4 Minutes

When we moved to the UK in 2001, Internet Banking was a no-no in the country…whereas in South Africa, we used to have Internet Banking for a few years at the time, you could even pay your bills online. When we wanted to pay online for horse-riding lessons, the lady at the stalls were looking at us like are you talking double dutch? – when we asked to pay her online. She thought we knew something she didn’t know. I was even in email-touch with one of the banking staff at my branch in Pretoria, whilst here in the UK, at the time, you couldn’t even contact the bank via email. One of the banks in SouthAfrica [for a few years now] do send you a text the minute when someone logs on to your account, even if it is you yourself!

…more…the first South African electric car, the Joule, which was showcased in Paris in 2008.

Joule – image: cdn.24

The Joule’s interior and exterior was styled by South African-born former Jaguar designer, Keith Helfet, who was responsible for iconic Jag designs like the XJ220, the XK180 and the F-Type.
The Joule’s chassis accommodates two large-cell lithium ion battery packs, which use similar chemistry to that used in mobile phones and laptop computers. The five-seater passenger vehicle can be plugged in at home, with a normal 220 volt outlet, and the 300km battery pack will charge in approximately seven hours. Joule will be sold in all major South African centres towards the end of 2010 with sales and exports to the international market will follow shortly after the South African launch.
DID YOU also KNOW:
The world’s first automatic pool cleaning unit, the Kreepy Krauly, was invented by South African Ferdinand Chauvier in 1974.

Ferdinand Chauvier – image:mieliestronk
In 1978 South Africa’s premier ticketing agent, Computicket, became the world’s first computerised ticketing system ever to be invented.
Source:london.thesouthafrican.com

A dolos is an unusually shaped concrete block used to protect harbor walls from the force of the sea by dissipating, rather than blocking the energy of the waves. First installed in East London Harbor, dolosse are now used all over the world. The revolutionary sea buffer got it’s name when it’s designer Aubrey Kruger’s father Joe was asked to make a wooden model of the object. When it was completed he observed “wat speel julle met die dolos?” “dolos” is the Afrikaans word for the knuckle joint in an animal’s leg. With that, the dolos was baptized.

 Pratley’s Putty
Originally invented by Krugersdorp engineer, George Pratley in 1948, to hold components in an electrical box. This hybrid epoxy urethane adhesive was used by NASA in 1969 to hold parts of the Apollo XI mission’s Eagle landing craft together. To prove the reliability of his glue, Mr Pratley used a blob of it to suspend a 13-ton bulldozer over his son’s head. Pratley died in 1983 and today the company is run by his son. The bulldozer is still suspended in the foyer of Pratley’s Krugersdorp offices.

The South African physicist, Allan Cormack, won in 1979 the Nobel Prize with Godfrey Hounsfield from EMI Laboratories for the invention of the Computed Axiale Tomography (CAT) scan.

Allan Cormack -image: Nobel Prizes.com

Trevor Rabin – image: trevorrabin.net

If you don’t know about Trevor Rabin and his great compositions and film rewards for music he composed for films like ….Deep Blue Sea, Armageddon, etc. …then you need to click HERE to read more and HERE to listen to some of his music. Trevor was a bandmember of  the South African band, Rabbit.