Landmine (мины) detectors

Australia is leading the way in developing technology to detect unexploded ordnance (снаряды) and landmines. Minelab Electronics is an innovative electronics company based in Adelaide, South Australia that designs and develops metal-sensing technology. Minelab detectors are used by 44 countries around the globe as well as by the United Nations and other humanitarian organisations.

Ultrasound scans

Australians developed the ultrasound scanner (УЗИ) in 1961.

The technology is used all around the world to detect the size, position and sex of an unborn child. This technology replaced harmful X-rays and delivers more accurate information about an unborn baby’s health.

Underwater computer

In 1993, the world’s first underwater computer was used to record data while conducting ocean research. It was invented by the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Cold comfort

The most significant invention to come out of Australia is refrigeration. Although others had worked on the problem, the major breakthrough was made by James Harrison, a 36-year-old Scottish immigrant living in Geelong in Victoria. At the time of Harrison's discovery in 1851, ice was used to keep food and drink cold, and in Australia most of it had to be imported. Blocks were cut from frozen ponds in the United States and sent by ships around Cape Horn.

James Harrison

Harrison was the publisher of the Geelong Advertiser and it was while cleaning type with ether (эфир) that he made his discovery. He noticed that as the ether evaporated it made the metal cold and realised that he could use this phenomenon (that gases cool as they expand, which was what was happening when the ether evaporated) to make ice. Harrison designed a machine that by 1857 was producing 3 tonnes of ice a day.

Unfortunately, people were reluctant to buy Harrison's ice, claiming that they preferred the 'natural' product. He was declared bankrupt, and was forced to sell his newspaper in 1860. After his move to Melbourne, Harrison turned his attention to the problem of sending surplus Australian meat to Britain. Refrigeration was obviously the answer, and in 1873 Harrison arranged for a shipment of meat to be sent to England aboard the sailing ship Norfolk, fitted with his ether cooling system. The project ended in disaster. The meat was ruined for reasons beyond Harrison's control, and he returned penniless to Britain to work as a journalist. It was to be another six years before Harrison's dream was realised, and the first cargo of Australian frozen meat arrived safely in England using another refrigeration system.

First tank: good invention, bad timing

Shortly after the outbreak of World War I it became clear that a new type of fighting vehicle was needed to cope with the trenches, machine guns, barbed wire and mud.

In 1915, both France and Britain began experiments with tracked (на гусеничном ходу) armored (бронированный) fighting vehicles, which led to the appearance of the first tank, nicknamed "Mother", in Britain in February 1916.

In fact, plans for a vehicle very similar to 'Mother' had been sent to the War Office in

London by Adelaide engineer Lancelot de Mole in 1912. At that time, however, the War Office was unable to foresee a future for de Mole's invention, and so it was rejected. After the war, de Mole put in a claim for royalties, but he had to be content with an acknowledgment from the British Royal Commission for Awards, which investigated his claims and recognized that he had produced a '… brilliant invention which anticipated, and in some respects surpassed that actually put into use in the year 1916'.

Lancelot de Mole

Australia’s Nobel prizewinners

Lord Howard Walter Florey (1898-1968) -- British pathologist, born in Adelaide, Australia; professor at Oxford University 1935-62. With Ernst B. Chain isolated and purified penicillin for general clinical use (1939). Along with Alexander Fleming and Ernst B. Chain he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945 for the discovery of penicillin. Made life peer (1965).

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet (1899-1985) -- Contributor to knowledge about viruses. Was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1960 for his theory of immunological tolerance of transplanted tissues. This is the phenomenon in which, under certain conditions, the tissue of one animal can be successfully transplanted to another animal. Burnet received many honors for his work. He was knighted (посвящен в рыцари) in 1951, appointed a Knight of the British Empire in 1969, and made a Knight of the Order of Australia in 1978.

Sir John Carew Eccles (1903-97) -- professor at Australian National University 1951-66. Along with British scientists Alan L. Hodgkin and Andrew F. Huxley he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1963 for research on functions of nervous system and the brain work.

Sir William Lawrence Bragg and Sir William Henry Bragg, 1915. Awarded the prize in physics for their work analysing crystals using X-rays.

Sir John Warcup Cornforth, 1975. Awarded the prize in chemistry for work on the structure of living matter.

Professor Peter Doherty, 1996. Awarded the prize in medicine for work on immunology.

Patrick White, literature, 1973. Awarded the prize in literature for his epic works depicting Australian life.