More than 200 of South Africa’s greatest inventions go on show in Cape Town this weekend in an exhibition designed to highlight innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.
The inventions and innovations range from the Kreepy Krauly pool cleaner to the noisy vuvuzela and the famous dolos concrete structures which protect harbours and seawalls worldwide.
Though organisers at the exhibition venue, the MTN ScienCentre, didn’t bring in a real dolos — which would have weighed several tons — they put a smaller-scale model and a miniature wave pool showing how it works on display.
”Few people realise just what an impact South African inventions have had, not just locally but overseas as well,” said Mike Bruton of the MTN ScienCentre.
”These cover a wide range of applications in many different fields –from consumer and industrial to medical and entertainment.”
Other South African inventions on show are the tellurometer, the first commercial microwave distance-measuring device, used mainly for land surveying, the Scheffel Bogie, an undercarriage for trains, and the Freeplay wind-up radio.
Among the more unusual local innovations on show are the Mandela Shirt, car tyre sandals, and a display on Nguni and Bonsmara cattle.
Visitors will be able to ride the bicycle-powered water pump, and play the Afri-Can oilcan guitar.
The exhibition will run in Cape Town until December 31 before travelling to other science centres and science fairs across the country.
This is the MTN ScienCentre’s list of 40 of the best South African inventions, in terms of innovation, uniqueness and impact. They are given in alphabetical order.
1. Action Potential Stimulation Device (APSD) for arthritis relief
2. Aloe vera products
3. Appletiser and Grapetiser
4. Barlow-Wadley broadband radio
5. Bell articulated trucks
6. Buchu appetite depressant
7. CAT scan, which uses x rays, radiation detectors and computers to produce images of planes through the body
8. Colindictor, the first device to record a telephone message
9. Computicket online booking system
10. Cybertracker, a handheld computer originally developed to help Khoisan trackers store data
11. Dart and Flamingo sports cars
12. Disa push-button telephone
13. Exhaust system, Vibol fuel-saving
14. Fire, first use of: recorded at Swartkrans cave from some 1.5 million years ago
15. Fourcade’s spectroscope for three-dimensional mapping
16. Freeplay wind-up radios, torches and cell phone chargers
17. Hippo drum water roller and the similar water-carrying Q-drum
18. Jetmaster fireplaces
19. Kreepy Krauly, Barracuda and Poolcop pool-cleaning systems
20. Murray ‘Tour de Force’ competition bicycle cranks
21. Nguni and Bonsmara cattle
22. ‘Playpump’ water pump, powered by children on a roundabout
23. Plethysmograph for measuring rate of blood flow
24. Policansky fishing reels
25. Pratley putty
26. Radar, pioneering innovations
27. Radio, Wadley Loop Receiver
28. Rooibos tea and other products
29. Rooivalk helicopter and pilot’s helmet
30. Scheffel bogie
31. SharkPod shark-repellant device
32. Shuttle low wattage transformers
33. Smartlock safety syringe
34. Smocking pleater for the garment industry
35. Speedgun for measuring the speed of a cricket ball
36. SUNSAT telecommunications satellite
37. Tellurometer (infrared)
38. Tellurometer (microwave)
39. Turboheat solar water heating spiral
40. Van der Bijl’s pioneering vacuum tube for transcontinental radio broadcasts. ‒ Sapa