. Foy, Quebec, Calgary, Alberta and Sidney and Vancouver, British Columbia. Present fields of study include: geological hazards and environmental geoscience, marine geoscience, minerals, hydrocarbons and bedrock and surficial geoscience.

Oceanography: Because most oceanographical activity in Canada is federally funded, the cutbacks of 1985 effected scientific research in this field. For example the Pacific ocean research facilities of the Defence Research Board were closed. However in spite of this the key player, the Bedford Institute has maintained its status as Canada's premier oceanographical institution. Consolidation over the years recent has brought the oceanographic activities of four departments under the roof of the Institute and at the present time over 400 scientists, engineers, technicians, support staff and others, conduct targeted research in a number of fields. National Defence activities support ocean surveillance through the Maritime Forces Atlantic's Route Survey Office and focus on surveys of the sea floor in areas of military interest. The Shellfish Section of Environment Canada conducts ocean water quality surveys and microbiological studies of shellfish. The Geological Survey of Canada is also present and has established itself as Canada's principle marine geoscience facility with emphasis on geophysics, geochemistry, marine and petroleum geology and the coastal/off-shore landmass. The Science Division and Canadian Hydrographic Service of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are also represented. Associated researchers study the marine climate and environment, marine and diadromous fish, shell fish, mammals and plants. The Institute presently operates four research vessels, CCGS Matthew acquired in 1990 along with the famous CCGS Hudson (1964), CCGS Navicula (1968) and CCGS Alfred Needler (1982).

Chemistry: Although there have been funding difficulties the Group of Thirteen Canadian research universities have been engaged in cutting edge chemistry research during thie period. Not surprisingly the University of Toronto has a very elaborate graduate research programme with specialties in, analytical chemistry, biological and organic chemistry, environmental chemistry, inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry, chemical physics and polymer chemistry. The University of British Columbia has a similarly well developed chemistry research programme in fields such as, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, envirenmental chemistry, inorganic chemistry, material, organic chemistry, physical-theoretical chemistry and nuclear and radiochemistry.

The University of Alberta has a number of advanced laboratories supporting research in chemistry. These include: the Analytical and Instrumentation Laboratory, the Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory and the X-ray Crystallography Laboratory which support, analytical chemistry, chemical biology, chemical physics, inorganic chemistry, materials and surface chemistry, nanotechnology, organic chemistry, physical chemistry and theoretical and computational chemistry.

In recent years McGill has emphasized the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of chemical research in fields such as analytical/environmental chemisty, biological chemistry, chemical physics, materials chemistry and synthesis/catalysis.

Advanced laboratories combined with a multidisciplinary approach characterize chemistry research at the University of Waterloo. Of note is the new Waterloo Advanced Technology laboratory or WATlLab, a facility that offers researchers, microscopy and lithography, spectromicroscopy and spectroscopy and nanofabrication and materials science tools. Also available is the Waterloo Chemical Analysis Facility which included NMR and mass spectrometry machines. Research institutes include the Guelph-Waterloo Centre for Graduate Work in Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

The NRC continues its work in chemistry notable at the Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences with laboratories in Ottawa (Sussex Drive) and Chalk River, Ontario.

Biology: After significant cutbacks and reorganization, biological research at the National Research Council has recovered and is reflected in the activities of a number of sub-organizations including: the Institute for Biological Sciences (NRC-IBS)in Ottawa, Montreal Road and Sussex Drive Campuses, the Biotechnology Research Institute (NRC-BRI)in Montreal, Quebec, the Institute for Biodiagnostics (NRC-IBD)with facilities in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Calgary, Alberta and Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Plant Biotechnology Institute (NRC-PBI)in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and the Institute for Marine Biosciences (NRC-IMB)in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Genomics and the closely related proteomics have become the leading fields for biological research in recent years. In 2000 the government of Canada created Genome Canada to conduct research in these important fields. This organization is composed of six centres, Genome British Columbia, in Vancouver, Genome Alberta in Calgary, Genome Prairie in Saskatoon, the Ontario Genomics Institute in Toronto, Genome Quebec in Montreal and Genome Atlantic in Halifax. These centres conduct genomic and proteomic research in such fields as human health, agriculture, forestry, the environment and the fisheries

The Canadian Forest Service a branch of the federal Natural Resources Canada conducts biological research at the Pacific Forestry Centre, in Victoria, British Columbia, the Northern Forestry Centre, in Edmonton, Alberta, the Great Lakes Forestry Centre in Sault St. Marie, Ontario, the Laurentien Forestry Centre, in Quebec, Quebec and the Atlantic Forestry Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Medical Research: The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, which replaced the Medical Research Council in 2000 and consist of a number of virtual institutes fund medical research in a variety of fields including aboriginal peoples' health, aging, cancer, circulatory and respiratory health, gender and health, genetics, human development, infection, musculoskeletal health, diabetes, neuroscience, and public health. Research is conducted in cooperation with the pharmaceutical industry and medical schools across Canada.

The Public Health Agency of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario is also a significant player in health research and has a number of facilities that conduct medical research including: the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control and the Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, both in Ottawa, and the Laboratory for Foodborn Zoonoses in Guelph, Ontario. Of particular note is the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its level 4 biohazard containment and research facilities.

After a number of complex corporate changes over a period of 30 years Connaught Laboratories emerged in 2004 as Sanofi Pasteur Canada with modern facilities focusing on vaccine research, in Toronto. Ongoing projects include the $350 million 10 year Cancer Vaccine Programme with possible treatments for melanoma, colorectal cancer and breast cancer as well as investigations into vaccines for HIV, pheumococcal infection and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Extensive medical research programmes are also undertaken by a number of other private companies including: Pfizer Canada Inc. (fs) 147.5 GlaxoSmithKline Inc., Merck Frosst Canada Ltd., Biovail Corporation, AstraZeneca Canada Inc., QLT Inc., MDS Inc., Vasogen Inc., Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Neurochem Inc.

International cooperation in medical research has become important technique in dealing with the understanding of severe diseases such as cancer. Starting in 2008, Canada, through the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in Toronto, will lead the International Cancer Genome Consortium, a research project involving nine other countries, that will hunt for the genetic mutations that are the basis for 50 types of cancer. The Canadian contribution includes the investigation of the genetic basis for pancreatic cancer as well and the computer storage and manipulation of the data for the project.

[edit] Big science (1985 – Present)

Major post war science facilities were closed down during this period, notably the Algonquin Park Radio Observatory and the Tokomak reactor. In spite of cutbacks a number of big new science projects were realized including, the Canadian Astronaut Programme, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Sudbury, Ontario, the National Microbiological Laboratory in Winnipeg, the Canadian Light Source Syncrotron at the University of Saskatoon in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and the National Institute for Nanotechnology in Edmonton, Alberta.

At the beginning of the 21st century due to financial restraints, token funding efforts were made to give Canada a place with the construction and operation of the Gemini astronomical telescopes and the soon to be opened Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. Canada's participation in the international fusion reactor project was canceled. Funding restraints also disrupted the supply of medical isotopes produced at Chalk River in 2007 and Canadian astronaut and former head of the Canadian Space Agency, Marc Garneau called for the creation of a national space policy to revive Canada's flagging space programme.

[edit] Nobel Laureates and other scientists of note (1985 – Present)

A number of Nobel prizes were awarded to Canadian scientists during this time of restraint including: John C. Polanyi, (Chemistry, 1986), Sidney Altman, (Chemistry, 1989), Richard E. Taylor, (Physics, 1990), Rudolph Marcus, (Chemistry, 1992), Michael Smith, (Chemistry, 1993), Bertram N. Brockhouse, (Physics, 1994), William Vickrey, (Economic Sciences, 1996), Myron Scholes, (Economics, 1997) and Robert Mundell, (Economics, 1999).

Other scientists of note include Lee Smolin of the Perimeter Institute,

Today university research accounts for about 40% if all research spending in Canada while scientific research in government laboratories accounts for about 10%.

[edit] Innovation, invention, and industrial research in Canada

The terms chosen for the "eras" described below are both literal and metaphorical. They describe the technology that dominated the period of time in question but are also representative of a large number of technologies introduced concurrently.

[edit] The Stone Age: Fire 14,000BC – 1600

The first innovators and inventors in Canada were, not surprisingly, the native peoples who arrived here 14,000 years ago. They innovated techniques to survive in a very new and mostly hostile environment. This involved new ways to obtain food, create clothing and travel across a huge territory. Notable inventions included the canoe, snowshoe, igloo and pemmican. The west coast natives innovated construction techniques that included the use of heavy timber and eastern tribes developed sedentary agricultural techniques.

[edit] The Age of Sail: Ships, symbolic language, and the wheel (1600 – 1830)

The arrival of the Europeans provided a new impetus for innovation and invention. Techniques to improve fishing and the cutting and the transport of timber were refined. The first metal works, Les Forges de St. Maurice developed metal products for colonial use. There were innovations in cultivation techniques to deall with the cold climate.

In 1844, in Nova Scotia, Charles Fenerty invented newsprint made from woodpulp and Abraham Gesner invented kerosene in Halifax in 1846.

[edit] The Steam Age: Trains, telegraphs, water, and oil (1830 – 1880)

This era ushered in experimentation with the design of steam powered locomotives and ships. The building of large wooden ocean going sailing vessels became a hugely successful undertaking in the maritimes in the latter half of the nineteenth century due to innovative construction techniques and designs. Sandford Fleming invented standard time. In the field of agriculture, machines were developed to farm the vast prairie grasslands. One of Canada's best known industrial innovators, the Massey Harris company, became famous for its farm equipment. New strains of wheat were developed to deal with the harsh prairie climate.

Thomas Willson innovated techniques for the production of acetylene. Experiments in X-ray technology were conducted at RMC in Kingston Ontario. Henry Ruttan improved techniques for the heating and ventilation of buildings and railway cars. In the US Canadian James Lee invented the rifle magazine.

[edit] The Electric Age: Light, street railways, telephones, skyscrapers and central heating (1880 – 1920)

Canadian inventors made huge contributions to the electric era.

Matthew Evans and Henry Woodward (inventor) invented and patented the incandescent electric light in Toronto in 1874 and later sold the patent to Edison. This would become the basis for his renowned endeavours with electric lighting. Thomas Willson invented the electric arc light during this period.

The year 1876 saw Alexander Graham Bell invent the telephone. He would share credit for this achievement between the US and Canada. World shaking experiments in trans-oceanic wireless communication conducted by Guglielmo Marconi in Newfoundland and Cape Breton. In the US, Canadian Reginald Fessenden conducted investigations into what is now called FM radio. Canadian Frederick Creed invented the teleprinter in 1902.

Inventive Canadian chemists specializing in the field of electrochemistry during this period included W.T. Gibbs, T.L.Wilson and E.A. LeSeur.

The turn of the century witnessed large scale innovation in heavy engineering with the construction of hydro generating facilities at Niagara Falls and at other sites across Canada including the Gatineau River near Ottawa in the twenties.

Alexander Graham Bell undertook experiments in aviation and high speed water craft on Lake Bras D'or in Nova Scotia. It was here that Canada's first heavier than air machine, the Silver Dart, took to the air in 1909.

The parched could quench their thirst with the newly created Canada Dry ginger ale. Peter Robertson invented the square headed screwdriver in Milton, Ontario in 1908.

[edit] Killing Machines I: Artillery and machine guns (1914 – 1918)

Peter Nissen invented the "Nissen Hut", military shelter in 1916. Other WWI innovations included the variable pitch propeller, the gas mask, the Curtiss Canada bomber and the ill-starred Ross rifle.

[edit] The Automobile Age: Cars, planes and radios (1920 – 1950)

In the early twentieth century, several dozen individuals and small businesses located mostly in southern Ontario experimented with automobile innovation. One of these, Samuel McLaughlin of Oshawa, eventually became the basis for General Motors of Canada. It was within this context that Joseph Bombardier in Quebec invented his automobile for the snow or "snowmobile" and founded the Bombardier company. This corporation would become a giant of Canadian industrial research in the latter part of the century.

In Montreal Alexis Nihon invented the tubeless tire. Also in Montreal, during the twenties and thirties, Canadian Vickers developed a very successful series of flying boats.

Experiments with electrical sound recording by microphone were undertaken by Horace Owen (born Hamilton, Ontario, 1888 died Ottawa 1972) and Lionel Guest in 1919.

This period also saw the development of the "batteryless" radio in Toronto by Edward S. Rogers, Sr. and further innovations in radio by Canadian Marconi in Montreal. Experiments in television transmission were conducted there by Ouimet and the wire photo was invented. In 1937, Donald Higgs invented what would become the "Walkie Talkie".

On the domestic scene, Herbert McCool invented Easy-Off Oven Cleaner in Regina in 1932 and other Canadians invented, pablum and the zipper.

As a student James Hillier invented the electron microscope at the University of Toronto in the early forties and Hugh Le Caine invented the music synthesizer in 1945. The forties also saw Frank Forward invent techniques for refining nickel and cobalt.

However it terms of scale, nothing could match the giant of Canadian innovation throughout the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, the Canadian Pacific Angus Locomotive Works of Montreal. This huge enterprise designed, developed and built most of the steam engines for the great Canadian Pacific Railway Company.

[edit] Killing Machines II: Bombers, tanks, corvettes, radar and explosives (1939 – 1945)

WWII saw science and industry harnessed to fight the enemy. The National Research Council (NRC), created during WWI to advise the government on industrial research, grew exponentially as did Canadian war industries. A tight bond was formed between the two.

The NRC itself helped develop radar, the proximity fuse, the explosive RDX, high velocity artillery, fire control computers and submarine detection equipment among other things. The NRC Examination Unit innovated in the field of cryptology.

Enterprises such as the Ford Motor Company of Canada developed and built special purpose military transport vehicles. Polymer Corporation of Sarnia, Ontario pioneered new types of synthetic rubber. Canadian Industries Limited in Montreal formulated new types of explosive and Canadian Marconi innovated in the new field of radar. A Canadian version of the US Sherman tank was developed and manufactured at the Angus Works. Canadian versions of British and US combat aircraft, in particular, the Lancaster and the Hurricane, were built in Toronto and Fort William, Ontario. Northern Electric developed telecommunications equipment. Ship building companies on the east and west coast adapted US and British designs and construction techniques for the mass construction of ships. Frank invented the aviation anti-blackout suit in Toronto and experiments in germ and chemical warfare were conducted at Grosse-Isle, Quebec and what is now CFB Suffield, Alberta.

Specialized government businesses such as Research Enterprises Limited ( 1940) developed and manufactured what we would now call "high tech" products, including optical systems and communications devices.

Secret arrangements with Britain and the US, including the Tizard Mission, saw Canadian industry participate in the development of the atomic bomb, notably through the innovation of uranium refining techniques.

[edit] The Television Age: TV, nuclear weapons, atomic energy, and computers (1950 – 1980)

After the war a number of innovators including Electrohome of Kitchener, Ontario, offered televisions and entertainment systems to consumers. In the fifties Anthony Barringer invented INPUT, an electromagnetic device used for the aerial detection of mineral deposits.

The Toronto area saw the creation of a naissant military industrial complex around the design of jet aircraft. AVRO Canada developed the AVRO Jetliner and then the CF-100 jet fighter. The Orenda jet engine factory developed jet power plants for the new aircraft. The scale of this undertaking grew dramatically with the development of the huge CF-105 long range high altitude interceptor and its associated Velvet Glove air-to -air missile and came crashing to the ground just as quickly when the project was cancelled in 1959. At the same time, with financing from the US, AVRO was developing a supersonic fighter based on a flying saucer design. However the project collapsed when the US withdrew funding.East coast shipbuilders continued to innovate with the construction of new classes of warship. In Ottawa, the Defence Research Board, with the support of industry developed Canada's first satellites and the Black Brant sounding rocket. In the sixties and seventies Gerald Bull experimented with long range artillery. Agent Orange (the herbicide) was tested by the US Army at Gagttown New Brunswick from the early fifties to the nineties.

There were also developments in the innovation of civil aviation and space. In the fifties De Havilland Canada developed bush planes and later in the sixties and seventies STOL aircraft. Pratt and Whitney Canada developed its signature PT-6 series of aircraft engines. Telesat Canada pioneered the development of domestic satellite communications. In the field of nuclear energy, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, developed its CANDU series of atomic power reactors.

John Hopps invented the pacemaker in Toronto in 1951 and Harold Elford Johns invented the cobalt-60 cancer therapy unit that same year. The Connaught Laboratories in Toronto innovated techniques for the mass production of the Salk vaccine. Nordion developed medical radio isotopes.

Gerald Heffernan invented what is known as mini-mill steel manufacturing. In the US, Canadian Lewis Urry working for the Eveready Company invented the alkaline battery and lithium battery. Also in the US, Canadian Willard Boyle working at the Bell Labs invented the charge-coupled device (CCD) which became the key technology for digital photography and improved astronomical telescopes.

Innovations in the pulp and paper industry have been made by the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada and the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada, both located in Pointe-Claire, Québec, Canada.

[edit] The PC Age: The Microchip and Mobile Communications (1980 – 2000)

The latter part of the twentieth century has been notable for developments in information technology, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals. Canadian companies were early innovators in the PC field with models like the Hyperion. AES developed the word processor. Chip makers, such as ATI, have developed powerful graphics chips for computer games. Business intelligence, and cinematic special effects software products have enjoyed great success, as have a number of consumer oriented offerings including Corel Draw, software by Delrina Corporation of Toronto and many electronic games. Northern Electric maintained its innovative pace, becoming Northern Telecom, and leading the world in the digital switching and other communications technologies.

Pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer Canada Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Inc., Merck Frosst Canada Ltd., Biovail Corporation, AstraZeneca Canada Inc. and Sanofi Pasteur Limited invested hundred of millions in drug research.

Aviation and space research has seen industry develop the highly successful regional jet passenger aircraft, the Canadarm 1 and 2 for NASA and Radarsat 1 and 2. The NRC and Hughes developed and build MSAT, the mobile communications satellite in 1995. Creative Canadians have also invented the IMAX cinema and improved deep diving submersibles. Ballard Power Systems in Vancouver has produced a number of innovations in fuel cell technology. Michael Brook invented the "Infinite Guitar" in 1987. AECL invented the Slowpoke atomic reactor.

Military innovations have included the Halifax Class missile frigate, LAV III light armoured vehicle, air-defense and anti-tank missiles, the CRV-7 rocket and secure communications systems. The US Air Force tested cruise missiles in western Canada in the eighties.

[edit] The Internet Age: Wireless Technology, Mega Oil and Ecological Friendliness (2000 – Present)

Early in the 21st century the internet reached its stride and contributed significantly to industrial research efforts through the formation of such networks as CANARIE. Industrial software makers such as Cognos have had continued success in the field of business intelligence software and other firms have innovated in such areas as in internet cryptology. In the field of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, Apotex has become a world leader in the development of generic drugs. The beginning of the 21st century is also notable for the rise of research in nanotechnology. About 140 small to medium sized firms based in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal are researching products in this field, supported by the National Institute for Nanotechnology in Edmonton. There are studies of quantum computing in Waterloo, Ontario and two contestants in the X-Prize competition have made attempts to construct manned sub-orbital space craft. To date these vehicles have not flown. Since 1998, the Mars Society has experimented with procedures related to life on Mars at its simulated base located at Haughton Lake on Devon Island. In 2008, Odessey Moon, based on the Isle of Man announced plans to build the Moon I (M-1)space craft with MacDonald Detwiller and Associated Ltd. of Richmond BC, as prime contractor, as a competitor in the Google Lunar X Prize Challenge. Also in 2008, Bombardier announced plans to introduce the new C-Series of 100 passenger wide-bodied regional jets and AECL introduced the ACR-1000 atomic power reactor.

The best known Canadian invention of recent years is surely the Blackberry, by Research in Motion of Waterloo, Ontario, which has become the fashionable communications tool of businessmen around the world.

The government of Canada has put into place tax programmes to encourage industrial R&D. Today industrial research accounts for about 50% of all research spending in Canada.

[edit] See also

• Canadian government scientific research organizations
• Canadian university scientific research organizations
• Canadian industrial research and development organizations
• Canadian scientists
• Canadian inventions
• Canadian space program
• Digital television in Canada
• Nuclear power in Canada
• History of the petroleum industry in Canada
• List of bridges in Canada
• Former tallest buildings in Canada by province and territory
• Group of Thirteen (Canadian universities)
• Energy policy of Canada
• List of airlines of Canada
• List of airports in Canada
• Internet in Canada

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

• Canadian Institute for Advanced Research: Science
• Canadian Encyclopedia: Science
• Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association
• Innovation in Canada

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