List of Alberta Firsts

The pioneering spirit of Albertans in science and technology occurred as people built or purchased aircrafts, steam cars, telegraphs, telephones, computers, and televisions. Here are examples of times when new inventions and technologies came to Alberta.

First Manned and Powered Flight in Alberta

After the successful aerial experiments of the Wright Brothers in the United States in December 1903, Reginald Hunt, an Edmonton carpenter, was inspired to take to the sky. He collected parts for and built a flying machine that allowed him to fly for thirty-five minutes on Labour Day in 1909. Hunt had successfully completed the first powered flight in Alberta. He would have been the first in Canada, if not for Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association, which had completed a successful flight in Nova Scotia in February 1909, mere months before Hunt flew his aircraft.

First Use of Telegraph

In 1876 or 1877 (sources vary on this point), prior to the arrival of the railway, the telegraph line to the province was built along the Canadian Pacific Railway from Winnipeg, Manitoba, via Selkirk. A telegraph station opened at Hay Lakes, 48.2 kilometres southeast of Edmonton. The line ended at a terminus 30 kilometres south of Edmonton, though three years later, telegraph service was extended to the village with a population of 200—if St. Alberta and Fort Saskatchewan were included.

First Use of Telephone

Telegrapher Alex Taylor asked Bell Telephone Company if they would establish a service in Edmonton, but they refused. Taylor then purchased two telephones from England and gave St. Albert storekeeper H. W. McKenney one while he kept the other for himself in Edmonton. The first telephone call in Alberta occurred between these two men on January 3, 1885.