10 Household Items You Never Knew Were Invented in Canada

Most people think Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, but the bright idea was actually Henry Woodward’s and Mathew Evans’, the official Canadian inventors of the incandescent lamp. (Edison obtained a patent to Woodward’s bulb, developing his own design.) Woodward, a University of Toronto medical student, and his neighbour, a hotel keeper, patented the first practical light bulb on July 24, 1874. According to the book Breakthrough! by John Melady, Woodward worked at Morrison’s Brass Foundry on Adelaide Street West in Toronto, performing early experiments with an induction coil and battery.

Transporting a dozen eggs is easy now, but in Joseph Coyle’s day, it was a cracking hard time. The BC-based newspaper man invented the iconic 12-pack in 1918. Though it should be noted other egg carriers were patented from the late 1890s forward, Coyle’s was the most successful. He apparently came up with the concept to solve a dispute between a local farmer and hotel owner in Aldermere, BC, over the farmer’s eggs often being delivered broken.

Lewis Frederick Urry, a chemical engineer and Ontario inventor, cooked up both the alkaline battery and lithium battery while working for the Eveready Battery Company. Production of his design started in 1959 after Urry wowed his Eveready bosses by placing a battery into a toy car and racing it against one with older batteries. His won, of course.

Aw, plexiglas. Where would we be without it? Scarred, likely. While a graduate student at McGill University in 1931, William Chalmers was hard at work inventing the shatter-resistant glass alternative.

Donald Hings created the portable radio, originally known as the “packset,” in 1937. It was soon redeveloped to serve as an instrumental mode of communication during World War II.

Painting would be a whole lot harder without Norman Breakey’s handy roller. The Torontonian invented the gadget in 1940 so he could paint more quickly without sacrificing a smooth finish. Sadly, he wasn’t able to produce it in large batches, and he didn’t patent it, so he didn’t profit from the product. An American made tweaks to the original design, and it was a hit.

The first documented snow machine, as it was called, was patented in 1869 by J.W. Elliot from Toronto, but it was never produced. Arthur Sicard’s was. Inspired by a wheat thresher, the Quebec inventor unveiled his snowblower in 1925 to help farmers clear the snow off their fields so the cows could feed.

Smelly but powerful, the abrasive cleaner that takes ovens from filthy to fantastic was the brainchild of Regina’s Herbert McCool in 1932.

Credit for this ubiquitous tool goes to P.L. Robertson. Born in Seneca Township, Ontario, the inventor popularized the square-socket drive for screws – often called the Robertson drive – though a similarly shaped drive had been conceived decades before by Allan Cummings of New York City. Cummings’ design was difficult to manufacture, so Robertson’s went commercial. You can watch a short history lesson here.

Life before garbage bags must have really stunk, so let’s thank Winnipeg’s Harry Wasylyk as well as Larry Hansen of Lindsay, Ontario, for coming up with the disposable green polyethylene garbage bag in 1950.