Some SA Inventions
This is a Copy and Paste.. so what?Please pass by if you are negative.
There are many South Africans who drove innovation forward and provided the world with new products or services.
Some of the well-known South African IT innovators include Mark Shuttleworth (Thawte and Canonical), and Elon Musk (Paypal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX).
Musk’s SpaceX, for example, was the first privately developed and owned spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station.
Doctor Chris Barnard’s first heart transplant in 1967 and Sasol’s oil-from-coal refinery are well known, but here are some of the lesser known inventions which came from South Africans.
Mayhew-Ridgers and van Jaarsveld developed an antenna based on phased-array principles, providing omnidirectional coverage but also blocking the RF transmissions along a single direction (that would correspond with the bearing of the SKA core site).
In November 1996, Vodacom was the first network in the world to introduce prepaid airtime on an Intelligent Network platform, which made it possible to debit customers’ accounts while they were speaking.
In 1998 Vodacom won a Global Mobile Award for the “Best GSM Service” for its VodaGo prepay system.
South African inventor Michael Suttner developed “The Lightie” solar bottle light, offering a low cost, solar powered light.
“The Lightie” is built into a durable, ruggedized acrylic housing and uses Lithium battery technology. It offers 40 hours of light when charged from 8 hours of sunlight.
South African engineer Henri Johnson is credited with the invention of the speed gun and other technologies used to measure the speed and direction of sports balls.
The South African-made speed gun was formally released at The Oval during the 1999 World Cup.
The world famous Pratley Putty was invented by George Pratley, a South African engineer who developed innovative products for the mining sector.
Pratley invented his famous putty in the sixties while looking for glue that would hold components in an electrical box.
Dolosse
Anybody who has visited harbours around the world would have seen large concrete blocks with a complex geometric shape, used to protect hardbour walls.
These large concrete blocks, known as dolosse (plural) or a dolos (singular), were invented by South African Eric Mowbray Merrifield in 1963, and are used around the world to protect harbour walls from the erosive force of ocean waves.
Comments (49)
hi my milk chocalate......
honey....don't you think it is a bit wolfish baby....
j/k.....
We rock!
'proud to be a South African'...not everything is negative about this country...
So sooo true, totally...
SA, great country, enormous potential, amazing sites, the weather is fantastic and people are friendly and fun - (that’s what I remember).. ah, the sun !!!.. now, don’t forget to pay the free advertising. …
Yesss, I remember reading about South Africa. I read somewhere that it is in the South of Africa. Hmmm.. interesting, huh?
BUT, what most impressed me, was that LUKEON SKYWALKER of Stare Wars is actually from SA too. Whew! Who Knew?
just kidding with you..
Hey, interesting and informative blog. I enjoyed it.
Have a fun day!
i just know it.....
why honey why????????
The Kreepy Krauly is an automated swimming pool cleaner keeps your pool clean with minimal work. South Africa’s Ferdinand Chauvier is credited with the invention of the Kreepy Krauly swimming pool vacuum cleaner in 1974.
I think people rightfully object when something is posted and the source (if known) is not given the credit. Sometimes we find interesting things online and because someone did not include the source, we don't know who to attribute the work to. In this case, we should simply state that the source is unknown or something to that effect and I that is all that should reasonably be expected. And you did that, so it's all good.