{"id":821505,"date":"2025-04-22T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=821505"},"modified":"2025-04-22T10:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T08:30:08","slug":"six-great-south-african-inventions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/821505\/six-great-south-african-inventions\/","title":{"rendered":"Six great South African inventions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa has been at the forefront of many industries, including globally renowned inventions used worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For over 100 years, South Africa has punched above its weight in the global era regarding technology, medicine, and financial services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kimberley was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world, behind Philadelphia, USA, to install electric streetlights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 2 September 1882, Kimberley switched on sixteen electric streetlights, with four based outside the City Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa also has many industrial success stories, including Sasol, which pioneered the world\u2019s first commercial coal-based synthetic fuels manufacturing facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasol was established on 26 September 1950, and its original coal-to-liquids (CTL) complex at Sasolburg started producing synthetic fuels and chemicals in 1955.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last 75 years, Sasol has developed into a globally renowned chemicals and energy company that produces products in 22 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides its coal-to-liquids innovations, it is a world leader in gas-to-liquids and coal-to-liquids technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa has also achieved many firsts in the medical field and its medical professionals are considered world-class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African-American physician and virologist Max Theiler, who developed the vaccine for yellow fever in 1937, was the first African-born Nobel-laureate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first successful human-to-human heart transplant at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The operation, which lasted approximately five hours, made headlines around the world and positioned South Africa as one of the world\u2019s leaders in medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1070s, South Africa was part of an exclusive group of countries which had developed nuclear weapons, which included the United States, Russia, China, and Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa also became the first country to voluntarily dismantle all of its nuclear weapons and cancel its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koeberg in the Western Cape is the only nuclear power station in Africa, and has the largest turbine generators in the southern hemisphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power station, which was completed in 1985, uses a pressurised water reactor (PWR) design and ranks among the safest of its kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a look at five of the greatest inventions which came out of South Africa and which received global acclaim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prepaid mobile services using an intelligent network platform<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In 1996, Vodacom became the first network to introduce prepaid mobile services using an intelligent network platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The operator also invented quiet cellular antenna technology, which reduces noisy emissions from cellular base stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Gordon Mayhew-Ridgers and Paul van Jaarsveld developed an antenna based on phased-array principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It provides omnidirectional coverage but also blocking the RF transmissions along a single direction. The antenna has been tested in the Karoo and performs extremely well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CT scan, co-invented by Allan Cormack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Johannesburg-born Allan MacLeod Cormack developed the theoretical underpinnings of Computed Axial Tomography scans, commonly known as CT or CAT scans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CT scans can show detailed images of any body part, which can be used to diagnose numerous health conditions and injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While his primary work was in the field of particle physics, his side interest in X-ray technology led him to devise the theoretical underpinnings of CAT scans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cormack was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine alongside Hounsfield for their work on X-ray computed tomography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Radar-based speed gun<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Somerset West local Henri Johnson introduced the world\u2019s first radar-based speed gun in 1992. He initially built projects for the SA Navy using sonar technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He later developed radar technology to measure the speed and trajectory of projectiles in flight, which militaries would adopt in dozens of countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson realised that the invention had an application in sports and founded an engineering company called Electronic Development House (EDH) in 1989 to commercialise the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cSpeed Gun\u201d was launched in 1992 and could accurately measure the speed and angles of fast-moving objects like cricket or tennis balls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He developed the SpeedBall specifically for measuring cricket ball speeds in flight. It was officially launched at the 1999 Cricket World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These technologies are widely used, and Johnson\u2019s company is also an accredited supplier to Armscor and defence procurement agencies in several countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dolosse to protect harbours<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anybody who has visited harbours around the world would have seen large concrete blocks with a complex geometric shape, used to protect hardbour walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These large concrete blocks, known as dolosse (plural) or a dolos (singular), were invented by South African Eric Mowbray Merrifield in 1963.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These concrete blocks are used around the world to protect harbour walls from the erosive force of ocean waves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kreepy Krauly to keep swimming pools clean<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Kreepy Krauly is an automated swimming pool cleaner that collects dirt from swimming pools and keeps them clean with minimal work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s Ferdinand Chauvier, a hydraulics engineer, is credited with inventing the Kreepy Krauly in 1974.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first Kreepy Krauly was crafted from wood and rubber tubing, and it quickly gained popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pratley Putty<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The world-famous Pratley Putty was invented by George Pratley, a South African engineer who developed innovative products for the mining sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pratley invented his famous putty in the 1960s while looking for glue that would hold components in an electrical box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gained fame for its use on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and has since become a well-known household and industrial adhesive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pratley Putty has been used in various applications, including repairs to the Golden Gate Bridge and swimming pool leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa has been at the forefront of many industries, including globally renowned inventions used worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":821516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[22345,22344,22347,22346,22348,22349,22342,22343],"class_list":["post-821505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-allan-macleod-cormack","tag-ct-scan","tag-dolosse","tag-henri-johnson","tag-kreepy-krauly","tag-pratley-putty","tag-prepaid-mobile-services","tag-quiet-cellular-antenna-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821505"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821606,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821505\/revisions\/821606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}