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Celebrating homegrown inventors and inventionsTalk inventions, and the popular image of Victor Frankenstein creating his human monster in the gloomy basement of a dark castle jumps to mind. Or “Q” handing James Bond his latest life-saving or enemy-destroying device. Closer to reality were the detailed designs of Leonardo da Vinci for various contraptions that were hundreds of years ahead of their time.
Today we take for granted some of the greatest inventions such as the telephone, cellphone, internal combustion engine, the light bulb or the computer.
The people behind these inventions and scientific achievements certainly know how to leave a lasting impression. For example, in 1879, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi received United States design patent number 11 023, titled “Design for a Statue”. It was for that world-famous landmark, the Statue of Liberty.
Inventors and scientific pioneers are big business these days, with inventions ranging from the hilarious to the truly incredible.
And South Africa is right there on the pioneering front line, having produced world leaders whose inventions and scientific breakthroughs are often years ahead of the rest of the world.
Just think heart transplant, Sasol oil-from-coal technology, or the indispensable Kreepy Krauly, without which summer in South African suburbia – now indeed worldwide – would have been sheer slave-labouring hell.
Which South African pool owner does not know the urban legend of the grandfather who, in his garage, put together from an assortment of throwaway bits and pieces an air-sucking, water-gurgling contraption, to be called the Kreepy Krauly, that would automatically clean his pool and save him the hassle?
This clever swimming pool vacuum cleaner was the brainchild of Ferdinand Chauvier, a hydraulics engineer who came to South Africa from the Belgian Congo in 1951, and his son Daniel.
Daniel, a pool equipment salesman at the time, spotted a huge potential market for a machine powered by the ordinary operation of a swimming pool’s filter which would remove the hassle of regular pool-cleaning. He turned to his engineer father for help.
In 1974, Chauvier’s idea became a reality, the first machines being made from wood and rubber tubing, which were melted together on the kitchen stove!
A household name in South Africa, its popularity soon spread to markets in the US, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, all over Africa, Australia and the Indian Ocean islands where millions of Kreepy’s now co-habit with their lazy masters in sparkling clean pools.
But the pioneering spirit of South African invention also found its foothold in the hallowed chambers of high science, leading to South African physicist Allan Cormack and his partner, Godfrey Hounsfield, winning the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their invention of what is today commonly known as the CAT scanner.
The son of Scottish immigrant parents, Cormack, who died in 1998, attended Rondebosch Boys’ High School in Cape Town and the University of Cape Town.
Later, while working in the Physics Department at UCT, he started developing an interest in the problem of X-ray imaging of soft tissues or layers of tissue of differing densities. This eventually culminated in the work he and Hounsfield did on computed axial tomography scanning while working at Tufts University in the US.
Another medical breakthrough, thanks to an innovative South African mind and a fearless foray into the unknown, was Professor Chris Barnard’s first human heart transplant carried out in Cape Town on 3 December 1967.
The rest, as they say, is history and today heart and other organ transplants are fairly common operations.
Cormack was not the only South African scientist to be awarded a Nobel prize. In 2002 South African born and educated molecular biologist Sydney Brenner and two of his colleagues, Sir John Sulston of the UK and Robert Horvitz of the US, shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their research into the genetic development of organs.
Two more South Africans, Max Theiler and Aaron Klug, also received a Nobel Prize each for their research on yellow fever and macromolecules respectively.
Another South African medical scientist, Prof. Justus Apffelstaedt, an associate professor at the University of Stellenbosch who heads the Breast Clinic at Tygerberg Hospital, is an innovator in the realm of breast health management and has won an Innovation and Sustainability award in the Social Category for his MammaSphere device.
Still in the field of medicine, another tale of invention took a rather bizarre turn after a fairy tale beginning. It concerns the rags-to-riches story of a young Telkom switchboard technician, Gervan Lubbe, who always took a keen interest in medical science, but never believed he was clever enough to become a doctor. So he taught himself by reading extensively about human anatomy and physiology.
Upon reading an article about pain relief in a medical journal, Lubbe developed what became known as the Action Potential Stimulation,
or APS, device. This device was hailed as a ‘miracle’ breakthrough in relieving arthritic pain.
Lubbe astounded medical experts and scientists with his invention; was feted and praised; appeared on the television show Carte Blanche; was named “Mover of the Year” by Cosmopolitan magazine in 1999; found himself in the company of people such as Bill Gates and Anton Rupert when he was named by Sarie magazine in 2000 as one of its “Top 20 Millennium Men”; sold his invention all over the world and made himself a vast fortune. And lost it all.
Today his APS therapy machine is made and sold by a Dutch company with distributors all over the world.
For Lubbe, who began calling himself “Doctor” and “Professor”, claiming in his CV to have received an honorary doctorate from the Free State Technikon and a professorship from the University of Canterbury, life took a rather notorious turn.
Unfulfilled invention promises, being arrested, missing investor funds, a plagiarism suit, being taken to court by his own company directors and fraud charges are some of the things Lubbe has had to contend with more recently.
If things became slightly unstuck for Lubbe, perhaps he needed another great South African invention to keep it all together: Pratley’s famous adhesives.
The original Pratley Putty was the first glue of its kind in the world and, its manufacturers claim, the only South African product to have gone to the moon! The putty was used by NASA in 1969 to ensure that the Apollo XI first-man-on-the-moon mission’s Eagle landing craft remained intact upon touching down on lunar soil.
George Montague Pratley, or “Monty”, was born in Johannesburg in 1917 and was educated at King Edward School and Wits University.
After World War 2, he started a small company in a garage in Hillbrow, turning out a number of innovative products, mostly for the mining industry.
But the invention that would make Pratley a household name around the world came in the 1960s when Monty invented Pratley Plastic Putty, as it was then known, during his search for glue that could hold together components of an electrical box.
Monty died in 1983 and his son, Kim, also a Wits University engineering graduate, stepped into his father’s very large shoes as managing director. Also something of an inventor, Kim launched another Pratley world-first, Pratley Wondafix.
To prove the superior adhesive qualities of this new invention, Kim stood underneath a bulldozer that had been lifted using Wondafix – confident it would not come unstuck and crush him to death.
Yet another huge South African success story in the field of invention is the oil-from-coal technology of oil and chemicals company, Sasol.
Although a similar process used to turn coal or natural gas into liquid fuels was first proposed by two German chemists, Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, in the 1920s – and was used by Hitler to help fuel his war – it was later perfected in South Africa and made commercially viable.
South Africa being the sports-mad country that it is, any tale of inventions would be incomplete without at least one significant invention used on the playing fields.
Enter the Speedball, generally referred to as the speed gun, invented by Somerset West inventor, Henri Johnson. It is a device that is a world leader in measuring the speed and angles of speeding objects such as cricket and tennis balls.
Johnson’s device was first introduced at the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England and has been used in PGA and Davis Cup events, among others.
Thanks to Johnson, we know that Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar bowled a ball at a speed of 161.3km/hour against England in the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa.
For those familiar with the Afrikaans language, the word dolosse may imply something like “mad oxen”.
Dolosse, however, are those things that look like huge concrete stars gone wrong that are used to protect harbour walls and coastal installations. They were designed by South African Eric Merrifield and first used in East London harbour.
Now you will find them by the thousands with their interlocking tentacles, keeping the sea at bay, in almost every modern harbour in the world.
The list of South African inventors and inventions is almost endless. Who would have guessed that the world’s first automatic vending machine for that very American delicacy, popcorn, was invented by two South Africans, Mark Beagle and Peter Ramsay from KwaZulu-Natal?
While they may have invented the machine, popping corn was first discovered by Native Americans.
From popping corn to automated porridge making: Harassed moms who battle the clock every morning to get the kids off to school in time can now breathe a sigh of relief, thanks to Themedi Zwodangani of Orlando East, who invented a porridge-making machine that can be programmed days ahead to do the necessary.
Still within the culinary realm, some time ago South African Ken Hall made it all the way into the pages of TIME magazine with his plastic mini oven that he invented to reduce the risk of fires in squatter settlements.
Spooked by the frequent occurrence of exploding paraffin stoves, Hall designed his Cobb oven that uses six charcoal brickets, or briquettes, which provide heat for more than two hours.
Incidentally, Henry Ford, with the help of Thomas Edison, invented the charcoal briquette in 1920 from wood scraps and sawdust in his car factory. The word “brickets”, though, is a South African invention.
Ever wondered what happened to all those ugly cellphone masts that sprang up all over our cities and towns in the 1990s as the cellphone boom took off? Look closely... they have all turned into beautiful palm trees.
Ivo Lazic, who runs a telecoms service company, Brolaz Projects, in Johannesburg, was asked by Vodacom to find a solution for this unsightly environmental problem. He came up with the Palm Pole Tower, made from non-toxic, environmentally friendly plastic materials.
These days the Lazic palms can be seen in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, Brazil and the Middle East.
When it comes to cellphone inventions, all is not always bliss and palm trees, though.
A former Vodacom employee, Nkosana Kenneth Makate, says Vodacom failed to compensate him for the enormously successful Please-Call-Me service he invented, so last year he launched a bid to sue the company for millions.
Some 20 million Please-Call-Me messages a day are transmitted by Vodacom, with the service also being used as a vast cash-generating advertising platform.
The business of invention is big money in South Africa, and there are a number of organisations that could have helped people such as Makate steer clear of the many potential pitfalls.
A number of law firms specialise in intellectual property, copyright and patents. Often their lawyers have both a science and a law degree to help them understand and deal with complex engineering and scientific issues.
Inventors can also turn to the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law for guidance.
Then there are a number of organisations facilitating inventions and assisting inventors, such as the National Advisory Council on Innovation and its Innovation Gateway, which advises the government and assists innovators.
Other organisations include the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR); the Innovation Hub, Africa’s first internationally accredited Science Park; and the South African Bureau of Standards, with its Design Institute.
With this kind of support, no wonder South African inventions are flooding onto world markets.
However, talking of flooding, a KwaZulu-Natal engineering researcher, Geoff Pegram, has come up with groundbreaking technology that will help predict floods six hours in advance, using radar technology and computer-based mathematical techniques.
And if the floods do not get you, you may want to consider relaxing with another truly great South African invention – the oilcan guitar.
Guitars made out of oilcans have been around in South Africa since the early 1900s and have been seen on stage in South Africa with David Kramer and his Karoo bluesmen.
Since 2002 a local company, Afri-Can Guitars, has turned the concept into a quality musical instrument, even producing an electric version.
These distinctive, colourful Valvoline and “Can-of-the-Best” guitars are being marketed here and abroad.
And when it comes to marketing, Justick is a display board that can be used to present objects without the use of adhesives.
It was designed six years ago by entrepreneurs Herman Allison and Kevin Fricker, applying basic physics principles whereby an electrical current behind the board creates electrostatic forces that attract particular objects, thus providing an effective adhesion surface. The two inventors have won several global and local innovation awards.
In this age of environmental awareness and concern, ballast water stowaways are a huge problem. They are aquatic organisms that are sucked up into the ballast water of passing ships – three to five billion tons of water per year – and are discharged thousands of kilometres away in a different environment where they can become an invasive species causing all manner of problems.
Ian Vroom, an engineer with a background in solving potable water production problems for which he has won many accolades and prizes, came up with a solution by inventing technology that minimises the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens in ships’ ballast water.
He teamed up with Bernard Jacobs, and the technology is now being marketed in the global shipping industry by a Norwegian partner.
Still on the environmental front, after 10 years of research, Prof. Vivian Alberts of the University of Johannesburg has developed revolutionary new solar power technology that consists of a thin layer approximately five microns thick (a human hair is 20 microns thick) of a unique metal alloy that converts light into energy at a fraction of the cost.
The panels, of which a standard house would need 30m2, transfer power to new storage devices, have a useful life of 20 years and can generate electricity even during winter, not requiring direct sunlight to function.
For cyclists – whose Sunday morning rides are marred by sloppy gear changes and slipping chains – the good news comes in the form of the Murray Vogler Drive.
Graeme Murray and Werner Vogler from Velddrif developed this bicycle transmission technology that ensures a perfectly straight chain run at all times, with a ratio selection that is infinite over the entire range of the drive.
For those who get out of bed late with their hair in a mess and no time to braid it, Joseph Kumalo has invented a machine that will take care of the braiding for you.
And then there is Lebogang Mnguni, the final-year fashion student who invented a range of scientifically researched and developed clothing that will ease the suffering of individuals who have disabilities and diseases such as strokes, rheumatism, arthritis and influenza. It could even replace drugs in some instances.
The CyberTracker is a hand-held computer that provides a high-technology method of tracking animals in the field, and was invented by Louis Liebenberg and Lindsay Stevenson.
The graphic interface makes it possible even for illiterate people to enter very detailed information used by scientists for research purposes.
And a Cape Town company, Syzygy, invented a world-first with its Freeplay wind-up radio that does not need electricity or batteries, making it ideal for poor people, rural people and those living in informal settlements who have no access to power.
Other award-winning South African inventions include a portable morgue; gearbox technology that does away with the need for traction fluid; the Afrox company’s self-contained self-rescuers called AfroxPac’s, which are carried by underground miners for use in emergency situations; an inflatable chamber that can protect miners from hazardous gases and smoke; an adjustable canoe seat designed to do away with “deadleg” syndrome, and many more.
Finally, if you think inventors and their inventions are a fairly recent, modern invention themselves, you are dead wrong. Thousands of years ago, right here in southern Africa, the San people invented a cure for hangovers and a slimming ingredient from a local plant, the hoodia.
Now, the Northern Cape San community and the CSIR have signed an agreement whereby the San community will receive between R8 million and R12 million over the next four years for the commercial use of the plant and its slimming ingredient.
There you have it! On with the thinking caps because not only can your invention make you rich beyond your wildest dreams, but inventions are also very much the things that make the world go round.
Stef Terblanche
