Amazing people, events and places which infuse the country with life
The ‘machine for measuring fluids’ was devised by William Hamilton. The owner of a productive foundry business, Hamilton was also an avid inventor. The thunderous growl of heavy machinery echoed throughout the foundry. Making steam engines for the booming locomotive industry, the St. Lawrence Foundry, Engine Works, and Machine Shop also forged castings for the […]
The British first used tanks to rebuff the Germans at the Somme. Canadians and Newfoundlanders were essential in winning the brief Battle of Courcelette. The Battle of Courcelette was part of the World War I Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916. The German Army invaded France in August 1914, and the French […]
In 1900 Emile Berliner opened Montreal’s Gram-O-Phone Company, recording music on flat gramophone discs. The firm created “Nipper”, the now-famous dog and phonograph logo The marvellous machine called the phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, a device that would eventually bring lilts of music into the homes and ears of avid listeners. Improved […]
Expensive whale oil was used in lamps to provide light. Geologist Abraham Gesner developed the affordable petroleum fuel Kerosene to illuminate dark nights. Kerosene: A Fuel for Motors, Lamps and Heaters According to the Gage Canadian Dictionary, kerosene is composed of “a mixture of hydrocarbons, usually produced by distilling petroleum.” The flammable liquid was developed […]
British Columbia’s Burgess Shale is a palaeontologist’s dream, holding layers of fossils from 540 million years ago. The fossils give a glimpse into the very spark of life. The soft-bodied creatures with no vision wiggled and squirmed in the Pre-Cambrian mud. But their secluded world was transforming, bursting with new life forms over a few […]
An expert in brewing and business, Alexander Keith was also a politician. Elected mayor of Halifax several times, he was offered a Senate seat on the Confederation of Canada. Working for his uncle in northern England, Alexander Keith was only 17 years old when he was introduced to the fine expertise of brewing beer. Keith’s […]
A girl from small-town Canada immersed herself in the cosmetics trade and then initiated a company that grew into a world wide phenomenon – Elizabeth Arden. On December 31, 1878, a baby girl was born to the Graham family in Woodbridge, Upper Canada. The baby was named after a beloved and renowned nurse, Florence Nightingale […]
Appointed Postmaster General in 1851, James Morris negotiated a postal treaty with the United States and introduced Canada’s first postage stamps. Mail service in early colonial British North America was a sporadic, expensive event. Post offices were rare in the rural communities; the larger communities received mail deliveries on irregular schedules and pioneers travelled many […]
Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children was established in 1875. A focus on purity, the institution began milk pasteurization in 1908 to prevent dire diseases. Young Maggie was rushed to the hospital, the victim of agonizing scalds. While the outcome of her life is not known, the little girl made Canadian history. On April 3, 1875, […]
Ahead of her time, Maud Menten was a physician, pathologist, bioscientist and professor. Her scientific discoveries included the Michaelis-Menten Equation. Beautiful, brilliant and artistic, Maud Menten not only could create exhibit-worthy paintings and learn languages with ease, she also had the insatiably curious mind of a scientist. Imbued with a zest for life, the young […]
Captain Robert Bartlett and explorer/anthropologist Vilhajalmur Stefansson led Canadian Arctic Expedition scientists to the Beaufort Sea. A fearful icy disaster ended the mission. The steam-whaler heavily loaded with supplies and equipment to last for many months, Captain Robert Bartlett and his crew sailed north from Victoria, BC. Leaving port in June 1913, HMCS Karluk was […]
Montreal was the childhood home of actress Norma Shearer. The star of silent movies and talkies, the beautiful Shearer overcame her own shortfalls. The Shearer home in Montreal, Quebec was an unusual place. It seemed that parents Edith and Andrew Shearer did not have a close attachment, but the home was still held a pleasant […]