WEBVTT - Thanks, Canada! 9 Great Inventions from the Great White North 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.200 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:24.000 and iHeartRadio. Guess what will? 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:24.920 What's that mango? 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.280 So let me ask you something. How often you clean 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:30.880 the inside of your trash can? 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.280 Clean the inside of the tres I don't know, maybe 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.880 every few somewhere in between, every few months and never 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:38.840 I would guess. 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.720 Well, you and I can both thank Canada for saving 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.320 us from having to do that particular chore. 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:48.920 I do want to say thank you to Canada, But also, 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:49.960 what do you mean by this? 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:53.480 So we take it for granted today, But the plastic 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:58.200 trash bag wasn't invented until the nineteen fifties. And before that, 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.120 people through trash die directly into their metal trash cans, 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.959 kind of Oscar the Grouch style, But that meant they 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:09.399 had to clean the cans regularly to keep them from smelling. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:13.040 But three Canadian inventors came up with a solution, which 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.720 is the plastic trash bag. And what's really interesting is 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:19.920 that these inventors weren't working together. They actually didn't even 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:21.360 know about each other's work. 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:23.319 So what's the deal here? They were just all sick 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.760 of cleaning their trash cans. Or what I think that's 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:28.840 part of it. But also polyethylene, which was a new 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.600 type of plastic around that time. It had just recently 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:35.920 become available. And polyethylene is soft and stretchy. It's also 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.600 waterproof and air proof, and that. 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.560 Obviously makes it the ideal material for trash bags. So 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:45.800 the three inventors their names were Frank Plump, Harry Wis Silik, 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:50.080 and Larry Hanson. They all found out about polyethylene around 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:51.720 the same time, and they more or less had this 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.960 same genius idea, which was, let's melt it down and 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.080 shape it into bags. Now. Plump began selling his bags, 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:03.440 which he called garbags, to hospitals and offices. Hanson worked 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.000 for a company called Union Carbide and made bags for 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:08.880 the company's Ontario plant, and with Silk, meanwhile built up 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.920 a successful trash bag manufacturing business which he sold to 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.520 Union Carbide. And that was in the nineteen sixties. 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.359 So did he and Hanson just end up joining forces. 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.240 Yeah, and you might actually be familiar with the product 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.560 that emerged from their team up, because Union Carbide decided 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.280 to rename their new product the Glad bag. 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.000 Oh Glad. I actually didn't know. Glad was a Canadian brand. 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.600 Yeah, it still is, and they still manufactured their bags 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.680 in Canada. But garbage bags are just one of the many, 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.480 many amazing inventions to come out of the Great White North. 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:42.840 So we've got eight more equally innovative Canadian inventions to 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:44.320 talk about. Let's dive in. 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.639 Hey their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:09.920 Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:12.520 friend Mangesh hot Ticketter and over there in the booths 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.440 enjoying a double double and a box of tim Bits, 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.000 that's our pal and producer Dylan Fagan. 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:21.520 I feel like, not even like five minutes in and 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:24.920 we're already have this Tim Horden's reference. 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.280 I was hoping to get to it sooner. Actually, I'm 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:29.359 pretty sure it is the law, and if you talk 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:31.880 about Canada for more than a couple of minutes, you 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:34.239 do have to bring it up. But speaking of things 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.280 that are inherently Canadian, mango, are you familiar with Canada's 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:38.120 national sport? 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.240 Well, I've got a guess for it. But before we 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:43.400 get to that, I do want to say we absolutely 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.520 do love Canada on this show. But we had two 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:50.800 different weird brainstorms where I was wondering, like what's going 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.360 on with New Finland? And another one where Mary and 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.880 Gabe we're talking about incredible comedians that come out of 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:59.720 Canada and they were wondering, like what else is Canada 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.240 given the world. And so we ended up with two 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:08.000 shows in fairly close succession about America's hat but and 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:10.680 so like for listeners, please know we were aware of 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.640 it when we signed it. And in terms of your question, 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:17.679 what is Canada's national sport? I feel like the obvious 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.200 answer is hockey, but I actually think it's lacrosse. 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.880 Right, Well, Canada has two national sports, so you're you 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:26.960 are you are right on the money with this, Mango. 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:30.359 Lacrosse is it's summer national sport. But my next fact 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.400 is actually about hockey, which is the winter national sport. 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:35.800 In the sport I think most people outside of Canada 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:36.760 associate with them. 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.400 Sure, obviously hockey is a big deal in Canada. Were 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:42.359 you much of a hockey fan growing up? You know, 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.359 hockey was just not a thing in the in the 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:47.960 South when I was growing up, certainly very few people 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:48.320 played it. 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.320 I knew maybe a couple of kids that played it 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.640 there really weren't professional teams in the southeast. You think 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.240 of teams in Nashville and Atlanta and others. It was, 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.279 you know, they came along after my childhood, so I 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.840 really didn't know much about the sport. But how about you. 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.120 We played a little like floor hockey and gym and 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:07.560 street hockey. But as soon as roller skates got involved, 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:11.120 I just became a goalie and I said, to the 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:15.560 goal But yeah, hockey wasn't that much of a big 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:16.720 part of my growing up. 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:20.040 Well, obviously, Canadians take hockey pretty seriously, so it should 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:22.520 come as no surprise that one of the biggest innovations 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:26.320 in hockey history, of course, originated in Canada. Now I'm 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:28.239 talking about the goalie mask. 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.279 Can you imagine playing goalie without a mask? 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:35.680 That feels insane. I just simply would not do it. So, 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.479 you know, if you enjoy not being concussed, I would 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.560 say it's a pretty crucial invention. So hockey's been around 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.280 since the nineteenth century, but the hockey mask of today 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.760 wasn't actually invented until the nineteen fifties. Of course, a 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:52.120 handful of safety conscious hockey players before then took measures 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.920 to protect themselves. So in nineteen twenty seven, Elizabeth Graham 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.240 of Queen's University became the first goalie and organized hockey 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.160 history to wear a mask when she started wearing a 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.360 fencing mask during games. And before the invention of the 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.520 goalie mask, some players would protect their faces with baseball 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:10.680 catchers mask. That was actually the first thing that came 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.800 to my mind. But in general, safety just wasn't that 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.320 much of a priority back then as it is today. 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:19.200 But that all changed in nineteen fifty nine thanks to 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.919 amateur hockey coach Bill Birchmore. Now Birchmore worked for the 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:26.400 company called Fiberglass Canada. This was in Montreal, and was 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:28.320 a huge fan of the hockey team there those are 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:32.200 the Canadians Now. When one of his favorite players, Jacques Plant, 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:36.160 got injured during a game, Birchmore took action. He created 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:40.479 a custom fiberglass mask that Plant began wearing to team practices. 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:44.119 So there was just one problem. Canadians coach Toe Blake 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.000 didn't want him to wear it during their actual games. 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.320 Now I'm wondering, is this kind of like the underhanded 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.440 free throw where it just didn't seem manly to wear 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:53.880 a mask? 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:56.960 Well, actually it was because the eyeholes made it harder 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.599 to see the puck, and so Blake told Plant in 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:02.560 no uncertain terms that he had to go maskless during 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.640 the games, and it first Plant complied, but then he 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:07.320 got hit in the face with a puck during a 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:10.440 game against the Rangers in nineteen fifty nine, and after that, 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.760 Plant refused to play without the mask, and Blake eventually 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.200 gave in. By the way, can you imagine getting hit 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:21.160 by my hockey puck at the speed that an NHL 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.320 player would hit it? So, you know, over in insane 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.440 it's yeah, I just I simply wouldn't do it. But 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:31.160 over time, more and more players started wearing masks, and eventually, 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:35.240 in nineteen seventy nine, goalie mask became mandatory in the NHL. 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.200 I wish there's a counter to show how many teeth 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.040 and broken noses that has saved, you know, like, it 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:42.760 feels like it would be amazing to see that. But 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:46.520 shifting gears to something slightly safer than hockey. What are 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:49.200 your feelings on instant mashed potatoes? 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.720 All right, I hesitate to confess this, but there was 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.400 a time in my childhood when I actually preferred instant 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.400 potatoes to real potatoes. 0:07:59.560 --> 0:07:59.800 Sure. 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.880 Going up two parents working a lot, obviously, we had 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.320 to figure out how to get meals together pretty quickly, 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.080 and so instant potatoes appeared on the table quite a 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.720 few times, and they were probably a top five food 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.600 for me at some point in life until later in 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:18.160 life when the in laws introduced me to like really 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.000 good homemade mashed potatoes, and there was no turning back. 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.320 But I admit it. I would still eat them if 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:25.320 they were in front of me, how about you, one 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:25.920 hundred percent? 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:28.320 I loved them as a kid. I agree. I grew 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.640 to love real potatoes later, but there was something about 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:35.920 instant mashed potatoes that just was joyous. And I had 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.760 no idea about this, But instant mashed potatoes are partially 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:39.880 a Canadian invention. 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:42.720 I like the idea that something is partially an invention, 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.280 especially with something like instant mashed potatoes. So what do 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:45.840 you mean by that? 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:50.439 So people have actually been drying and preserving potatoes for centuries, 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:54.000 and a handful of companies started making instant mashed potatoes 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:57.720 during World War Two. But by all accounts, those early 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:03.520 iterations were really really gross, and they sound so unappetizing. 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:07.680 They were soggy, they only vaguely resembled actual potatoes. But 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.880 in nineteen sixty one, a Canadian inventor his name was 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:15.079 Edward Asselberg's he created a new type of flaked mashed 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.560 potato that changed everything. And by changed everything, I mean 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.600 you know they tasted good, all right. 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:25.240 So to clarify your earlier statement, Canada invented the first 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:27.280 not gross instant mashed potato. 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:31.280 I guess, yeah, exactly. And Asselbergs was a food scientist 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:35.040 for Agriculture Canada when he developed this technique for flaking 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:39.440 dried potatoes. Previous instant potatoes were made of potato granules, 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:42.120 which is why they became all goofy and soggy. But 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:46.360 by comparison, the flakes created this richer, creamier texture, you know, 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.320 the one you and I love now. Asselbergs didn't really 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.600 anticipate how popular his invention would become. According to his wife, 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:56.199 his real interest was helping people in developing countries preserve food. 0:09:56.280 --> 0:10:00.600 But obviously instant mashed potatoes were also a huge commercial success. 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.200 All right, that's pretty awesome, all right. Well, my next 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:07.160 Canadian invention is another popular shelf stable food. This one 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:08.880 is another one that a lot of people love as well, 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:11.560 unless they have life threatening allergies to it. It's one 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:15.080 of my favorite foods, and that is, of course, peanut butter. Now, 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:17.200 this one's similar to instan potatoes in the sense that 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:19.720 people have been eating ground up peanuts for a very 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:24.040 long time. The Astac's eight mashed roasted peanuts, for example. 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.560 So it's hard to pinpoint exactly when peanut butter was invented, 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.319 but the peanut butter patent actually belongs to Canadian inventor 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.000 Marcellus Gilmour Edson. Now Edson was a pharmacist who in 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.840 eighteen eighty four he developed a novel way of turning 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.280 peanuts into paste by roasting them and then grinding them 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:45.680 between two heated surfaces. Edson called his peanut paste quote 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:49.800 peanut candy, because candy sounds more appetizing than paste. Of course, 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:51.960 we tested that a lot of people. We did a 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:55.439 big focus study, and they agreed that candy sounds better 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.920 than paste. So now, he touted a few different uses 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:01.800 for his product, and this included as a flavoring for 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:05.080 candy and as a nutritious, easy to chew food for 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:08.080 the elderly. Although Edson described his product as having a 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.880 quote consistency like that of butter. He didn't envision it 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.679 being used as a spread. The honor of that innovation 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.600 actually goes to the American John Harvey Kellogg, who patented 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:22.040 his own peanut butter making technique in eighteen ninety five, 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:25.679 and he began selling peanut butter in eighteen ninety six. 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:28.520 I love that we can look at our sandwiches and 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:31.240 you know, peeb and J's and think as this great 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:33.079 Canadian American invention. 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.080 Exactly, and it's so so good. You're a fan of 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:39.360 peanut butter too, right, It's oh my god, I love. 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:41.240 Peanut butter so much. You know what's also funny, though, 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:43.160 is that, like I just assumed, everything to do with 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:47.360 peanuts was invented by George Washington Carver. You know which 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:51.040 feels say. I think that you hear so much about 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:54.680 peanuts and inventions with him, like I just assumed. 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.600 It's also hard not to go back to the old 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:01.600 Eddie Murphy's ketch talking about George Washington Carver and Jiffy 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.240 and Skip and all the other characters in peanut butter history. 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:05.840 If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:08.280 go look it up definitely. 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.160 So I know we've talked about two food dimensions in 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.559 a row now, but I am going to add one 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.959 more food dimension because it turns out that egg cartons 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:23.080 are also Canadian genius. So, according to legend, in nineteen eleven, 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.840 a British Columbia man named Joseph Coyle overheard a hotel 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:29.760 owner complaining to a farmer that the eggs he delivered 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:33.880 were broken. Now, it is unclear whether this story is 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.280 apocryphal or that part of the story is, but what 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:41.760 comes next definitely happens. So Coyle, who was a newspaper 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.840 publisher not a professional engineer, decided to find a better 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.079 way to transport eggs. The farmer was carrying them in 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:51.800 a basket, which doesn't sound super safe, and Coyle designed 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:54.880 a carton with separate slots for each individual egg to 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.160 keep them from smashing into each other. He made prototypes 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:01.040 by hand out of newspaper and then create a machine 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.000 that could mass produce them. He actually patented the idea 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.000 in eighteen eighteen, and the rest is more or less history. 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:09.760 Now Coil set up factories to produce the cartons in 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:13.360 Vancouver and Toronto and a few US cities as well, 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.720 and in later years other inventors would build on Coil's work, 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:20.440 but the Coil safety egg carton was the first great 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:24.360 leap forward in egg transportation technology. 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:26.520 That's pretty great, all right, Well we have to take 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:28.280 a quick break, but when we come back, we'll have 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:32.199 more Canadian inventions to talk about it, including a broadcasting breakthrough, 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.880 an iconic underwear. Of course, what a tease, Mango, So 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:53.960 stay tuned, Welcome back to part time genius. This is 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.559 Will to Mango. Mango. Can you hear me over? 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:58.800 I mean, obviously I can hear you. 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:01.960 What's going Thanks for getting in on the sketch there, Mango. 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:04.720 I'm just setting the scene for our next fact, which 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.720 is the walkie talkie. The walkie talkie was actually invented 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.720 in Canada by engineer and inventor Donald Hings. So like 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.440 nine year old ten year old Will and Mango would 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.120 certainly think this is one of the coolest inventions efforts. 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:18.760 Absolutely so. 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.520 In the nineteen thirties, Hings was working for a Canadian 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:25.320 mining company called Comenko when he started tinkering with radios. 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.960 Two way radio communication did exist, but it wasn't portable 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.280 and it generally relied on Morse code, so Hings created 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:35.680 the first truly portable, wireless two way radio device that 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.840 let people actually speak to each other. Now, he originally 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:41.160 developed the device, which he called the pack Set, for 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:43.920 Kamenko to use in its minds, but with World War 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.440 II looming, Hings started to think about other applications, and 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.360 in nineteen thirty seven he patented the pack set, which 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.240 became known as the walkie Talkie, and he offered it 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:55.280 to the Canadian government for the war effort. 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.880 I mean, I do not know a lot about World 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:00.960 War two communication technology, but it seemed like this would 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.320 have been, you know, like a really big deal at 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:03.600 the time. 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:06.320 It totally was. Yeah, it was a game changer for them. 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.400 So one newspaper article in the nineteen forties compared giving 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.120 the walkie talkie to the military to giving a football 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:16.200 team a quarterback. In fact, a nonprofit called the Telecommunications 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.640 Hall of Fame estimated that Hing's inventions saved thousands of 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.960 lives during World War Two. Now, after the war, walkie 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:27.200 talkies became commercially available and were more often sold as toys. 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:29.760 In the pre cell phone era, they were an essential 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:32.760 communication device, especially for kids who wanted to keep chatting 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:33.800 past their bedtime. 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.400 Can you imagine if kids had to learn Morse code 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:39.240 to like chatting with their neighbors. 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.040 I remember trying. I would try for like five minutes 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:43.240 a time and just give up. 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.360 It's so difficult. Well, you know who else uses walkie 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.800 talkies is referees, And as it turns out, that's not 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.880 the only thing Canadian inventors have done for refs. Instant 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:58.320 replay is also a Canadian invention. It was first conceived 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:02.280 by a Toronto based tea producer for the Canadian Broadcasting 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:05.760 Corporations program Hockey Nights in Canada. His name was George 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:08.280 Rhetz Laugh. This was in the nineteen fifties and he 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.800 thought it'd be really cool to quickly replay moments from 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.080 the games. So he started experimenting with this rapid film 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.880 processor that could actually develop film in as little as 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:19.760 thirty seconds, and he comes up with this amazing technique 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.480 that would allow him to replay moments from games just 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:26.440 seconds after they occurred. Retslaugh first used instant replay on 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.320 air in nineteen fifty five when he replayed a goal 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:33.040 during a game, and unfortunately he forgot to tell anyone 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:35.560 that he was playing on doing this, So instead of 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:41.200 celebrating this incredible, marvelous invention, Hockey Night sponsors were really upset. 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:45.120 The show's lead advertiser, which was the McLaren advertising agency. 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.960 They were angry that Rhet's laugh didn't give them advance 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.239 warning so that they could promote the new feature to audiences. 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:53.680 And on top of that, apparently there was a rule 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.000 that hockey games had to be shown in the exact 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:59.640 same way across networks, which meant that Retslas's innovation actually 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:03.040 broke the rules by using this replay feature because all 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.679 the other networks didn't have it. He never tried the 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:08.600 technique again, but it did set the stage for future 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:10.320 iterations of the technology. 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:12.840 You know, it's hard to imagine watching sports now without 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:14.240 instant replay. 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:16.439 Do you remember. I mean, I remember when I was 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.399 in like eighth grade or ninth grade, and we went 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:20.920 to someone's house and they said they had a TV 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:24.119 where they could rewind for sports, And it was just 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.359 unbelievable that you could do that, because it was before 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:29.560 you'd have to like tape a game and then rewind 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:31.200 the game to be able to do that. But like 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.439 for the first time and now like this technology is 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:35.440 just everywhere. 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.480 It's non stop. Yeah, it's pretty amazing, all right, another 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:40.800 Canadian invention. In fact, I think this is my last 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:44.600 one of the day, and it is the iconic Wonderbra mango. 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:47.920 You know, I remember seeing the ads for that. There 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.119 was like such a big deal in the nineties, right. 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:52.120 They were. That's all the nineties was about, I think, 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.280 if I remember correctly, they were everywhere. So in nineteen 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.719 ninety four, Wonderbra launched an ad campaign that made a 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:03.159 huge splash. It featured model Eva Herzegova and she was 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.199 wearing this wonderbra and very little else if you remember 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.959 the ad there, and they plastered her picture on billboards 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.240 across the US and across the UK, and the campaign 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.399 stirred up a ton of publicity and no small amount 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.199 of controversy. Of course, there were even rumors that the 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:21.600 billboards were so distracting that they cause car crashes, although 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.080 there doesn't seem to be any real evidence of this happening. 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.280 Either way, the ads worked and the Wonderbra became a 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.600 household name. But the story of the brand starts decades earlier, actually, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:35.120 way back to nineteen thirty nine. That's when the Canadian 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.520 Lady corset company first started selling a new product called 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:39.240 the Wonderbra. 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.639 That is so weird that it's like it's actually from 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:43.680 the nineteen thirties. 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:46.719 That's insane, that's pretty old. Well, it was a pretty 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.200 different look back then, So the original Wonderbra wasn't designed 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.520 for looks. It was more about comfort. Now that changed 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:57.040 in nineteen sixty three when Canadian Lady released its first 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.960 push up bra. It was called the Wonderbra Dream Lift 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.800 Model thirteen hundred sounds very scientific and it was a 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.479 huge hit, and that design was the basis for the 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:10.200 plunging style that became iconic in the nineteen nineties. 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.600 Now, as someone who's never worn one of these things, 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:17.040 what made this particular bra so popular? Like, how was 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:18.160 it different from everything else? 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:19.560 But that was on the market, you know, it was 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:21.680 a bunch of factors. So the folks that the Canadian 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:23.960 Lady actually did a lot of market research in the 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:26.439 nineteen sixties and it was clear to them that the 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.679 attitudes toward clothing were changing. They wanted to understand what 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.600 that meant for bras it turned out that while women 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:36.120 wanted freedom from the heavy, overly structured bras and girdles 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.800 of the past. They also wanted shaping and support, and 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:43.240 they wanted bras that were fashionable, not just functional. So 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.960 Wonderbra was designed to check all those boxes. But there's 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:49.119 a little coda to this story. The success of the 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:53.480 dream Lift made Canadian Lady an attractive acquisition target. In particular, 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:55.720 it caught the eye of the major American brand that 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.640 was looking to diversify its products. This was Sarah Lee. 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.760 As a like the frozen cake companies. 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:05.720 Very same one cakes and bras, you know, the very 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:09.000 same company. So Sarah Le bought Canadian Lady in nineteen 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.879 sixty eight and changed its name to Canadell. Now today 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:16.040 the Wonderbra is owned by Haynes and they've introduced new 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.720 styles since then to keep up with the times, like 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:22.760 a bra made from recycled materials. Actually, that's fascinating. 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.359 Okay, Well, so are you ready for our final facts 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:27.479 because it is a big one. 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:28.679 All right, I'm ready. 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:33.800 In the nineteen sixties, Canadian filmmakers Graham Ferguson and Roman 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:38.359 Creuter decided film screens were simply too small for their 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:43.840 ambitions for the cinema, so they invented imax now, Ferguson 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.439 and Creuder were documentarians and interested in immersive cinema. They 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.000 wanted to make audiences feel like they were. 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:50.679 In the film. 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.959 So in nineteen sixty seven, Frigson screened his documentary Polar 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.440 Life at EXPOS sixty seven in Montreal, and he used 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:02.200 multiple screens to create this panoramic experience, and the way 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:04.879 it was executed is kind of amazing. So audiences sat 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:08.199 on a platform that rotated as the film played, and 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.720