George Klein (inventor)

George Johann Klein, was a Canadian inventor who is often called the most productive inventor in Canada in the 20th century. Although he struggled as a high school student, he eventually graduated from the University of Toronto in Mechanical Engineering. His inventions include key contributions to the first electric wheelchairs for quadriplegics, the first microsurgical staple gun, the ZEEP nuclear reactor which was the precursor to the CANDU reactor, the international system for classifying ground-cover snow, aircraft skis, the Weasel all-terrain vehicle, the STEM antenna for the space program, and the Canadarm.

15 August 1904

Born on the same birth day (15 August): Adhiban Baskaran • Bill Pinkney • Bobby Caldwell • Charles Comiskey • Francesco Zuccarelli • Henry Howard, 15th Earl of Arundel • Ivan Meštrović • Jan Campert • Keir Hardie • Rob Thomas (writer) • Rondell Sheridan • Simon Baron-Cohen • Valentin Varlamov • Yoshirō Muraki

Born in the same month (August 1904): Alar Kotli • Charles "Buddy" Rogers • Count Basie • Deng Xiaoping • Helen Kane • Idel Jakobson • Jean Dessès • Joe Tate (footballer) • Kenneth V. Thimann • Leho Laurine • Leopold Nowak • Mary Burchell • Mary Cain (editor) • Maurice Wilks • Max Factor Jr. • Norah Lofts • Ralph Bunche • Secondo Campini • Werner Forssmann • William Primrose