Canada Invents

Introduction The World of InventionsInventions surround you. From the time you wake up in the morning until the time you go to bed at night, you are using inventions. The bed you sleep in and the sheets you fling off when you get up are inventions. So are the cereal you eat for breakfast and the spoon you eat it with. Your toothbrush, your toothpaste, and the sink you spit into. Yes, even the toilet! In fact, you can hardly turn around without bumping into an invention.Televisions, swimming pools, telephones, cars, tree forts, and computers are all inventions. So are your clothes and books, the games you play, and even some of the food you eat. The process of making flour from wheat was an invention, and day-care centres, restaurants, and paid dog-walking services are too!Testing, Testing, One ... TwoSo how can you tell what is an invention and what isn't? Try the one-two test. An invention is something created by a person. It can be a thing, such as a skateboard or a squirt gun, but it doesn't have to be a product or something you can touch. An invention can also be a process. It can be a new way to do something, such as developing a way to freeze fish so it can be shipped and sold across the country. An invention solves a problem in a new way. An invention like a car solves the problem "How can I get there without walking?" A game solves the problem "How can I have some fun?" An invention like a restaurant solves the problem "How can I get something to eat without having to cook it myself?"Want to know if something is an invention? If in doubt, give it the old one-two test.Discovery and InnovationsA discovery is something noticed for the first time. Some very important discoveries have been made by Canadians. For example, Frederick Banting and Charles Best, an American colleague, discovered a hormone called insulin. Insulin was able to help people who were suffering from diabetes, a disease that, at the time, resulted in death. But discoveries aren't inventions, so you won't find any in this bookAn innovation, on the other hand, changes or improves an existing invention. In Canada, 90 per cent of patents are given out for innovations. In this book, you'll find examples of both innovations and inventions, but to keep it simple, we're calling them all inventions.Who Invents?Inventors are men and women, boys and girls, young and old. They live in apartments, cottages, houses, and tents. They have long hair or short hair. They are tall or short. But they are all curious, have good imaginations, and like to solve problems. You can find the inventors [in the pictures on] these two pages throughout the book.Some inventors are professionals. They usually have jobs in their area of expertise, so they spend lots of time thinking and puzzling and doing things in that one area. They may have lots of equipment and tools at their place of work, and they can use these to develop their ideas. Some inventors are scientists who know a lot about one field. Other professional inventors work for large corporations. In fact, they may have been hired just to work on new inventions.But some inventors don't have too much technical training. They usually aren't experts in one particular area, but they know a little about many different things. Because they are imaginative and creative, they are terrific at bringing together different technologies to make something completely new. These inventors experiment usually because they really want an answer to a problem-but sometimes it's simply for the fun of watching a great idea turn into a great invention. Often they are people whoHughes, Susan is the author of 'Canada Invents' with ISBN 9781894379236 and ISBN 1894379233.