Canadians have been a clever lot over time when it comes to useful inventions. We have been particularly adept at inventing far from glamorous but really useful things. Take the contribution of Peter Lymburner Robertson for instance. After badly cutting his hand while using a slot-headed screwdriver, Robertson, from what is now Milton, Ontario, invented the square-headed screwdriver and square-socket drive Robertson screw in 1908. He received the Canadian patent for his invention in 1909. A person could drive a screw more quickly with this new design and the screw was self-centering so only one hand was needed. On top of that, the driver fit more tightly in the screw’s head, thereby reducing the chance of the screwdriver slipping out.
A few years later, when he overheard a dispute between a local hotelier and deliveryman over broken eggs, British Columbia newspaper publisher Joseph Leopold Coyle helpfully invented the egg carton with individual cushioned slots in 1911. The hotelier had grown frustrated because eggs delivered from a local farm were often broken. Putting all one’s eggs in a basket was standard practice in 1911. Coyle, who established several newspapers in the Bulkley Valley, including the Omineca Herald, the Bulkley Pioneer, and the Interior News, which became the mainstay paper of Smithers and the Bulkley Valley, wondered how best to safely move eggs from Point A to Point B? By 1919, he had sold his newspaper holdings and moved to Vancouver to focus on his Coyle Egg-Safety Carton business. Coyle’s list of inventions would ultimately also include a pocket cigar cutter and a vehicle anti-theft device.
For my money, Muskol, while it may not have quite the everyday utility of a Roberson screwdriver or Coyle egg carton, is nevertheless the most indispensable Canadian invention from June through August in most of the country. Muskol, invented in 1951 by Charles Henry Coll, an avid Canadian outdoorsman from Stellarton, Nova Scotia, repels mosquitoes, black flies, deer flies, stable flies, horse flies (known as bulldogs in much of Western Canada, including Manitoba), ticks and chiggers.
In the early 1950s, Coll began carrying out experiments in his basement workshop on MacLean Street in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, which led to the production of Muskol. He had by that point a unique combination of job experiences, including working in the laboratory for Leaver Brothers Limited in Boston, as well as Tibbetts Paints in Trenton, Nova Scotia, and also as a manager for Thompson and Sutherland Limited hardware, hot air furnaces and plumbing in New Glasgow. At the same time in his basement, Coll began creating fishing lures. On Oct. 1, 1959, the Government of Nova Scotia registered Coll to manufacture and sell a product called “Muskol Lures.” Muskol combined in its name “musk,” the scent produced by deer – and “call” meaning entice and “Coll” the family surname.
Coll’s small, family-owned business, relied on word-of-mouth advertising among those who used Muskol in the early years.
In 1977, Coll was inducted into the Honorary Order of the Kentucky Colonels, an organization that recognizes service and contribution to the global community and supports many kinds of charitable activities. The moniker “Colonel” stuck to Charles Coll and is used on the packaging of Muskol to this day.
The magic ingredient in Muskol is DEET, the common name for N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide, which North Carolina’s Division of Public Health, Department of Health and Human Services’ Communicable Disease Branch, part of the department’s epidemiology section, says is the most effective mosquito repellent available.
Muskol has a DEET concentration of 23.5 per cent. How much DEET is the right amount is one of those questions campers and other outdoors folks like to debate. Repellency of insects is accomplished via evaporation of DEET from the skin. The higher the level of DEET, the longer the evaporation process. DEET was developed in 1944 by Samuel Gertler of the United States Department of Agriculture for use by the United States Army, following its experience of jungle warfare during the Second World War. It was originally tested as a pesticide on farm fields, and entered military use in 1946 and civilian use in the 1950s. Concentrations above 30 per cent experience diminishing returns as they increase, but do increase the length of time of effectiveness per application. Muskol’s DEET concentration 23.5 per cent is effective for about five to eight hours per application.
The Coll family retained the rights to Muskol until 1982 when they were sold to Schering-Plough Canada Ltd. (which was later acquired in 2015 by Bayer Inc.), shortly after the death of Charles Coll.
You can also follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jwbarker22
soundingsjohnbarker 