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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, A pr il 11 ,2 01 9 | 34 Dental Implants It feels great to smile with Available here... New Patients Welcome Family and Cosmetic Dentistry Marketplace Dental Centre Georgetown Marketplace Mall HOURS: Monday & Wednesday 8:00am - 8:00pm • Tuesday & Thursday 8:00am - 6:00pm • Saturday 8:00am - 3:00pm 905-877-CARE (2273) • www.georgetowndental.com • Proudly Serving Georgetown Since 1994. bridal showers | rehearsal dinners weddingsbridal showers | rehearsal dinners weddings For more information contact bill dhaliwal | 905-877-8468 ext 2223 | bdhaliwal@clublink.ca eagle ridge golF ClUb | rr #4, 11742 TenTh line, georgeTown, on eagleridge.clublink.ca CelebraTing liFe's MoMenTs open year roundendless possibilities Basketball, insulin, peanut butter and the jock strap, all have one thing in common: they were in- vented by Canadians. "After that, the name recognition drops off and that's always bothered me," said Mark Rector, a professor of electrical en- gineering at Humber Col- lege who is publishing his first book, Oh Canada! Our Home and Inventive Land. "I decided to put an end to that one reader at a time." The book is a collection of stories about Canadian inventors and their inven- tions - roughly 170 differ- ent inventions from pea- nut butter to the Wonder- bra - and a surprising number of them are large- ly mistaken for American innovation. "We've pretty much in- vented every single piece of telecom equipment you can name," Rector said. While Alexander Gra- ham Bell was born in Scot- land, his invention, the telephone, was made in Canada. Perhaps Canadian in- novations are born out of necessity, Rector said; Ca- nadians are separated by vast distances from coast to coast. "We're still the largest users of long-distance tele- phone communications in the world," Rector said. "Probably because we're such a great nation of im- migrants." Reginald Fessenden, born in Canada, invented speech-by-radio technolo- gy, though he did that as an inventor in the United States. "The only thing we can give them credit for is the transistor," Rector said. Though most people be- lieve it was Thomas Edi- son who invented the light bulb, Rector shed some light on the real story. "Thomas Edison bought a light bulb," Rec- tor said. "He bought a light bulb from two Canadian inventors from Toronto, Matthew Evans and Henry Woodward." The pair of Canadian tinkers tried unsuccess- fully for years to sell the in- vention to raise capital for production, before eventu- ally selling the patent to Thomas Edison. Rector said the inven- tors sold the patent for about $5,000 - and the prod- uct would end up being worth billions. "Six months later, the headline on the New York Times was 'Edison invents light bulb,'" Rector said. But that's not the end of the story: before the Chica- go World's Fair in 1893, an- other Canadian was tasked with improving Ed- ison's bulb. Reginald Fes- senden, the AM radio in- ventor, improved the bulb to the bulbs still used to- day. "We got no credit, and it was pretty much all us," Rector said. Locally, a woman from Esquesing Township, north of Milton, invented the 'compound heating stove,' becoming the first woman granted a patent in Canada in 1855. Tired from chores, Rec- tor said, Ruth Adam in- vented a stove that provid- ed heat and a place to cook, cutting down on the amount of wood needed. The Avro Arrow was in- vented at Lester B. Pear- son Airport in Toronto, and the Canadarm devel- oped at SPAR Aerospace in Brampton. The book is available at White Rabbit Books (118 Mill St.) in Georgetown, as well as independent book stores between Ontario and Nova Scotia. Rector will also be doing a lecture at the Oakville Historical Society on May 15 that is free to attend. More information about Mark Rector and his book Oh Canada! Our Home and Inventive Land is available at www.profes- sormarkrector.com. BOOKS AVRO TO WONDERBRA: LOCAL AUTHOR EXPLORES CANADIAN TECH BRYAN MYERS bmyers@metroland.com Mark Rector, an electronics engineering professor at Humber College, published Oh Canada! Our Home and Inventive Land, a collection of vignettes about Canadian inventors and their inventions from the light bulb to the Canadarm. Bryan Myers/Metroland