May 30, 2025 • 24 mins
If you’ve ever taken out the trash, bought eggs, or gotten immersed in Avatar, you have Canada to thank for it. Pop on your toques and join Will and Mango for a deep dive into some fascinating Canadian inventions—and yes, hockey is mentioned. Twice.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what will?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's that mango?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
So let me ask you something. How often you clean
the inside of your trash can?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Clean the inside of the tres I don't know, maybe
every few somewhere in between, every few months and never
I would guess.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, you and I can both thank Canada for saving
us from having to do that particular chore.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I do want to say thank you to Canada, But also,
what do you mean by this?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So we take it for granted today, But the plastic
trash bag wasn't invented until the nineteen fifties. And before that,
people through trash die directly into their metal trash cans,
kind of Oscar the Grouch style, But that meant they
had to clean the cans regularly to keep them from smelling.
But three Canadian inventors came up with a solution, which
(01:13):
is the plastic trash bag. And what's really interesting is
that these inventors weren't working together. They actually didn't even
know about each other's work.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So what's the deal here? They were just all sick
of cleaning their trash cans. Or what I think that's
part of it. But also polyethylene, which was a new
type of plastic around that time. It had just recently
become available. And polyethylene is soft and stretchy. It's also
waterproof and air proof, and that.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Obviously makes it the ideal material for trash bags. So
the three inventors their names were Frank Plump, Harry Wis Silik,
and Larry Hanson. They all found out about polyethylene around
the same time, and they more or less had this
same genius idea, which was, let's melt it down and
shape it into bags. Now. Plump began selling his bags,
which he called garbags, to hospitals and offices. Hanson worked
(02:03):
for a company called Union Carbide and made bags for
the company's Ontario plant, and with Silk, meanwhile built up
a successful trash bag manufacturing business which he sold to
Union Carbide. And that was in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So did he and Hanson just end up joining forces.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, and you might actually be familiar with the product
that emerged from their team up, because Union Carbide decided
to rename their new product the Glad bag.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Oh Glad. I actually didn't know. Glad was a Canadian brand.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, it still is, and they still manufactured their bags
in Canada. But garbage bags are just one of the many,
many amazing inventions to come out of the Great White North.
So we've got eight more equally innovative Canadian inventions to
talk about. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Hey their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh hot Ticketter and over there in the booths
enjoying a double double and a box of tim Bits,
that's our pal and producer Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I feel like, not even like five minutes in and
we're already have this Tim Horden's reference.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I was hoping to get to it sooner. Actually, I'm
pretty sure it is the law, and if you talk
about Canada for more than a couple of minutes, you
do have to bring it up. But speaking of things
that are inherently Canadian, mango, are you familiar with Canada's
national sport?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well, I've got a guess for it. But before we
get to that, I do want to say we absolutely
do love Canada on this show. But we had two
different weird brainstorms where I was wondering, like what's going
on with New Finland? And another one where Mary and
Gabe we're talking about incredible comedians that come out of
Canada and they were wondering, like what else is Canada
(03:59):
given the world. And so we ended up with two
shows in fairly close succession about America's hat but and
so like for listeners, please know we were aware of
it when we signed it. And in terms of your question,
what is Canada's national sport? I feel like the obvious
answer is hockey, but I actually think it's lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Right, Well, Canada has two national sports, so you're you
are you are right on the money with this, Mango.
Lacrosse is it's summer national sport. But my next fact
is actually about hockey, which is the winter national sport.
In the sport I think most people outside of Canada
associate with them.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Sure, obviously hockey is a big deal in Canada. Were
you much of a hockey fan growing up? You know,
hockey was just not a thing in the in the
South when I was growing up, certainly very few people
played it.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I knew maybe a couple of kids that played it
there really weren't professional teams in the southeast. You think
of teams in Nashville and Atlanta and others. It was,
you know, they came along after my childhood, so I
really didn't know much about the sport. But how about you.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
We played a little like floor hockey and gym and
street hockey. But as soon as roller skates got involved,
I just became a goalie and I said, to the
goal But yeah, hockey wasn't that much of a big
part of my growing up.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Well, obviously, Canadians take hockey pretty seriously, so it should
come as no surprise that one of the biggest innovations
in hockey history, of course, originated in Canada. Now I'm
talking about the goalie mask.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Can you imagine playing goalie without a mask?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
That feels insane. I just simply would not do it. So,
you know, if you enjoy not being concussed, I would
say it's a pretty crucial invention. So hockey's been around
since the nineteenth century, but the hockey mask of today
wasn't actually invented until the nineteen fifties. Of course, a
handful of safety conscious hockey players before then took measures
(05:52):
to protect themselves. So in nineteen twenty seven, Elizabeth Graham
of Queen's University became the first goalie and organized hockey
history to wear a mask when she started wearing a
fencing mask during games. And before the invention of the
goalie mask, some players would protect their faces with baseball
catchers mask. That was actually the first thing that came
to my mind. But in general, safety just wasn't that
(06:13):
much of a priority back then as it is today.
But that all changed in nineteen fifty nine thanks to
amateur hockey coach Bill Birchmore. Now Birchmore worked for the
company called Fiberglass Canada. This was in Montreal, and was
a huge fan of the hockey team there those are
the Canadians Now. When one of his favorite players, Jacques Plant,
got injured during a game, Birchmore took action. He created
(06:36):
a custom fiberglass mask that Plant began wearing to team practices.
So there was just one problem. Canadians coach Toe Blake
didn't want him to wear it during their actual games.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Now I'm wondering, is this kind of like the underhanded
free throw where it just didn't seem manly to wear
a mask?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Well, actually it was because the eyeholes made it harder
to see the puck, and so Blake told Plant in
no uncertain terms that he had to go maskless during
the games, and it first Plant complied, but then he
got hit in the face with a puck during a
game against the Rangers in nineteen fifty nine, and after that,
Plant refused to play without the mask, and Blake eventually
(07:14):
gave in. By the way, can you imagine getting hit
by my hockey puck at the speed that an NHL
player would hit it? So, you know, over in insane
it's yeah, I just I simply wouldn't do it. But
over time, more and more players started wearing masks, and eventually,
in nineteen seventy nine, goalie mask became mandatory in the NHL.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I wish there's a counter to show how many teeth
and broken noses that has saved, you know, like, it
feels like it would be amazing to see that. But
shifting gears to something slightly safer than hockey. What are
your feelings on instant mashed potatoes?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
All right, I hesitate to confess this, but there was
a time in my childhood when I actually preferred instant
potatoes to real potatoes.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Going up two parents working a lot, obviously, we had
to figure out how to get meals together pretty quickly,
and so instant potatoes appeared on the table quite a
few times, and they were probably a top five food
for me at some point in life until later in
life when the in laws introduced me to like really
good homemade mashed potatoes, and there was no turning back.
(08:21):
But I admit it. I would still eat them if
they were in front of me, how about you, one
hundred percent?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I loved them as a kid. I agree. I grew
to love real potatoes later, but there was something about
instant mashed potatoes that just was joyous. And I had
no idea about this, But instant mashed potatoes are partially
a Canadian invention.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I like the idea that something is partially an invention,
especially with something like instant mashed potatoes. So what do
you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
So people have actually been drying and preserving potatoes for centuries,
and a handful of companies started making instant mashed potatoes
during World War Two. But by all accounts, those early
iterations were really really gross, and they sound so unappetizing.
They were soggy, they only vaguely resembled actual potatoes. But
(09:07):
in nineteen sixty one, a Canadian inventor his name was
Edward Asselberg's he created a new type of flaked mashed
potato that changed everything. And by changed everything, I mean
you know they tasted good, all right.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So to clarify your earlier statement, Canada invented the first
not gross instant mashed potato.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I guess, yeah, exactly. And Asselbergs was a food scientist
for Agriculture Canada when he developed this technique for flaking
dried potatoes. Previous instant potatoes were made of potato granules,
which is why they became all goofy and soggy. But
by comparison, the flakes created this richer, creamier texture, you know,
the one you and I love now. Asselbergs didn't really
(09:49):
anticipate how popular his invention would become. According to his wife,
his real interest was helping people in developing countries preserve food.
But obviously instant mashed potatoes were also a huge commercial success.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
All right, that's pretty awesome, all right. Well, my next
Canadian invention is another popular shelf stable food. This one
is another one that a lot of people love as well,
unless they have life threatening allergies to it. It's one
of my favorite foods, and that is, of course, peanut butter. Now,
this one's similar to instan potatoes in the sense that
people have been eating ground up peanuts for a very
long time. The Astac's eight mashed roasted peanuts, for example.
(10:24):
So it's hard to pinpoint exactly when peanut butter was invented,
but the peanut butter patent actually belongs to Canadian inventor
Marcellus Gilmour Edson. Now Edson was a pharmacist who in
eighteen eighty four he developed a novel way of turning
peanuts into paste by roasting them and then grinding them
between two heated surfaces. Edson called his peanut paste quote
(10:45):
peanut candy, because candy sounds more appetizing than paste. Of course,
we tested that a lot of people. We did a
big focus study, and they agreed that candy sounds better
than paste. So now, he touted a few different uses
for his product, and this included as a flavoring for
candy and as a nutritious, easy to chew food for
the elderly. Although Edson described his product as having a
(11:08):
quote consistency like that of butter. He didn't envision it
being used as a spread. The honor of that innovation
actually goes to the American John Harvey Kellogg, who patented
his own peanut butter making technique in eighteen ninety five,
and he began selling peanut butter in eighteen ninety six.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I love that we can look at our sandwiches and
you know, peeb and J's and think as this great
Canadian American invention.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Exactly, and it's so so good. You're a fan of
peanut butter too, right, It's oh my god, I love.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Peanut butter so much. You know what's also funny, though,
is that, like I just assumed, everything to do with
peanuts was invented by George Washington Carver. You know which
feels say. I think that you hear so much about
peanuts and inventions with him, like I just assumed.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
It's also hard not to go back to the old
Eddie Murphy's ketch talking about George Washington Carver and Jiffy
and Skip and all the other characters in peanut butter history.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should
go look it up definitely.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So I know we've talked about two food dimensions in
a row now, but I am going to add one
more food dimension because it turns out that egg cartons
are also Canadian genius. So, according to legend, in nineteen eleven,
a British Columbia man named Joseph Coyle overheard a hotel
owner complaining to a farmer that the eggs he delivered
(12:29):
were broken. Now, it is unclear whether this story is
apocryphal or that part of the story is, but what
comes next definitely happens. So Coyle, who was a newspaper
publisher not a professional engineer, decided to find a better
way to transport eggs. The farmer was carrying them in
a basket, which doesn't sound super safe, and Coyle designed
(12:51):
a carton with separate slots for each individual egg to
keep them from smashing into each other. He made prototypes
by hand out of newspaper and then create a machine
that could mass produce them. He actually patented the idea
in eighteen eighteen, and the rest is more or less history.
Now Coil set up factories to produce the cartons in
Vancouver and Toronto and a few US cities as well,
(13:13):
and in later years other inventors would build on Coil's work,
but the Coil safety egg carton was the first great
leap forward in egg transportation technology.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
That's pretty great, all right, Well we have to take
a quick break, but when we come back, we'll have
more Canadian inventions to talk about it, including a broadcasting breakthrough,
an iconic underwear. Of course, what a tease, Mango, So
stay tuned, Welcome back to part time genius. This is
(13:54):
Will to Mango. Mango. Can you hear me over?
Speaker 1 (13:57):
I mean, obviously I can hear you.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
What's going Thanks for getting in on the sketch there, Mango.
I'm just setting the scene for our next fact, which
is the walkie talkie. The walkie talkie was actually invented
in Canada by engineer and inventor Donald Hings. So like
nine year old ten year old Will and Mango would
certainly think this is one of the coolest inventions efforts.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
In the nineteen thirties, Hings was working for a Canadian
mining company called Comenko when he started tinkering with radios.
Two way radio communication did exist, but it wasn't portable
and it generally relied on Morse code, so Hings created
the first truly portable, wireless two way radio device that
let people actually speak to each other. Now, he originally
(14:38):
developed the device, which he called the pack Set, for
Kamenko to use in its minds, but with World War
II looming, Hings started to think about other applications, and
in nineteen thirty seven he patented the pack set, which
became known as the walkie Talkie, and he offered it
to the Canadian government for the war effort.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I mean, I do not know a lot about World
War two communication technology, but it seemed like this would
have been, you know, like a really big deal at
the time.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It totally was. Yeah, it was a game changer for them.
So one newspaper article in the nineteen forties compared giving
the walkie talkie to the military to giving a football
team a quarterback. In fact, a nonprofit called the Telecommunications
Hall of Fame estimated that Hing's inventions saved thousands of
lives during World War Two. Now, after the war, walkie
talkies became commercially available and were more often sold as toys.
(15:27):
In the pre cell phone era, they were an essential
communication device, especially for kids who wanted to keep chatting
past their bedtime.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Can you imagine if kids had to learn Morse code
to like chatting with their neighbors.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I remember trying. I would try for like five minutes
a time and just give up.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
It's so difficult. Well, you know who else uses walkie
talkies is referees, And as it turns out, that's not
the only thing Canadian inventors have done for refs. Instant
replay is also a Canadian invention. It was first conceived
by a Toronto based tea producer for the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporations program Hockey Nights in Canada. His name was George
(16:05):
Rhetz Laugh. This was in the nineteen fifties and he
thought it'd be really cool to quickly replay moments from
the games. So he started experimenting with this rapid film
processor that could actually develop film in as little as
thirty seconds, and he comes up with this amazing technique
that would allow him to replay moments from games just
seconds after they occurred. Retslaugh first used instant replay on
(16:26):
air in nineteen fifty five when he replayed a goal
during a game, and unfortunately he forgot to tell anyone
that he was playing on doing this, So instead of
celebrating this incredible, marvelous invention, Hockey Night sponsors were really upset.
The show's lead advertiser, which was the McLaren advertising agency.
They were angry that Rhet's laugh didn't give them advance
(16:48):
warning so that they could promote the new feature to audiences.
And on top of that, apparently there was a rule
that hockey games had to be shown in the exact
same way across networks, which meant that Retslas's innovation actually
broke the rules by using this replay feature because all
the other networks didn't have it. He never tried the
technique again, but it did set the stage for future
(17:08):
iterations of the technology.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
You know, it's hard to imagine watching sports now without
instant replay.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Do you remember. I mean, I remember when I was
in like eighth grade or ninth grade, and we went
to someone's house and they said they had a TV
where they could rewind for sports, And it was just
unbelievable that you could do that, because it was before
you'd have to like tape a game and then rewind
the game to be able to do that. But like
for the first time and now like this technology is
(17:34):
just everywhere.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
It's non stop. Yeah, it's pretty amazing, all right, another
Canadian invention. In fact, I think this is my last
one of the day, and it is the iconic Wonderbra mango.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
You know, I remember seeing the ads for that. There
was like such a big deal in the nineties, right.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
They were. That's all the nineties was about, I think,
if I remember correctly, they were everywhere. So in nineteen
ninety four, Wonderbra launched an ad campaign that made a
huge splash. It featured model Eva Herzegova and she was
wearing this wonderbra and very little else if you remember
the ad there, and they plastered her picture on billboards
across the US and across the UK, and the campaign
(18:12):
stirred up a ton of publicity and no small amount
of controversy. Of course, there were even rumors that the
billboards were so distracting that they cause car crashes, although
there doesn't seem to be any real evidence of this happening.
Either way, the ads worked and the Wonderbra became a
household name. But the story of the brand starts decades earlier, actually,
way back to nineteen thirty nine. That's when the Canadian
(18:35):
Lady corset company first started selling a new product called
the Wonderbra.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
That is so weird that it's like it's actually from
the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
That's insane, that's pretty old. Well, it was a pretty
different look back then, So the original Wonderbra wasn't designed
for looks. It was more about comfort. Now that changed
in nineteen sixty three when Canadian Lady released its first
push up bra. It was called the Wonderbra Dream Lift
Model thirteen hundred sounds very scientific and it was a
(19:03):
huge hit, and that design was the basis for the
plunging style that became iconic in the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Now, as someone who's never worn one of these things,
what made this particular bra so popular? Like, how was
it different from everything else?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
But that was on the market, you know, it was
a bunch of factors. So the folks that the Canadian
Lady actually did a lot of market research in the
nineteen sixties and it was clear to them that the
attitudes toward clothing were changing. They wanted to understand what
that meant for bras it turned out that while women
wanted freedom from the heavy, overly structured bras and girdles
of the past. They also wanted shaping and support, and
(19:39):
they wanted bras that were fashionable, not just functional. So
Wonderbra was designed to check all those boxes. But there's
a little coda to this story. The success of the
dream Lift made Canadian Lady an attractive acquisition target. In particular,
it caught the eye of the major American brand that
was looking to diversify its products. This was Sarah Lee.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
As a like the frozen cake companies.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Very same one cakes and bras, you know, the very
same company. So Sarah Le bought Canadian Lady in nineteen
sixty eight and changed its name to Canadell. Now today
the Wonderbra is owned by Haynes and they've introduced new
styles since then to keep up with the times, like
a bra made from recycled materials. Actually, that's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Okay, Well, so are you ready for our final facts
because it is a big one.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
All right, I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
In the nineteen sixties, Canadian filmmakers Graham Ferguson and Roman
Creuter decided film screens were simply too small for their
ambitions for the cinema, so they invented imax now, Ferguson
and Creuder were documentarians and interested in immersive cinema. They
wanted to make audiences feel like they were.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
In the film.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So in nineteen sixty seven, Frigson screened his documentary Polar
Life at EXPOS sixty seven in Montreal, and he used
multiple screens to create this panoramic experience, and the way
it was executed is kind of amazing. So audiences sat
on a platform that rotated as the film played, and
it created this illusion that they were being transported to
the Arctic. Kreuter also screened one of his films at
(21:13):
XPO sixty seven, and even though he didn't use Fergson's
turntable approach, he did use multiple screens to make his
film more immersive. So Ferguson and Kreuter at this point
they were both very interested in big screens, but they
couldn't just build a giant screen and be done with it.
They needed a film format that could be projected onto
a large screen without quality loss, which at the time
(21:34):
didn't exist. So Kreuter and Ferguson, who I should mention
were also brothers in law. They enlisted the help of
a couple of Ferguson's high school buddies Robert Kerr and Williamshaw.
Robert was the successful businessman, Williamshaw was an engineer, and
together they developed Imax technology, which included large format film
as well as an Imax film camera and projector. It
(21:55):
took a while to sell people on the idea, but
once they did it really took off. Their are now
hundreds of Imax theaters around the world, and while Imax
was originally used almost exclusively for documentaries, nowadays narrative filmmakers
are also getting in on the Imax game. So one
of the most high profile recent movies shot on Imax
film was Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and also Ryan Coogler Centers, which.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Is yeah, I would imagine there'd be two intense movies
to watch on the Imax. I actually love going to
the Imax. The problem for me is by the time
it gets to the actual movie, I've seen the most
exciting part, because I get all pumped up when they're
doing the like warm up part where they're like showing
you where the speakers are and they're doing the exciting music,
like the intro stuff. I'm so revved up that everything
(22:40):
after that app Yeah, exactly, it's it's a little much.
But my kids make fun of me for getting so
excited during the basically warm up act for the actual movie.
But you know, one thing I actually don't know is
what is it? What does IMAX stand for?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
It is an abbreviation for image maximum.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I would not have guessed that. It's also a little
less interesting than I was hoping. But Mango, just because
you reminded me of the pop culture phenomenon that was Barbenheimer,
I'm gonna give you this week's trophy.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
You know, I humbly accept and I'd like to thank
Canada for existing and for generally being wonderful and giving
us all this stuff. So that does it for today.
We'll be back next week with another brand new episode.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram at part Time Genius.
Today's episode was written by the wonderful Anna Green. Thank
you so much, Anna, and from Dylan Gabe, Mary, Will
(23:32):
and myself. Thank you for listening. Part Time Genius is
a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted
by Will Pearson and me Mongashchatikler and research by our
(23:55):
good pal Mary Philip, Sandy Today's episode was engineered produced
by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.
The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell
and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from
Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(24:20):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what will?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's that mango?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
So let me ask you something. How often you clean
the inside of your trash can?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Clean the inside of the tres I don't know, maybe
every few somewhere in between, every few months and never
I would guess.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, you and I can both thank Canada for saving
us from having to do that particular chore.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I do want to say thank you to Canada, But also,
what do you mean by this?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So we take it for granted today, But the plastic
trash bag wasn't invented until the nineteen fifties. And before that,
people through trash die directly into their metal trash cans,
kind of Oscar the Grouch style, But that meant they
had to clean the cans regularly to keep them from smelling.
But three Canadian inventors came up with a solution, which
(01:13):
is the plastic trash bag. And what's really interesting is
that these inventors weren't working together. They actually didn't even
know about each other's work.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So what's the deal here? They were just all sick
of cleaning their trash cans. Or what I think that's
part of it. But also polyethylene, which was a new
type of plastic around that time. It had just recently
become available. And polyethylene is soft and stretchy. It's also
waterproof and air proof, and that.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Obviously makes it the ideal material for trash bags. So
the three inventors their names were Frank Plump, Harry Wis Silik,
and Larry Hanson. They all found out about polyethylene around
the same time, and they more or less had this
same genius idea, which was, let's melt it down and
shape it into bags. Now. Plump began selling his bags,
which he called garbags, to hospitals and offices. Hanson worked
(02:03):
for a company called Union Carbide and made bags for
the company's Ontario plant, and with Silk, meanwhile built up
a successful trash bag manufacturing business which he sold to
Union Carbide. And that was in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So did he and Hanson just end up joining forces.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, and you might actually be familiar with the product
that emerged from their team up, because Union Carbide decided
to rename their new product the Glad bag.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Oh Glad. I actually didn't know. Glad was a Canadian brand.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, it still is, and they still manufactured their bags
in Canada. But garbage bags are just one of the many,
many amazing inventions to come out of the Great White North.
So we've got eight more equally innovative Canadian inventions to
talk about. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Hey their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh hot Ticketter and over there in the booths
enjoying a double double and a box of tim Bits,
that's our pal and producer Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I feel like, not even like five minutes in and
we're already have this Tim Horden's reference.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I was hoping to get to it sooner. Actually, I'm
pretty sure it is the law, and if you talk
about Canada for more than a couple of minutes, you
do have to bring it up. But speaking of things
that are inherently Canadian, mango, are you familiar with Canada's
national sport?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well, I've got a guess for it. But before we
get to that, I do want to say we absolutely
do love Canada on this show. But we had two
different weird brainstorms where I was wondering, like what's going
on with New Finland? And another one where Mary and
Gabe we're talking about incredible comedians that come out of
Canada and they were wondering, like what else is Canada
(03:59):
given the world. And so we ended up with two
shows in fairly close succession about America's hat but and
so like for listeners, please know we were aware of
it when we signed it. And in terms of your question,
what is Canada's national sport? I feel like the obvious
answer is hockey, but I actually think it's lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Right, Well, Canada has two national sports, so you're you
are you are right on the money with this, Mango.
Lacrosse is it's summer national sport. But my next fact
is actually about hockey, which is the winter national sport.
In the sport I think most people outside of Canada
associate with them.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Sure, obviously hockey is a big deal in Canada. Were
you much of a hockey fan growing up? You know,
hockey was just not a thing in the in the
South when I was growing up, certainly very few people
played it.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I knew maybe a couple of kids that played it
there really weren't professional teams in the southeast. You think
of teams in Nashville and Atlanta and others. It was,
you know, they came along after my childhood, so I
really didn't know much about the sport. But how about you.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
We played a little like floor hockey and gym and
street hockey. But as soon as roller skates got involved,
I just became a goalie and I said, to the
goal But yeah, hockey wasn't that much of a big
part of my growing up.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Well, obviously, Canadians take hockey pretty seriously, so it should
come as no surprise that one of the biggest innovations
in hockey history, of course, originated in Canada. Now I'm
talking about the goalie mask.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Can you imagine playing goalie without a mask?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
That feels insane. I just simply would not do it. So,
you know, if you enjoy not being concussed, I would
say it's a pretty crucial invention. So hockey's been around
since the nineteenth century, but the hockey mask of today
wasn't actually invented until the nineteen fifties. Of course, a
handful of safety conscious hockey players before then took measures
(05:52):
to protect themselves. So in nineteen twenty seven, Elizabeth Graham
of Queen's University became the first goalie and organized hockey
history to wear a mask when she started wearing a
fencing mask during games. And before the invention of the
goalie mask, some players would protect their faces with baseball
catchers mask. That was actually the first thing that came
to my mind. But in general, safety just wasn't that
(06:13):
much of a priority back then as it is today.
But that all changed in nineteen fifty nine thanks to
amateur hockey coach Bill Birchmore. Now Birchmore worked for the
company called Fiberglass Canada. This was in Montreal, and was
a huge fan of the hockey team there those are
the Canadians Now. When one of his favorite players, Jacques Plant,
got injured during a game, Birchmore took action. He created
(06:36):
a custom fiberglass mask that Plant began wearing to team practices.
So there was just one problem. Canadians coach Toe Blake
didn't want him to wear it during their actual games.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Now I'm wondering, is this kind of like the underhanded
free throw where it just didn't seem manly to wear
a mask?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Well, actually it was because the eyeholes made it harder
to see the puck, and so Blake told Plant in
no uncertain terms that he had to go maskless during
the games, and it first Plant complied, but then he
got hit in the face with a puck during a
game against the Rangers in nineteen fifty nine, and after that,
Plant refused to play without the mask, and Blake eventually
(07:14):
gave in. By the way, can you imagine getting hit
by my hockey puck at the speed that an NHL
player would hit it? So, you know, over in insane
it's yeah, I just I simply wouldn't do it. But
over time, more and more players started wearing masks, and eventually,
in nineteen seventy nine, goalie mask became mandatory in the NHL.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I wish there's a counter to show how many teeth
and broken noses that has saved, you know, like, it
feels like it would be amazing to see that. But
shifting gears to something slightly safer than hockey. What are
your feelings on instant mashed potatoes?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
All right, I hesitate to confess this, but there was
a time in my childhood when I actually preferred instant
potatoes to real potatoes.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Going up two parents working a lot, obviously, we had
to figure out how to get meals together pretty quickly,
and so instant potatoes appeared on the table quite a
few times, and they were probably a top five food
for me at some point in life until later in
life when the in laws introduced me to like really
good homemade mashed potatoes, and there was no turning back.
(08:21):
But I admit it. I would still eat them if
they were in front of me, how about you, one
hundred percent?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I loved them as a kid. I agree. I grew
to love real potatoes later, but there was something about
instant mashed potatoes that just was joyous. And I had
no idea about this, But instant mashed potatoes are partially
a Canadian invention.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I like the idea that something is partially an invention,
especially with something like instant mashed potatoes. So what do
you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
So people have actually been drying and preserving potatoes for centuries,
and a handful of companies started making instant mashed potatoes
during World War Two. But by all accounts, those early
iterations were really really gross, and they sound so unappetizing.
They were soggy, they only vaguely resembled actual potatoes. But
(09:07):
in nineteen sixty one, a Canadian inventor his name was
Edward Asselberg's he created a new type of flaked mashed
potato that changed everything. And by changed everything, I mean
you know they tasted good, all right.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So to clarify your earlier statement, Canada invented the first
not gross instant mashed potato.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I guess, yeah, exactly. And Asselbergs was a food scientist
for Agriculture Canada when he developed this technique for flaking
dried potatoes. Previous instant potatoes were made of potato granules,
which is why they became all goofy and soggy. But
by comparison, the flakes created this richer, creamier texture, you know,
the one you and I love now. Asselbergs didn't really
(09:49):
anticipate how popular his invention would become. According to his wife,
his real interest was helping people in developing countries preserve food.
But obviously instant mashed potatoes were also a huge commercial success.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
All right, that's pretty awesome, all right. Well, my next
Canadian invention is another popular shelf stable food. This one
is another one that a lot of people love as well,
unless they have life threatening allergies to it. It's one
of my favorite foods, and that is, of course, peanut butter. Now,
this one's similar to instan potatoes in the sense that
people have been eating ground up peanuts for a very
long time. The Astac's eight mashed roasted peanuts, for example.
(10:24):
So it's hard to pinpoint exactly when peanut butter was invented,
but the peanut butter patent actually belongs to Canadian inventor
Marcellus Gilmour Edson. Now Edson was a pharmacist who in
eighteen eighty four he developed a novel way of turning
peanuts into paste by roasting them and then grinding them
between two heated surfaces. Edson called his peanut paste quote
(10:45):
peanut candy, because candy sounds more appetizing than paste. Of course,
we tested that a lot of people. We did a
big focus study, and they agreed that candy sounds better
than paste. So now, he touted a few different uses
for his product, and this included as a flavoring for
candy and as a nutritious, easy to chew food for
the elderly. Although Edson described his product as having a
(11:08):
quote consistency like that of butter. He didn't envision it
being used as a spread. The honor of that innovation
actually goes to the American John Harvey Kellogg, who patented
his own peanut butter making technique in eighteen ninety five,
and he began selling peanut butter in eighteen ninety six.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I love that we can look at our sandwiches and
you know, peeb and J's and think as this great
Canadian American invention.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Exactly, and it's so so good. You're a fan of
peanut butter too, right, It's oh my god, I love.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Peanut butter so much. You know what's also funny, though,
is that, like I just assumed, everything to do with
peanuts was invented by George Washington Carver. You know which
feels say. I think that you hear so much about
peanuts and inventions with him, like I just assumed.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
It's also hard not to go back to the old
Eddie Murphy's ketch talking about George Washington Carver and Jiffy
and Skip and all the other characters in peanut butter history.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should
go look it up definitely.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So I know we've talked about two food dimensions in
a row now, but I am going to add one
more food dimension because it turns out that egg cartons
are also Canadian genius. So, according to legend, in nineteen eleven,
a British Columbia man named Joseph Coyle overheard a hotel
owner complaining to a farmer that the eggs he delivered
(12:29):
were broken. Now, it is unclear whether this story is
apocryphal or that part of the story is, but what
comes next definitely happens. So Coyle, who was a newspaper
publisher not a professional engineer, decided to find a better
way to transport eggs. The farmer was carrying them in
a basket, which doesn't sound super safe, and Coyle designed
(12:51):
a carton with separate slots for each individual egg to
keep them from smashing into each other. He made prototypes
by hand out of newspaper and then create a machine
that could mass produce them. He actually patented the idea
in eighteen eighteen, and the rest is more or less history.
Now Coil set up factories to produce the cartons in
Vancouver and Toronto and a few US cities as well,
(13:13):
and in later years other inventors would build on Coil's work,
but the Coil safety egg carton was the first great
leap forward in egg transportation technology.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
That's pretty great, all right, Well we have to take
a quick break, but when we come back, we'll have
more Canadian inventions to talk about it, including a broadcasting breakthrough,
an iconic underwear. Of course, what a tease, Mango, So
stay tuned, Welcome back to part time genius. This is
(13:54):
Will to Mango. Mango. Can you hear me over?
Speaker 1 (13:57):
I mean, obviously I can hear you.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
What's going Thanks for getting in on the sketch there, Mango.
I'm just setting the scene for our next fact, which
is the walkie talkie. The walkie talkie was actually invented
in Canada by engineer and inventor Donald Hings. So like
nine year old ten year old Will and Mango would
certainly think this is one of the coolest inventions efforts.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
In the nineteen thirties, Hings was working for a Canadian
mining company called Comenko when he started tinkering with radios.
Two way radio communication did exist, but it wasn't portable
and it generally relied on Morse code, so Hings created
the first truly portable, wireless two way radio device that
let people actually speak to each other. Now, he originally
(14:38):
developed the device, which he called the pack Set, for
Kamenko to use in its minds, but with World War
II looming, Hings started to think about other applications, and
in nineteen thirty seven he patented the pack set, which
became known as the walkie Talkie, and he offered it
to the Canadian government for the war effort.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I mean, I do not know a lot about World
War two communication technology, but it seemed like this would
have been, you know, like a really big deal at
the time.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It totally was. Yeah, it was a game changer for them.
So one newspaper article in the nineteen forties compared giving
the walkie talkie to the military to giving a football
team a quarterback. In fact, a nonprofit called the Telecommunications
Hall of Fame estimated that Hing's inventions saved thousands of
lives during World War Two. Now, after the war, walkie
talkies became commercially available and were more often sold as toys.
(15:27):
In the pre cell phone era, they were an essential
communication device, especially for kids who wanted to keep chatting
past their bedtime.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Can you imagine if kids had to learn Morse code
to like chatting with their neighbors.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I remember trying. I would try for like five minutes
a time and just give up.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
It's so difficult. Well, you know who else uses walkie
talkies is referees, And as it turns out, that's not
the only thing Canadian inventors have done for refs. Instant
replay is also a Canadian invention. It was first conceived
by a Toronto based tea producer for the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporations program Hockey Nights in Canada. His name was George
(16:05):
Rhetz Laugh. This was in the nineteen fifties and he
thought it'd be really cool to quickly replay moments from
the games. So he started experimenting with this rapid film
processor that could actually develop film in as little as
thirty seconds, and he comes up with this amazing technique
that would allow him to replay moments from games just
seconds after they occurred. Retslaugh first used instant replay on
(16:26):
air in nineteen fifty five when he replayed a goal
during a game, and unfortunately he forgot to tell anyone
that he was playing on doing this, So instead of
celebrating this incredible, marvelous invention, Hockey Night sponsors were really upset.
The show's lead advertiser, which was the McLaren advertising agency.
They were angry that Rhet's laugh didn't give them advance
(16:48):
warning so that they could promote the new feature to audiences.
And on top of that, apparently there was a rule
that hockey games had to be shown in the exact
same way across networks, which meant that Retslas's innovation actually
broke the rules by using this replay feature because all
the other networks didn't have it. He never tried the
technique again, but it did set the stage for future
(17:08):
iterations of the technology.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
You know, it's hard to imagine watching sports now without
instant replay.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Do you remember. I mean, I remember when I was
in like eighth grade or ninth grade, and we went
to someone's house and they said they had a TV
where they could rewind for sports, And it was just
unbelievable that you could do that, because it was before
you'd have to like tape a game and then rewind
the game to be able to do that. But like
for the first time and now like this technology is
(17:34):
just everywhere.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
It's non stop. Yeah, it's pretty amazing, all right, another
Canadian invention. In fact, I think this is my last
one of the day, and it is the iconic Wonderbra mango.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
You know, I remember seeing the ads for that. There
was like such a big deal in the nineties, right.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
They were. That's all the nineties was about, I think,
if I remember correctly, they were everywhere. So in nineteen
ninety four, Wonderbra launched an ad campaign that made a
huge splash. It featured model Eva Herzegova and she was
wearing this wonderbra and very little else if you remember
the ad there, and they plastered her picture on billboards
across the US and across the UK, and the campaign
(18:12):
stirred up a ton of publicity and no small amount
of controversy. Of course, there were even rumors that the
billboards were so distracting that they cause car crashes, although
there doesn't seem to be any real evidence of this happening.
Either way, the ads worked and the Wonderbra became a
household name. But the story of the brand starts decades earlier, actually,
way back to nineteen thirty nine. That's when the Canadian
(18:35):
Lady corset company first started selling a new product called
the Wonderbra.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
That is so weird that it's like it's actually from
the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
That's insane, that's pretty old. Well, it was a pretty
different look back then, So the original Wonderbra wasn't designed
for looks. It was more about comfort. Now that changed
in nineteen sixty three when Canadian Lady released its first
push up bra. It was called the Wonderbra Dream Lift
Model thirteen hundred sounds very scientific and it was a
(19:03):
huge hit, and that design was the basis for the
plunging style that became iconic in the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Now, as someone who's never worn one of these things,
what made this particular bra so popular? Like, how was
it different from everything else?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
But that was on the market, you know, it was
a bunch of factors. So the folks that the Canadian
Lady actually did a lot of market research in the
nineteen sixties and it was clear to them that the
attitudes toward clothing were changing. They wanted to understand what
that meant for bras it turned out that while women
wanted freedom from the heavy, overly structured bras and girdles
of the past. They also wanted shaping and support, and
(19:39):
they wanted bras that were fashionable, not just functional. So
Wonderbra was designed to check all those boxes. But there's
a little coda to this story. The success of the
dream Lift made Canadian Lady an attractive acquisition target. In particular,
it caught the eye of the major American brand that
was looking to diversify its products. This was Sarah Lee.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
As a like the frozen cake companies.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Very same one cakes and bras, you know, the very
same company. So Sarah Le bought Canadian Lady in nineteen
sixty eight and changed its name to Canadell. Now today
the Wonderbra is owned by Haynes and they've introduced new
styles since then to keep up with the times, like
a bra made from recycled materials. Actually, that's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Okay, Well, so are you ready for our final facts
because it is a big one.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
All right, I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
In the nineteen sixties, Canadian filmmakers Graham Ferguson and Roman
Creuter decided film screens were simply too small for their
ambitions for the cinema, so they invented imax now, Ferguson
and Creuder were documentarians and interested in immersive cinema. They
wanted to make audiences feel like they were.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
In the film.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So in nineteen sixty seven, Frigson screened his documentary Polar
Life at EXPOS sixty seven in Montreal, and he used
multiple screens to create this panoramic experience, and the way
it was executed is kind of amazing. So audiences sat
on a platform that rotated as the film played, and
it created this illusion that they were being transported to
the Arctic. Kreuter also screened one of his films at
(21:13):
XPO sixty seven, and even though he didn't use Fergson's
turntable approach, he did use multiple screens to make his
film more immersive. So Ferguson and Kreuter at this point
they were both very interested in big screens, but they
couldn't just build a giant screen and be done with it.
They needed a film format that could be projected onto
a large screen without quality loss, which at the time
(21:34):
didn't exist. So Kreuter and Ferguson, who I should mention
were also brothers in law. They enlisted the help of
a couple of Ferguson's high school buddies Robert Kerr and Williamshaw.
Robert was the successful businessman, Williamshaw was an engineer, and
together they developed Imax technology, which included large format film
as well as an Imax film camera and projector. It
(21:55):
took a while to sell people on the idea, but
once they did it really took off. Their are now
hundreds of Imax theaters around the world, and while Imax
was originally used almost exclusively for documentaries, nowadays narrative filmmakers
are also getting in on the Imax game. So one
of the most high profile recent movies shot on Imax
film was Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and also Ryan Coogler Centers, which.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Is yeah, I would imagine there'd be two intense movies
to watch on the Imax. I actually love going to
the Imax. The problem for me is by the time
it gets to the actual movie, I've seen the most
exciting part, because I get all pumped up when they're
doing the like warm up part where they're like showing
you where the speakers are and they're doing the exciting music,
like the intro stuff. I'm so revved up that everything
(22:40):
after that app Yeah, exactly, it's it's a little much.
But my kids make fun of me for getting so
excited during the basically warm up act for the actual movie.
But you know, one thing I actually don't know is
what is it? What does IMAX stand for?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
It is an abbreviation for image maximum.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I would not have guessed that. It's also a little
less interesting than I was hoping. But Mango, just because
you reminded me of the pop culture phenomenon that was Barbenheimer,
I'm gonna give you this week's trophy.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
You know, I humbly accept and I'd like to thank
Canada for existing and for generally being wonderful and giving
us all this stuff. So that does it for today.
We'll be back next week with another brand new episode.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram at part Time Genius.
Today's episode was written by the wonderful Anna Green. Thank
you so much, Anna, and from Dylan Gabe, Mary, Will
(23:32):
and myself. Thank you for listening. Part Time Genius is
a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted
by Will Pearson and me Mongashchatikler and research by our
(23:55):
good pal Mary Philip, Sandy Today's episode was engineered produced
by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.
The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell
and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from
Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(24:20):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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