Conference Paper

Author

Pay, Clive

Title

The remarkable Ted Both - Australia's Edison: A recognition of South Australian innovation and ingenuity from 1930 to 1966

In

Transactions of the Sixth South Australian Engineering Heritage Conference - Adelaide, 12 May 2017

Imprint

Engineers Australia, South Australia Division, Adelaide, 2017, pp. 13-27

Abstract

Edward Thomas (Ted) Both was born in 1909 in Caltowie in South Australia's mid north into an immigrant German family who came to Australia in 1838. He showed an affinity towards physics and, at the end of his schooling at Jamestown High School, moved to Adelaide to work as assistant to Professor Sir Kerr Grant at the Physics Department of the University of Adelaide.
In 1930 Ted, whilst working with the Professor, designed and made a new type of Electrocardiograph. The Professor was so delighted with the instrument that he arranged and financed a small company for Ted to manufacture them for Australian hospitals and doctors.
In 1932 Ted started a company E. T. BOTH and was joined by his younger brother, Don, to assist in the project.
In 1934 the Boths designed an improved model ECG which was the world's first instant diagnosis instrument.
Numerous products were designed and made in the following years; most were Australian firsts and some were world firsts. Probably the most innovative and important in this period was the Both Respirator in response to the global poliomyelitis epidemic.
New companies were formed: Both Equipment Ltd (Adelaide) and Both Equipment NSW, and a small Adelaide company, Both Electrics (for electric vehicles).
In 1939, when World War II broke out, the Both organisation was declared a VIP industry and became involved in designing and making defence special devices. Boths were also co-opted by the Army Inventions Directorate to make use of their inventiveness.
After the war numerous products were developed and made by Boths covering many fields, mainly of medicine but including research laboratories, universities, industry, transport, sporting and sundry one offs.
One of Both's most visible products was the Olympic Scoreboard used at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.

Related Published resources

isPartOf

• Transactions of the Sixth South Australian Engineering Heritage Conference - Adelaide, 12 May 2017 edited by Venus, Richard (Adelaide: Engineers Australia, South Australia Division, 2017), 110 pp. Details