Aussie Inventions that Changed the World

Four Australian inventions that transformed how we see the world around us, and what we know about it. William and Lawrence Bragg invented X-ray crystallography to reveal the atomic structure of crystals. Milutin Stoilovic and colleagues at the Australian National University worked with Federal Police to create a forensic lamp, the Polilight, which could detect latent finger prints. Charles Tait created the world's first feature film with the help of his family, and William Beech invented the periscope rifle in the trenches of Gallipoli.

The Inventors who got us airborne typify tenacity and perseverance. Lawrence Hargrave, who was ridiculed for his box kites, laid the foundation for all modern aviation. David Warren's black box helped make flying the safest form of transport, but he faced staunch resistance getting it off the ground. Jack Grant persisted for 10 years to get his lifesaving slide-raft into planes. While it took 60,000 years for the inventors of the returnable boomerang to receive recognition for their aeronautical achievements.

Food preservation has been a major challenge throughout Australia's history. In Victoria James Harrison invented a process of refrigeration that could make artificial ice on a commercial scale. In New South Wales, Thomas Mort and Eugene Nicolle, adapted and improved on Harrison's technology to build the world's first freezer works to produce artificially frozen food. In Western Australian Arthur McCormick came up with the Coolgardie food safe that ran on evaporative cooling, and in South Australia Tom Angove invented the wine cask.