What a Great Idea!

This is the ultimate book on South African innovations and inventions. It is crammed with information on the awesome variety of new products and services that South Africans invented from pre-colonial times to the present. Written in a highly readable style and richly illustrated, it will astonish, surprise and inspire you! Everything from Wadley’s Loop to Musk’s Hyperloop, Louis Liebenberg’s Cybertracker to the unique Africanis dog, the first computerised ticketing system in the world to the world’s first digital laser. Read about dozens of items that are used every day but which had very humble beginnings. Did you know that the machine that was used to drill the tunnels for the first underground railway in England was invented by a South African, or that the first ‘computers’ in South Africa were women calculators working at the Royal Observatory in Cape Town? A lot of people know that the Kreepy Krawly, Pratley’s Putty, Dolos, CATscanner and Thawte Internet Security System were invented in South Africa, but what about the Sheffel Bogie, Oil of Olay, Q20, Policansky fishing reels, Lodox low-dose X-ray machine, Waste Shark, Wind-up Pulse Oximeters, Lithium ion batteries, DryBath, Acesco Breast Imaging System, and components of the SALT and SKA telescopes? Meet the new generation of South African inventors and innovators, including Brian Steinhobel, Mulalo Doyoyo, Jacques Blom, Elon Musk, Viness Pillay, Kelly Shibale, Tebello Nyokong, Gregory Maqoma, Kiara Nirghin, Tony Budden and Ludwick Marishane, and hear what they have to say about the climate for innovation in South Africa. Historic photographs, fascinating anecdotes and illuminating case studies light up the text and make it read like a detective novel. This book clearly shows the innovativeness of South Africans in international circles – now YOU have the opportunity to become an expert on what they have achieved through the ages. Professor Mike Bruton initially followed a career in marine biology but, over the past two decades, has focused on science centre and museum design and development, and the psychology of learning. Mike Bruton is the author of When I was a Fish.