 |
Over the years Australians have invented many things
that have become important in everyday life.
Here I have listed a few and I will add more as
I locate them or as they are invented.
Enjoy the read - you may get some surprises!!
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| Air Navigational Radio Beacons | A device which gives the pilot the precise distance of the plane from a ground radio beacon. | |
|---|---|---|
| Airtrak | A chemical method of locating sources of polluting and smog-inducing gases. | |
| Alarmon | A computerised fire and crash control system for airports. | |
| Anthrax Vaccine | A vaccine for anthrax in sheep and cattle that gave protection by a single inoculation was discovered by Sydney bacteriologist John McGarvie Smith (1844-1918). | |
| Atmotic Airship | A large, gas-filled, sausage-shaped balloon; similar in design to the zeppelins of the early 1900s. Designs for the atmotic ship were submitted to the 1851 Great Exhibition at the Crystal Place in London. | |
| Automatic Totalisator (Also Tote) | An apparatus which automatically records bets, displays odds and calculates dividends for registered racemeetings. | |
| Bionic Ear (Also Cochlear Impant) | An implantable device which restores a measure of hearing to the profoundly deaf. | |
| Black Box Flight Memory Recorder | A unit carried on an aircraft which automatically records flight information and is sturdy enough to survive a crash. | |
| Box Kite | A kite with a light, box-shaped frame; it added significantly to knowledge of aerodynamics. Lawrence Hargrave began testing his kites in Sydney in January 1893. | |
| Clothes Hoist (Rotary Clothes Hoist) | A wire clothes line strung on arms of metal tubing forming a rotatable square that can be raised or lowered. | |
| Cloud Seeding | Australia was the first country in the world to successfully seed clouds and make rain fall. | |
| Concrete Building Panel | Reinforced concrete building panels, pre-cast and transported to the site where they were bolted together, were developed in Australia. | |
| DRCS (Also Digital Radio Concentrator System) | A system which provides telecommunications to remote areas through a combination of concentrator techniques, digital radio and solar power. | |
| Electronic Ignition System | An electronic ignition system for small engines such as those in lawnmowers, chainsaws and pumps was developed by John and B. Angelo Notarus. | |
| Eucalyptus Oil | Oils distilled from certain species of Australian eucalypt are used in medicine as a germicide and as an expectorant. | |
| Granny Smith Apple | A cooking apple developed by chance by a Sydney woman in 1868. | |
| Igloo Satellite Cabin | A fibreglass shelter for extremely cold conditions, developed originally for use in Antarctica. | |
| In-vitro Fertilisation (Also IVF) | Techniques developed in Australia have made Australian gynaecologists world leaders in in-vitro fertilisation technology. | |
| Infra-red Brooder | A brooder which keeps chickens warm while also allowing them to move about and breathe fresh air. | |
| Interscan | A microwave approach and landing guidance system which has been adopted worldwide. | |
| Kenny Method | Rehabilitation treatment for poliomyelitis patients which involves re-educating paralysed muscles. | |
| Kiwi Boot Polish | An improved boot cream which not only polished and preserved leather, but also restored colour. | |
| Latex Gloves | Latex gloves for household and medical use are an Australian innovation. | |
| Lawnmower, Victa (Also Two-stroke Petrol Rotary Lawnmower) | A lightweight lawnmower with sufficient power in its rotary-action blades to deal with long thick grass. | |
| Letter Sorting Machine | The world's first mechanised letter sorter was built by a Sydney engineer, A. B. Corbett. | |
| Microsurgery | Techniques of microsurgery pioneered in Australia are now used around the world. | |
| Milking Machines | Innovations and improvements to milking machines have been made in Australia. | |
| Mine Detector | The mine detector was invented by an Australian soldier named Miller after he had watched a film of soldiers searching for landmines by prodding the ground with bayonets. | |
| Nightmare Board Game (Also Nightmare Board and Video Game) | 'Nightmare' is the brainchild of a Sydney-based production company, A Couple 'A Cowboys, headed by Phillip Tanner and Brett Clements. It was developed over three years and in 1991 was released in Australia, the United States and Canada. | |
| Owen Machine Gun | A lightweight submachine-gun which performed well in the confined and muddy conditions of tropical jungles. | |
| Pacemaker | The first cardiac pacemaker was made in Australia; this country remains at the forefront of the design and manufacture of implantable pacemakers. | |
| Pedal Wireless (Also Bicycle Wireless; Pedal Radio) | A simple, lightweight, radio transceiver powered by a pedal generator developed byelectrical engineer and wireless experimenter Alfred H. Traeger in 1925. He was then asked by the Reverend John Flynn to develop a set for use in his proposed Royal Flying Doctor Service. | |
| Penicillin | The world's first and most widely used antibiotic; co-discovered by Australian scientist Howard Florey and first made available to civilians in Australia. | |
| Plastic Lenses | An Australian company pioneered the use of plastic for prescription lenses and lenses for sunglasses. | |
| Polilight | An apparatus which enables reproductions of clear images of fingerprints left on surfaces like paper. | |
| Pop-top Can (Also Presto Can, Push-button Can) | Drink can which is opened by first pressing in a small button to release gas pressure and then a larger button to access the liquid. | |
| Prepaid Mail | The first prepaid mail in the world originated in the colony of New South Wales. Prepaid embossed sheets were introduced in New South Wales in 1838, two years before stamps were issued in Britain. | |
| Race-cam | A compact, fixed camera used in car racing and other sports which transmits sound and pictures from positions inaccessible to a normal camera. In the United States a version of the race-cam is worn by baseball umpires. | |
| Radial Rotary Engine | A pioneering engine design which played a major part in the development of aviation in Europe. The radial rotary engine had revolving cylinders attached to propeller blades and was powered by compressed air. It was invented by Lawrence Hargrave in 1889. | |
| Refrigeration | Australians pioneered ice-making machines and processes for freezing meat. | |
| Rotary Hoe (Also Rotovator) | A mechanical hoe with rotating blades, now manufactured throughout the world. | |
| Slide Raft | An inflatable escape slide which becomes a life raft if aircraft emergency landings take place in the sea. | |
| Solar Water Heating | Australia pioneered the development of water heating systems powered by solar energy. | |
| Stump-jump Plough | A plough that can ride over stumps and roots instead of being caught and damaged by them. | |
| Sugarcane Harvester (Also Massey-Ferguson 515) | A sugarcane harvesting machine which cuts the cane and chops it into lengths ready for the mill. | |
| Super Sopper | A device used to remove excess water from sports fields. The Super Sopper was invented in 1974 by Sydney inventor Gordon Withnall. It is used on tennis courts and bowling greens and cricket, golf, football and baseball fields around the world. | |
| Surf-lifesaving Reel (Also Lifesaving Reel; Surf-reel) | A large reel on which a rope is wound to rescue swimmers in difficulty invented in Sydney in 1906. | |
| Surfoplane | A rubberised surfoplane, corrugated and designed scientifically to do all the work of a surfboard. | |
| Tea-tree Oil | Oils distilled from the tea-tree are used as germicides, anti-fungicides, solvents and in perfumes. | |
| Two-wheel Drive Motorcycle (Full Name: Two-wheel Drive Two-wheel Steer Motorcycle - Also Dryvtech 2x2x2) | A two-wheel drive two-wheel steer motorcycle designed for high-speed long-distance off-road racing developed by Ian Drysdale between 1980-90. | |
| Ultrasound | Diagnostic ultrasound techniques pioneered in Australia are used around the world for the examination of human organs and developing foetus. | |
| Utility (Also Coupe-utility; Utility Truck) | The utility grew out of the adaptation by Australian farmers of the basic motor car into a vehicle which could also be used to carry farm loads. | |
| Vegemite | A nutritious concentrated yeast extract used as spread. | |
| Wave-piercing Catamaran | A high-speed passenger catamaran. A giant wave-piercing catamaran, SeaCat Tasmania, is used on Bass Strait crossings. Five have been sold to Britain. | |
| Wind-driven Electrical Generators (Also Dunlite) | Wind-driven electrical generators have brought urban comforts to outback Australia. | |
| Windmills | All-steel circular windmill developed as a source of power for lifting underground water to the surface. | |
| Wine Dispenser Cask (Also Wine Box, Wine Cask) | An airless-flow method of packaging wine in a plastic bag fitted with a dispensing tap, the whole being contained in a cardboard carton. | |
| Wire Galvanising (Full Name: Wire Galvanising, High-speed Process - Also AWI Gas Wiping Process) | A high-speed process for galvanising wire. | |
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