INVENTORS from Canada

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Canadian Inventors of all time. This list of famous Canadian Inventors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. James Naismith (1861 - 1939)

With an HPI of 67.04, James Naismith is the most famous Canadian Inventor.  His biography has been translated into 55 different languages on wikipedia.

James Naismith (NAY-smith; November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United States, he wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program. Naismith lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Tournament (1939). Naismith studied and taught physical education at McGill University in Montreal until 1890 before moving to Springfield, Massachusetts, United States later that year, where in 1891 he designed the game of basketball while he was teaching at the International YMCA Training School. Seven years after inventing basketball, Naismith received his medical degree in Denver in 1898. He then arrived at the University of Kansas, later becoming the Kansas Jayhawks' athletic director and coach. While a coach at Kansas, Naismith coached Phog Allen, who later became the coach at Kansas for 39 seasons, beginning a lengthy and prestigious coaching tree. Allen then went on to coach legends including Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith, among others, who themselves coached many notable players and future coaches.

2. Reginald Fessenden (1866 - 1932)

With an HPI of 56.43, Reginald Fessenden is the 2nd most famous Canadian Inventor.  His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (October 6, 1866 – July 22, 1932) was a Canadian-born inventor who received hundreds of patents in various fields, most notably ones related to radio and sonar. Fessenden is best known for his pioneering work developing radio technology, including the foundations of amplitude modulation (AM) radio. His achievements included the first transmission of speech by radio (1900), and the first two-way radiotelegraphic communication across the Atlantic Ocean (1906). In 1932 he reported that, in late 1906, he also made the first radio broadcast of entertainment and music, although a lack of verifiable details has led to some doubts about this claim. He did a majority of his work in the United States and, in addition to his Canadian citizenship, claimed U.S. citizenship through his American-born father.

3. Gerald Bull (1928 - 1990)

With an HPI of 54.52, Gerald Bull is the 3rd most famous Canadian Inventor.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Gerald Vincent Bull (March 9, 1928 – March 22, 1990) was a Canadian engineer who developed long-range artillery. He moved from project to project in his quest to economically launch a satellite using a huge artillery piece, to which end he designed the Project Babylon "supergun" for Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq. Bull was assassinated outside his apartment in Brussels, Belgium, in March 1990. His assassination is believed to be the work of the Mossad over his work for the Iraqi government. No person has ever been charged with the murder of Bull.

4. Joseph-Armand Bombardier (1907 - 1964)

With an HPI of 51.52, Joseph-Armand Bombardier is the 4th most famous Canadian Inventor.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Joseph-Armand Bombardier (French pronunciation: [ʒɔzɛf aʁmɑ̃ bɔ̃baʁdje]; April 16, 1907 – February 18, 1964) was a Canadian inventor and businessman who was the founder of Bombardier. His most famous invention was a snowmobile.

5. Yvonne Brill (1924 - 2013)

With an HPI of 43.73, Yvonne Brill is the 5th most famous Canadian Inventor.  Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Yvonne Madelaine Brill (née Claeys; December 30, 1924 – March 27, 2013) was a Canadian American rocket and jet propulsion engineer. She is responsible for inventing the Electrothermal Hydrazine Thruster (EHT/Resistojet), a fuel-efficient rocket thruster that keeps today’s satellites in orbit, and holds a patent for its invention. During her career she was involved in a broad range of national space programs in the United States, including NASA and the International Maritime Satellite Organization.