What a Great Idea is loaded with mindblowing innovations and discoveries that tell the stories of incredible South Africans whose determination and drive was limited only by their imagination. The book is laid out in different invention categories, making it pretty easy to navigate. Professor Bruton digs deep to find the stories behind the inventions, and brings them to life with boxes and sidebars filled with jaw-dropping facts. This book is the ideal travel companion for any family road trip and is bound to keep tongues wagging and minds ticking over. Here are our favourite inventions from Prof Bruton’s book.
CAT scanner
Following the accidental discovery of X-rays by German scientist Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895, medical science was revolutionised all over the world. And in 1979, South Africa’s first nuclear physicist, Allan McLeod Cormack, and British electrical engineer Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield, were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology for their co-invention of the CAT scanner, which produced 3D X-rays of the human body.
Cryoprobe
Johannesburg doctor Selig Percy Amoils developed the cryoprobe, a pencil-shaped device with a frozen tip, used for eye surgery. He became an overnight medical sensation, as the cryoprobe dramatically changed the course of cataract and retinal surgery worldwide. Dr Amoils used his cryoprobe to cure British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of retinal detachment after failed eye surgery and, more famously, removed a cataract from Nelson Mandela’s left eye the day before he was inaugurated as our President in May 1994, resulting in tata Madiba miraculously reading his inauguration speech without the use of spectacles.
Mxit
Herman Heunis is globally recognised as an instantmessage pioneer in South Africa. He developed an SMS-based game, but this failed due to the high cost of text messages at the time. It did, however, give him the idea for Mxit in 2004 and by 2011, the new mobile messaging platform had a worldwide user base of 44 million, with more South African users at the time than Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp combined.
Hippo Water Roller
To address the problem of women and children in rural communities having to fetch water from a communal tap and carry it in a bucket on their heads – often over long distances – engineers Pettie Petzer and Johan Jonker from Johannesburg, invented the Hippo Water Roller. This barrel-shaped drum holds 90ℓ of water and can easily be used by children and the elderly, effectively eliminating neck and spinal injuries caused by carrying heavy loads on their heads. It rolls along the ground and does not need to be lifted. By 2016, more than 32 000 had been distributed in Africa, directly benefiting more than 225 000 people.
Computicket
Frustrated with long queues for theatre tickets, Percy Tucker from Benoni launched a manual ticket office in 1954. His frustration grew over the next 17 years and eventually, without any computer skills, he set out to develop a computerised ticketing system that would take the box office to the customer. With the help of computer experts, he spent six months developing the world’s first online ticketing system, Computicket, which today continues to set the standard for online ticketing.
