INVENTOR FROM AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25179, 9 May 1947, Page 6

INVENTOR FROM AUSTRALIA

MR E. T. BOTH VISITS CHRISTCHURCH

An Australian Inventor of several devices of industrial and war-time value, Mr E. T. Both, is staying in Christchurch for a few days. He has been assisting ■ with the demonstration of modem electrical totalisator equipment in Christchurch—a project on which he has been working since the end of the war. Mr Both explained yesterday that a machine for transferring writing or drawings as soon as they are made, from one station to another by radio, was developed by him during the war when he was working on the staff of the Australian Army Inventions Directorate. It was ftilly developed for use in the field when the war broke out. but since then it had been adapted to industrial uses. Some of his earlier work was done at the University of Adelaide with Professor Kerr Grant and Professor M. L. Oliphant, the atomic research expert, he said. One of the inventions which had been developed 12 years ago was an electronic cardiagraph which left a permanent record on a screen. In 1938 he went to England and while he Was there an infantile paralysis epidemic occurred. In response to an appeal for iron lungs he made an improved model whidh waa used in a case. Lord Nuffield saw one of the others which were produced and decided to subsidise their distribution to hospitals all over the world. After returning to Australia in 1939, Mr Both worked on an electric delivery van which had some novel features. It had three wheels with a driving shaft on the front so that It could be manoeuvred in very confined spaces. Among some of the other work which he did during the war was the production of an electronic device for the measurement of the in*, ternal bore of gun barrels, an instrument for torpedoes which is still a top secret, and an instrument for recording the activity of the human brain. This last invention was more portable and trouble-free than many of those which preceded it and was now being used in a hospital in Sydney. It was interesting to note that the Society of Australian Inventors had been formed not long ago with the idea of encouraging individual inventors and helping them to exchange ideas, distribute useful information, and get their products on the market, Mr Both said. He was the vice-pre-sident of that society and he thought it was doing very l good work which could quite profitably be developed in New Zealand by some similar body.