Jamestown Railway Station & Museum: Ron checks out the story of the inventive Both Brothers in the Mid North region of South Australia
The passenger train no longer runs from Jamestown to Adelaide but back in the 1930s two mid-north lads hopped on board at the Jamestown Railway Station for a journey that would not only change their lives but many others around the world.
You've heard the old saying 'necessity is the mother of invention', well it was certainly the impetus for South Australia's 'brothers of invention' - Don and Ted Both. They were born at Caltowie and their story is told at the Jamestown Railway Station and Museum. It's a legacy of inventiveness that is quite extraordinary.
Their names are little known but their inventions and achievements saved countless lives. Ted was the 'ideas' man who would come up with the theory to solve a particular problem and his brother Don was the practical engineering type who would come up with the design. But it was nutting out a solution for those affected by polio that gave Ted international recognition.
Doug Henderson, Caltowie History Group: "His greatest invention for which he received the OBE was the development of the portable iron lung. Back in the 1930s polio was running rife throughout South Australia and the Health Department asked Don and his brother to develop a simpler, less expensive version of the artificial respirator… commonly known at the time as the iron lung. When the polio epidemic came about that was really a lifesaver. They basically copied the American design which was a steel tank and the pressure was raised and lowered inside. They built it from plywood. Their version had leather bellows and it reduced the cost by a 20th of the steel one and it also made it portable. Put it on wheels, cheaply made and able to be transported."
Thousands were made in England prior to the outbreak of the World War Two. But the portable iron lung was just one of many adaptations and refinements to existing medical equipment that would change lives. Another was a portable humidicrib also designed by the Both boys.
Doug Henderson, Caltowie History Group: "They made a portable humid crib. They probably had humid cribs that were in the building and were to be used just where they were but by manufacturing something like this it meant it could be taken anywhere to any hospitable and transported to any job."
A drill saw is typical of Ted and Don's inventiveness. Go to any hardware store today and you'll find drill bits but the Both brothers were making additions like this at their Adelaide factory from the 1930s to the 1960s.
For any sports fan today the electronic scoreboard is a fundamental part of the spectator's experience. Go to a Crows or Power game and results will be flashed up on the big screen. The technology goes back in part to the work of Don Both who developed an electronic scoreboard for the Davis Cup and the Melbourne Olympics.
Doug Henderson, Caltowie History Group: "During the war or just at the start of the war they invented a means of transmitting text and photos by what we know call facsimile. It was right at the start of the war and as we read the government declared it a secret so they never really got credit for it."
The Official Secrets Act placed a veil over their work on what would become a fundamental piece of office machinery across the world - the fax machine. Ted Both died in 1987 and his brother Don in 2005.
Doug Henderson, Caltowie History Group: "Why were these two brothers so inventive? Well if I was cheeky I'd so it was because they come from Caltowie."
Aspects of this little known slice of South Australian history is on show at the Jamestown Railway Station and Museum on Mannanarie road at Jamestown. There's a resident caretaker and his number is 8664 1942. More questions? email info@postcards-sa.com.au
The Jamestown Railway Station & Museum
Mannanarie Road
Jamestown
Contact Resident Caretaker on 8664 1942Published 8th May 2011
