-
Tanks
In 1914 tanks were made to help push through machine guns as well as assault rifles that would prove to be a very difficult hurdle without them. They were powered by diesel or gas. Tanks also caused the war to be longer because trenches had to be dug. -
Telephone
The telephone line was built in 1914. However AT&T waited until the 1915 Panama-Pacific exposition in San Francisco to instigate the call. This call was sent from Alexander Graham Bell in New York and it was sent to his assistant Thomas Watson who was in San Francisco. -
BMW
In March of 1916 the Flugmaschinenfabrik Gustav Otto Company merged with Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke AG to form Bayerische Motoren Werke AG. The logo has its distinctive white and blue colours which it got from the Bavarian national flag. BMW is now a car brand that you see everyday in Canada. -
Communication System Upgrade
Canada received upgrades to their wireless communication system with continuous wave sets which offered greater range while employing smaller antennas. This helped out Canada during the Battle of Hill 70 in August 1917. -
Medicine
In 1920, Herbert McLean Evans discovered Vitamin E, a nutrient that acts as an antioxidant in the body. That same year, Elmer V. McCollum discovered Vitamin D, and its ability to prevent rickets (a skeletal disorder). “Vaccines had already been developed for diphtheria and scarlet fever before the 1920s, leaving measles as the most common childhood disease” (Bennett 3). -
Hospitals
Alberta had 11 union hospitals, including a shared one in Lloydminster, active by 1922. These facilities were matched by Red Cross outpost hospitals in the rural areas of other provinces. “Clearly, by the 1920s Canadians expected to be able to obtain modern medical, surgical and hospital services when they needed them” (Unknown 1). -
Traffic Lights
In 1923 by Garrett Morgan, invented the first three way traffic signal. He was a black inventor from Ohio as well as the first Black citizen in Cleveland to own a car. In today’s time we use traffic lights in our everyday lives. “Morgan was inspired to improve traffic signals after he witnessed an accident at an intersection” (Unknown 2). -
Band-Aid
Earle Dickson, a Johnson and Johnson employee, created the first adhesive bandage for small wounds in 1920. “Now, she could easily dress a wound herself” (Tennant 6). However Johnson and Johnson started mass producing these Band-Aids in many different shapes and sizes in 1924. -
Artificial Fibres
An overlooked however important technology innovation was the manufacture of artificial fibres. The production of viscose rayon in Canada was started by the British firm Courtaulds in Cornwall, Ontario, in 1925. The process used something called cellulose that came from wood pulp.