Who's First?

I thought of it first!

In 1824 in Quebec City, an inventor named Noah Cushing filed the first patent in Canadian history for a “washing and fulling machine” to clean and strengthen cloth. (A patent is a kind of government licence given to someone who invents something to protect them from others stealing his or her idea.) The first patent after Canada became a country was granted to Toronto’s William Hamilton in 1869 for a machine to measure liquids.

One caribou, two caribou

The first use of satellites to track animals wearing radio collars happened in Canada in 1992, to see how caribou herds moved. Before that, all scientists could do was put a metal band on an animal and hope the band was recovered and returned so they could record how far the animal had travelled.

Fast firsts facts

• The world’s first computerized airline reservations system was created and first used in Canada.
• Canada issued the world’s first Christmas-themed stamp in 1898.
• The first social club in Canada was the Ordre de Bon Temps (Order of Good Cheer), founded in 1606 by Samuel de Champlain in Port Royal, Nova Scotia, as a way to have something fun to do in the winter.
• The first Canadian-created font was designed by Carl Dair and called, appropriately, Cartier.
• The first sports club in Canada was the Montreal Curling Club, started in 1807.
• In 1870, the first salmon cannery in British Columbia started business at Annieville in Delta, just south of Vancouver.