Popular Mechanics

FROM THE EDITOR
STAY CURIOUS.
My three-year-old is teaching me that again. The So yes, it turns out that China is using us as a China.
sentiment is at the centre of my quest for knowledge, I also asked myself ‘Why are we putting food on the
but it sometimes gets overshadowed by a need to tell blockchain?’ when Tiana Cline pitched me the story, and,
my truth and not accept argument. We all do it. And ‘Why is it important for websites to load faster?’ before
it’s time to stop answering the, ‘Why?’ with, ‘Because.’ talking to Snapt founders Doug and Dave about what
‘Why?’ is curiosity at its most pure, most raw form. their company does.
C O V E R C O N C E P T & I L L U S T R AT I O N :TA U R I Q L O O F E R & M H L A N G U L I G C O B O
‘Because,’ is cynical. In this issue, I asked why South And that is where I leave you, Dear Reader. I’m departing
African manufacturing is presumed dead. I went to the the magazine to go investigate more whys with my children,
manufacturers that are still churning out export-quality and maybe to find the answer to the ultimate ‘Why?’
goods and asked them why they’re still operating and, It’s been a great ride, and I leave you in the capable hands
in most cases, expanding. The overwhelming response? of a committed Popular Mechanics team.
‘Why not?’ Stay curious.
Manufacturing is very close to my heart. My dad
ran production on the LCV line at Ford Motor Company @SharpSchutters
South Africa for many years, specialising in manpower
deployment. Motor-vehicle manufacturing for the export
market put me through school, so I refused to accept that
South Africa’s capacity is dead.
T H I S PA G E : C O U R T E SY I M A G E S
That line of questioning also led me down the rabbit hole

of, ‘Why is China opening a car-manufacturing plant for a
future capacity of 100 000 units per annum?’ The simple
answer is that Chinese society has matured, and the highly
educated kids coming out of university want ‘nice’ jobs and
won’t settle for the factories. It’s a similar problem to what
we have, but our poverty problems are much worse and our
currency is weak enough to make our labour cheaper.
COMPETITION WINNERS Details online at www.popularmechanics.co.za
www.popularmechanics.co.za SEPTEMBER 2018 3

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EDITORIAL
Editor Lindsey Schutters
Assistant editor Brendon Petersen
Intern Asheeqah Howa Published by RamsayMedia (PTY) LTD
Chief copy editor Jonathan Meyer Company registration number: 1934/005460/07 ISSN number: 1682-5136
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CONTENTS SEPTEMBER 2018 I V O L 17, N O 0 2 I
I T H E W AY T H E W O R L D W O R K S
PG
48 On the cover: Billions of rands have been poured into South African manufacturing,
but where has that money gone? Lindsey Schutters goes behind the scenes to find out.
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS

14 ELECTRIC BIKES GET FASTER
They’re getting better batteries and motors, so why don’t you have one yet?
16 RETRO ADVENTURE GAMES
Forget Call of Duty – RAGs are making a big comeback!
18 HOW AIRBUS IS CHANGING DATA TRANSFER
High speed data-relay satellites that use lasers. This is the future.
21 DITCH YOUR WALLET
Step into the wild world of cashless transactions.
COLUMNS
24 THE TECH PAGE
26 THE BODY MECHANIC
TECH
30 GREAT NEW STUFF
FEATURES
39 FARM-SOURCED CRYPTO-CULINARY
Blockchain technology has many uses, including stopping listeriosis outbreaks.
30
44 SPEED MERCHANTS
Ever wondered how your favourite websites open so quickly? We sat down
with Snapt to find out the ins and outs of load balancing.
48 INSIDE SOUTH AFRICAN MANUFACTURING
South African manufacturing isn’t dead, despite what you may have heard.
SKILLS
70 GET STARTED IN SURFING
76 PROJECT
Build your own wall-mounted wine rack.
82 KIDS PROJECT
Floating ping-pong table
TESTED
81 STUBBY SCREWDRIVERS
When it comes to tight spaces, smaller is better.
DRIVING
84 THE PM CAR AWARDS
These are our favourite cars of the past twelve months.
MONTHLY
3 From the Editor
14
10 Letters
12 Calendar
13 Time Machine
98 DIY

LETTERS
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
ratings on them. Use cool, high silicon want to load the in-laws in for a short
WINNING LETTER content, low rolling-resistance tyres trip somewhere, or need to haul party
FIGHT THE when available. Why go for tyres

rated for 240 km/h when one is
decor around.
It’s all about knowing your driving
FUEL PRICE
Higher energy prices are here too
a defensive driver?
Small incremental improvements
will all add up. Question everything
style and buying for your needs with
15 per cent headroom for growth.
Enjoy your new drill.
stay via sky-high fuel costs. There and have purpose with your vehicle. – Lindsey
are numerous ways to double your ADRIAAN DE LANGE
fuel economy and still be a carbon BOSJEMANSFONTEIN
champion of the planet at the I SEE TALL SHIPS
same time. Hi Adriaan, those are some useful tips In my romantic imagination, I see
Drive Slower. My Volvo cruises you have there. I was toying with using tall ships once again breasting the
smoothly at 1 550 rpm in 5th gear it in DIYW, but I think it sits well here. long ocean swells, fuelling their
of the automatic gearbox at 90 km/h. I almost bought a new car when I needed passage with trade winds and leaving
Check the weather forecasts before- to rectify some serious wear and tear on scant traces of their passing; an echo
hand. A nice back breeze will reduce my vehicle, but extrapolated the marginal of the clippers of yore.
your aerodynamic drag coefficient. increase in repayment over the period I Romantic? Yes, but also practical
Warmer tarmac also reduces the still owe on my current car and it made and possible!
rolling friction on the tyres. When more sense to love the one I’m with. The Under prime conditions, wind-
the weather is fair, it’s a good time bit about you driving your Volvo slower powered commercial vessels crossed
to inflate them and reduce the contact got me thinking, too. the oceans at speeds approaching
surface area with the road. You see, my kids are now old enough those of many modern vessels today.
Fuel up at the lowest temperature to not need all the boot-filling baby bags More than 100 years ago, Cutty Sark
possible. Fuel density increases. for a trip to the shops, so we thought we travelled from England to Australia
Keep your vehicle in tip-top needed to downgrade. At sustained repeatedly averaging, 12 knots and
mechanical condition. Clean air highway speeds, the 2,2 turbo diesel we sometimes peaking 14 knots in a
filters and new oil will help. currently have is quite frugal. Overall, 24-hour period. (Some of the big
Clean the junk from your trunk. it sips less fuel than the last three 1,6 American clippers averaged over
When purchasing a new set of tyres, turbo-petrol cars I’ve tested. Plus, the 18 knots on a day’s run.) Re-rigged,
consider your driving style, and the big SUV gives us enough room if we she voyaged to China and loaded tea
for English palates, averaging similar
speeds. The wind is still there, so
perhaps we need to re-rig our logic
WRITE TO US, ENGAGE US in debate and and thinking for the voyage forward?
you could win a cool prize. This month YOUR OPINION COULD WIN! ‘It has been calculated that the
you can go wireless: Cutty Sark’s sail plan was capable of
Like all Makita’s 18 V cordless range producing a drive of some 3 000 hp.
of tools, the 13 mm DHP482Z Impact As a comparison, a modern coastal
Driver Drill has been engineered using merchantman of similar size …
the latest technology. The DHP482Z would need a 1 000 hp diesel engine
is both lightweight and compact, and be capable of some 12 knots…’
with variable speed delivering up to (Patrick Brophy, Hamlyn, 1974)
28 500 impacts per minute. It has an It is postulated that, given that
electric brake, reverse drill mode and wind power still exists and is the only
21 torque settings with a maximum real constant in this equation, more
fastening torque of 62 Nm. The single- efficient collection of this power, and
sleeve keyless chuck allows for easy transfer of said power to the water
bit installation and removal. Charging with more technically advanced motors
time for the 3 Ah battery is 22 minutes. and propulsion trains – together with
The kit includes a Cordless DHP482Z a re-rigged mindset – means a return
Impact Driver Drill, two 3 Ah 18 V to wind propulsion is possible, at great
batteries and the DC18RC fast charger cost saving and almost total elimination
all in a handy carry case. For further of exhaust pollution (and its various
information on Makita Industrial Power Makita Impact Driver Drill knock-on effects).
Tools, visit makita.co.za or find us on worth R5 199! Rather than harnessing direct power
Facebook: MakitaPowerToolsSA. for driving a hull, Rotosail suggests the
generation of power that charges battery
Send your letter to: POPULAR MECHANICS, PO Box 180, Howard Place 7450, or banks which, in turn, (in a controlled
e-mail [email protected] Please keep it short and to the and variable form) power electric motors
point. Regrettably, prizes can be awarded only to South African residents. that drive more conventional power-

WRITE TO US, ENGAGE IN DEBATE z [email protected]
extendable boom. Differential heater ignites and hot water is

buoyancy during cargo handling produced, which soon gets too hot
could be compensated by automated for a shower. Cold water then has to
water ballasting to maintain trim. be added. With the single-lever tap,
I do not expect to see any of this cold water alone cannot be added
happening in my lifetime, but can without throttling down the hot
hope my descendants might also see water, which causes the hot water
tall ships … not in their romantic pressure to rise, putting out the
imaginings, but in glorious reality. flame in the heater – somewhat
KEITH HONEYMAN irritating when standing under a
transmissions similar to diesel- nice warm shower that suddenly
electric trains and some large Wow, Keith, that took a lot of research goes cold.
vehicles. This serves to allow for me to fully understand. I’m not a A partial remedy to this problem
‘reefing’, or complete ‘furling’, maritime man myself, so I don’t have is to set the water flow through the
of the rotor in adverse conditions, an intimate knowledge of the pros and gas heater to max, and throttle the
while motive power is maintained cons of various propulsion methods, gas flow down to obtain the ideal
from previously stored wind-power. but I do believe that under the right shower-temperature water with the
Similarly, during periods of light conditions, the sail is the most efficient tap lever on max hot. (Your wife will
airs or doldrums, previously stored way of moving a vessel over water. Well, soon complain that the water is now
wind-power may be ‘borrowed’ for a sail and a hydrofoil. Outboard motors too cold to wash the dishes.)
continued drive. This minimises or are already working at a deficit by ERIC VENTER
obviates the possibility of being having to overcome the water forces
windless on lee shores and in other before they get going. Hi Eric, I’ve never thought of my
dangerous storm conditions. In the Either way, this sounds like a good shower tap that much before, so
harbour, generation and storing of plan, but the batteries may get a bit thanks for that. And all of this
power can continue 24/7 although heavy (and pricey). optimising to then ruin the ratios
the ship is at rest. Standby diesel- – Lindsey with an aerator or, even worse,
powered chargers would also be a low-flow shower head?
available as a last resort. SINGLE-LEVER WATER TAPS – Lindsey
The tall ships that I see are This is a neat, compact design that
not topped by a row of tall trees controls the flow of water available In our August issue, we published
of snowy billowing canvas, but by for showers, basins and baths with a shortlist of candidates for the
a ‘farm’ of tall Rotosail VAWT’s a single lever. But the inherent Popular Mechanics Inventor
(Popular Mechanics, Feb. 2017) problems of this design are: of the Year at the Innovation
on the bridging deck of a shallow- 1. When the lever is in the Summit 2018 Inventor’s Garage.
draft catamaran hull. With the neutral position and the tap is Unfortunately, a few contestants
Rotosail capability of both vertical opened, a mixture of cold and hot have since dropped out of the
and radial automated control, the water is received, even if only cold competition for various reasons,
hoisting and reefing of sails is simple. water is required. Depending on forcing us to amend the list. We’ll
There’s no need for swarms of top- the distance to your geyser, it takes keep you posted.
men led by the shrill command a long time to get hot water in that See you at the Innovation Summit.
of a bosun’s pipe. position. Therefore, both water and
It is not suggested that wind is energy are wasted, as the amount
L E T T E R S A R E E D I T E D F O R C L A R I T Y, S P E L L I N G A N D G R A M M A R .
the complete solution, but rather of water out of the hot system that
a positive hybrid contributory was cold is replaced with cold water
expedient. Power requirements into the geyser and has to be heated.
other than for propulsion could It is better practice to turn the lever
vary enormously; a cruise liner, for to the hot or cold side as required,
example would require enormous before opening the tap.
additional auxiliary power and 2. The tap is a ball-valve design,
would certainly need solar and/or and opens and closes rapidly with
P H O T O G R A P H Y: C O U R T E SY I M A G E S
mechanical booster generation. little movement of the lever. Closing

A very positive aspect would be a fully opened tap rapidly causes a
the expansion of containerisation hydraulic shock in the water pipes,
to small, shallow ports presently straining their joints and resulting
serviced only by break-bulk cargoes. in detrimental movement.
The shallow draft and inherent 3. The latest gas hot-water heaters
stability of the catamaran would depend on a pressure drop in the
allow containers to be carried in hot-water system to ignite the gas,
and on both hulls, and loaded or which heats the water. With the
unloaded by a travelling gantry single-lever tap, if opened fully, the
on each side, with a horizontally water pressure drops, the gas in the

CALENDAR · SEPTEMBER
GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR MONTH
SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

1
Edgar Rice
Burroughs,
creator of
Tarzan of
the Apes, was born
on this day in 1875.
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Are you into all things If you’re in the industry,
social media? Head you can’t miss the last
over to Social Media day of the Food & Drink
Landscape 2018 Technology Africa
in Sandton. conference in Joburg.
9 10 12 13 14 15
Calling all bookworms! On this day The first Comic Con on
It’s the last day of the in 1977, African soil starts today
Open Book Festival in Steve Biko at Kyalami International
Cape Town. died in Convention Centre
police in Joburg. Excelsior!
custody.
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
It’s your last chance On this day in 1893, Spend the weekend
to get to The Alien and the women of New around incredible
UFO Expo in Sandton. Zealand became the tech at the Africa
If the truth is out there, first in the modern Aerospace and
now is the time to world to have the Defence Expo
find it. right to vote. in Centurion.
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
October issue Whale watchers, now’s
goes on sale. your time – Hermanus
Whale Festival kicks
off today.
30
FRIDAY
History is being made After two decades of
with the first ever
Comic Con Africa.
14/09 campaigning, women of
New Zealand became
And with big names the first in the modern

such as Jason Mamoa world to gain the right
(Aquaman) and Kevin to vote in parliamentary
Sussman (Big Bang elections. After being
Theory) appearing on enfranchised by Royal
the guest panel, it’s Assent on 19 September
bound to be awesome. 1893, white and Maori
The event kicks off on women alike cast their WEDNESDAY
the 14th at Joburg’s
Kyalami International
historic votes in the next
elections, held just over 19/09
Convention Centre. a month later.

TIME MACHINE
IT MADE PERFECT SENSE AT THE TIME
M
ay 1962 Is the Indy Race in a Rut?
Critics of the Indianapolis 500 said
it was dull and formulaic, and the
cars were all the same. We went to see if
the complaints were fair.
A
pril 1964 Satellite Eavesdropper
in an Attic. A German ham radio
operator – under orders from NASA
– listens into Soviet transmissions during
the space race to give the US a leg up
in the rivalry.
J
uly 1968 The X-24 Wingless Plane That Flies in Space.
M
ay 1964 Our Navy’s Startling The ’60s saw the US Air Force test lifting-body aircraft,
Windmill Submarine. For this which mostly dispense with wings, deriving lift from the
issue, we looked at a US Navy body instead. The plan: Spaceplanes that could re-enter the
prototype sub. It was more agile and atmosphere and land like a regular aircraft. Soon after, the
manoeuvrable than its contemporaries, Space Shuttle programme made them obsolete.
but never took off.
A
ugust 1968 Future
Airports: How are

we going to get
’em out to the field?
A new airport on Lake
Michigan, automatic
monorails and VTOL
planes were some of
the ideas for alleviating
traffic to and from the
transit hubs of the day.

The HPC’s
standard 1 290 Wh
battery is good
for 80 km of
range, more
if you pedal.
ELECTRIC BIKES
GET FASTER
Two wheels, three top speeds, no exhaust.
BY E Z R A DY E R
While electric cars get ever more The Dirt Bike :

capable and less expensive, electric HPC Revolution ±132 000
X he California-built Revolution powerful mid-drive motor that makes
bikes are enjoying the same progress conforms to US e-bike rules, with 750 W for more nimble handling). No matter
in batteries and motors. From 2016 of power and a 32 km/h top speed. At how fast you’re going, you can still help
to 2017, US e-bike sales doubled, and least, until you hack it. If you’re heading the cause by pedalling thanks to a novel
P H O T O G R A P H Y: M I K E B A S H E R
even Harley-Davidson is producing of-road, you can reprogram the bike’s gear set called a Schlumpf drive that
software to unlock the hub motor’s full enables fruitful pedalling even at speed.
an electric motorcycle next year. potential, which cranks out as much as Click a button with your foot and the
We tested three new examples of 6 000 W. hen, you’re on your way to planetary crankset goes into super-high
two-wheeled electric transportation. a top speed of 80 km/h and a riding gear. It’s a thrill, and frankly a little
experience that’s really like that of a scary. Other riders might think you’re
very quiet, tail-heavy dirt bike (instead silly for wearing motocross gear on
of the hub motor, you can opt for a less a bike. Till you pass them doing 80.

The Scooter:
BMW C Evolution ±R180 000
X Yes, the C Evolution will hit 128 km/h, so you can take it on the
highway. But this is really a weapon for the typical scooter mission:
short-haul urban scuttling. The C has a healthy 160 km of range, but
its forte is point-to-point blasts around town, where you can really
exploit its instant torque and acceleration. This is a scooter that has
traction control, and needs it. It’s a blast, because the same attributes
that make electric cars fun to drive – smooth power, low centre
of gravity – make the C Evolution a surprisingly entertaining ride
on twisty back roads. And, as a BMW, it has some trick creature
comforts, such as a power-adjustable windshield that you can lower
around town or raise up on the highway to create a cocoon of calm.
It even looks cool, in a Euro-futuristic sort of way. This really feels
like the promise of motorcycles, distilled down to the essence of
wind, road, and speed.
With a 220 V
charger, the
battery will
go from zero
to full in
about four
hours.
A magnetic
sensor detects
your pedalling
cadence and
activates the
hub motor for
more power.
The Fat Bike :

RadRover Electric ±R19 700
X If the RadRover had one watt more power, it’d be
classified as a moped. As it is, the 750 W geared hub
motor easily sails you up to the 32 km/h speed limiter.
You just twist the throttle and the RadRover goes like
a dirt bike. And if you’re somewhere that a Kawasaki
would be unwelcome (say, a beach), then some gentle
pedalling helps maintain the illusion that the propulsion
is coming from your legs alone. The assistance operates
on five selectable levels and is automatic. Start pedalling,
and the motor kicks in and makes it all as easy – or as
difficult – as you want. Since we rode it, there’s been
an update to the 2018 models, which got a more energy-
dense battery. But even the older models have plenty of
juice for a 30 km ride.
W A I T, Rules differ around the world, but in general, if a bike has a motor on it, it needs to offer a pedal assist option to
I S T H AT avoid being classified as a scooter. The RadRover and HPC, as well as Yamaha’s just-announced line of e-bikes,
THING all fall into that category, which means you don’t need a license to own and ride one, and you don’t need to register
L E G A L? it – unlike the BMW, which requires a motorcycle license and registration.

018 is behind us,
3 20 has shown that 18+ video games replaced good storytelling with bullets
and one of the annual can sometimes lead to antisocial and explosions. People wanted to be
event’s most important behaviour, including increased taken away on a fantastic adventure;
game announcements, aggression and decreased empathy. point-and-click adventures are the
CD Projekt Red’s But gaming has so much more to perfect medium for that. It’s also a
Cyberpunk 2077, left offer. Adventure games, for one, teach way to showcase great art and music,
us all wanting more. puzzle solving, and offer interactive and that’s what we’re aiming to do
It also, however, left stories, exploration, mini-games, and with Jengo.’
some of us wanting, the clever manipulation of inventories Selvan grew up playing legendary
well, less. Less in the sense that we’re and objects in the world around you. point-and-click adventures: The Curse
longing for the days when video games They create an immersive space where of Monkey Island and Full Throttle, and
weren’t all about bullets, blood and a player can return to scenes to speak says he is inspired by gaming greats
explosions. The level of cringeworthy to the characters they may not have like Shigeru Miyamoto, Ron Gilbert,
violence in video games is casting a talked to on their first playthrough, and Tim Schafer (who tweeted about
shadow on the industry, and research or investigate anything they may Jengo and said that it had ‘crazy cool
have missed. art’ – a huge moment for the Robot
Popular Mechanics sat down Wizard team).
with Graeme Selvan, a game developer
and the co-owner of Robot Wizard.
PHOTOGRAPHY: FREEPIK, COURTESY IMAGES
The local studio is in the middle of

developing an old-school point-and-
click adventure game called Jengo. The one thing that stood out for
‘In today’s gaming world, we see a Selvan is the art of video games: ‘I am
lot of the same old genres coming out a huge art nerd and nothing gets me
every year. And most of them have more excited than hand-painted art

TA S T E F O R
ADVENTURE
TIME Here are three other point-

and-click adventure games
worth your rands.
1. D AY O F T H E T E N TA C L E
REMASTERED
bursting with colour. Following on we face is time and money. I am a Originally released by LucasArts
from the art is the storytelling. It father with a full-time day job. My in 1993, Day of the Tentacle is
is a crying shame we don’t see more business partner, Louis du Pisani brought back with all new hand-
point-and-click adventures in today’s finds himself in a similar situation, drawn, high-resolution artwork as
gaming world. The medium does not minus the child. We make the game well as remastered audio, music
really suit violence. The world is full after work into the early hours. It and sound effects. Day of the
of it, so sometimes it’s a nice breath of is brutal!’ Tentacle is a mind-bending, time-
fresh air to get something different. What has worked for Jengo is travelling adventure game that
As a studio, we want to keep our marketing. Selvan, with his eight sees three unlikely friends work
games accessible. We want people years of experience working in the together to stop an evil mutated
to think again and solve interesting video-game industry, and Du Pisani, purple tentacle from taking over
puzzles. Mankind has been telling who has worked in broadcast media the world!
stories for ages, so let’s continue his entire career, work well here.
the tradition.’ ‘You really must sell your product 2. FRAN BOW
Jengo is a point-and-click in the offshore and not focus on building Fran Bow is a creepy adventure
purest old-school tradition, packed up your audience in South Africa. game that tells the story of Fran,
full of puzzles and mysteries. You Thankfully, we were picked up a young girl struggling with a
put your mouse pointer somewhere, internationally by a publisher called mental disorder and an unfair
clickety-click and something cool Playdius Entertainment, which is destiny. This story-driven
happens. But the idea game actually based in France.’ psychological horror features
came to life when Selvan read the As a dad with little time to game, 50+ interactive characters with
2011 science-fiction novel Ready Selvan loves the flexibly of Nintendo’s unique personalities as well as
Player One, the debut of American Switch and sees how it could be the an original soundtrack.
author Ernest Cline, and saw the perfect console for future point-and-
resemblance to stories like Alice in click adventure properties. The Robot 3. MACHINARIUM
Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. Wizard team engaged with Nintendo Machinarium is an award-winning
Creating a game in South Africa and will be concentrating on bringing independent adventure game
hasn’t been easy for the Robot Wizard Jengo to the handheld console. ‘The developed by the makers of the
team. Their crowd-funded campaign Nintendo Switch is a stunning piece Samorost series and Botanicula.
on Fig failed to reach its target. ‘It was of hardware. Being a parent affords It tells the story of a little robot
very unfortunate for us and a massive me less time to get in front of the named Josef who has been
setback for the team. We managed to TV to game. The Switch allows me to thrown out to the scrapyard
raise $42 900 out of our projected game on the go and fits perfectly into behind the city and must return
$140 000. Thanks to not hitting the my busy schedule. Nintendo is a lot to confront the Black Cap
mark, we get nothing,’ says Selvan. friendlier to developers these days,’ Brotherhood and save his
‘Game development in South Africa explains Selvan, ‘so it’s easier to port robot girlfriend, Berta.
isn’t an easy task. The biggest problem our game to it’.

SPACEDATAHIGHWAY
NO FIBRE
DATA
In the skies above us,
data is being streamed
between satellites at
an incredible rate using
lasers. From its 2016
launch to earlier this year,
the Airbus and European
Space Agency public-
private partnership called
the SpaceDataHighway
(aka the European Data
Relay System, if you’re
feeling less dramatic)
has established 10 000
connections. These data
transmissions come from
low-orbit observation
satellites, and are then
relayed across the EDRS
constellation to the
relevant ground station.
1,8 Gbps
The transmission speed
of the SpaceDataHighway
PHOTOGRAPHY: FREEPIK,
COURTESY IMAGES
500 TB
The amount of data that has been
downloaded using the system.

Mission control is at the Airbus facility in Munich and
the service is available to customers 24 hours a day.
If you require use of the network, the control centre
will coordinate the satellites to come within range
of the required target and get the data moving. The
service can transfer any type of data from Earth
observation satellites, drones or aircraft via optical
communication using lasers.
While the service is being opened to a wider group

of potential customers, we’re still some way off of
this becoming a consumer-friendly data-transfer
network. Future integrations going live from 2019
include the network going into service relaying
information from the International Space Station
Columbus module and operating with the Pléiades
Neo satellites towards the end of the year.

SHORT STORIES
ANATOMY OF THE A
WORLD’S FIRST
ROBOTIC FLY
Robotic insects have been a dream
of many (spies) for years. In real life, C
they’re really quite difficult to build:
Combining power, propulsion, and
A / Small watch B / The circuitry C / At this size,
brains in some-thing so small is a big batteries might that hangs from rotors like those
challenge. But recently, a team at the fit on RoboFly, the airframe on a drone don’t
University of Washington has built but aren’t suited controls how work – friction
to power its type RoboFly pulses overpowers lift.
RoboFly, the first totally wireless of propulsion. its wings, which Instead, the wing
robotic insect. For now, it can only Instead, a tiny are made of Mylar joints are driven
take off and land – but it is the B photovoltaic and carbon fibre. by a piezoelectric
foundation for a future in which cell generates They flap in the actuator: When
power when same motion, and electrified, they
RoboFlies survey crops, detect gas beamed with at about the same deflect, flapping
leaks, and (we hope) don’t spy on us. a laser. rate, as a real fly’s. the wings.
SECURE YOUR EMAIL Recently, I had the service deseat.me

analyse the Gmail address I’ve used since 2009. It found more than 200
accounts linked to mine. For the last nine years, I hadn’t worried about the
fact that the address I use to pay my credit card bills was spread so widely
across the internet. That’s life in 2018, right? But seeing Mark Zuckerberg
squirm in front of Congress, the Equifax breach, and net neutrality’s repeal
made me care about my data. A search for a Gmail alternative led me to
ProtonMail, which hails from the CERN lab for nuclear research. You can
join anonymously, no phone number or alternate email required. And the
entire system is copiously encrypted. Even if a firm penetrated the insane
privacy laws of Switzerland, where Proton’s servers live, it couldn’t extract
anything more than unintelligible trash. You’ll still need to watch for scam
emails and use a strong password. But unlike most free apps (ProtonMail
is free, but it’s worth paying R62 for the upgraded version with more storage
space), Proton is refreshingly uninformed about its clients. In an era where
being anonymous on the internet is near impossible, I’ll take any tool that
gets me close. – Alexander George
MAKE YOUR OWN TESLA-STYLE BATTERIES in the average garage. Now, an engineer has built a bracket
Lithium-ion batteries make almost every item of consumer system that makes assembling the cells into a battery nearly
technology possible. Compared to lead-acid or lithium- idiot-proof. Vruzend (pronounced vroo-zend) end caps fit on
polymer, lithium-ion is lighter, lasts longer, and is more 18650s (a two-pack costs ±R200 on Amazon), and snap together
energy-dense. That last trait in particular is how like LEGO. The ±R400 base kit comes with 60 caps, plus bus bars,
we arrived at electric cars that can go 320 km wire clamps, and zip ties. A DC charger and battery-management
on a single charge. If you open a Tesla, system to control the voltage while charging are another ±R660.
you’ll see that its batteries are made Add in wire strippers, a crimping tool, a basic soldering kit, and
up of thousands of shotgun-shell- a few YouTube tutorials, and you can go from zero to building
size cells known as 18650s. They’re that electric bike. Too easy? Scale up to a car.
ubiquitous, relatively cheap, and Appalachian State University has built
perfect for powering a DIY electric a solar-power vehicle using Vruzend
bike or skateboard. But assembling connectors on thousands of 18650
those cells into a battery requires cells. We, however, suggest starting
spot-welding. Easily done at Tesla’s with a more approachable project,
511 000 m2 Gigafactory, not so much such as a custom phone charger.

THE FUTURE OF
CASHLESS PAYMENTS
South African consumers are increasingly demanding more secure and convenient ways
to make payments, while merchants require similar security and efficiency when
processing them. This is where cashless payments, whether through
cards or mobile devices, can help meet these needs.
BY N A F I S A A K A B O R
T
his is according to and in some cases, cashiers are not introduced in 2015, became available
Mastercard South briefed on the technology supported locally at the end of July through a
Africa, which plans by the sales systems typically found public beta trial.
to make ‘tap and go’ at supermarkets such as Pick n Pay, Absa customers were among the
payments a standard or garages such as Engen and Shell. first to get access to the system as a
in the next five years. If your card has a wireless symbol launch partner, with Standard Bank
The company is set to and the machine you are about to following thereafter. Samsung Pay
implement a series of card and terminal make a payment has the same symbol, supports both Mastercard and Visa,
upgrades globally, including the African you should be able to complete your but for Samsung customers to sign
continent, where its contactless cards are transaction seamlessly with a tap. up for the service, there are certain
already available. Terminal upgrades are Safety becomes a main concern, as criteria that need to be met. These
expected to be ready by October 2018, anyone could tap a stolen card and include supported devices (Galaxy S7
and all new cards issued from April 2019 make unlimited purchases, but the and up, Note 8 and up, and selected
will have contactless technology enabled. system is aimed at making smaller A-series devices) and other credit
‘Tap and go’ cards have a specific purchases, limited to roughly five cards such as Virgin Money, Avios,
chip embedded in them that uses NFC consecutive swipes. While contactless and British Airways. Samsung says its
technology for contactless payments, payments may be supported for small payment system will work on most
whereby the card is simply tapped purchases up to R1 000, a PIN number payment terminals in South Africa,
against a supported payment terminal. or signature will be required for those with a 97 per cent acceptance rate
These debit or credit cards are already amounts greater than R200. The exact from the trial period.
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY IMAGES
in circulation, identifiable through the amounts and number of swipes before While cash will for now remain
wireless symbol, and have been issued a PIN is required varies depending on king on the African continent, there
by banks including FNB, Nedbank, Absa the cardholder’s bank. are many cashless-payment options
and Standard Bank, and are supported A new, but long-awaited form of currently available through mobile
by both Visa and Mastercard. FNB contactless payment recently became apps on Android and iOS, such as
started issuing contactless credit available in SA through mobile giant Zapper, SnapScan, Masterpass, and
cards as early as February 2015. Samsung, beating out its rival Apple. Starbucks. Meanwhile, we eagerly
Most consumers are unaware of The Samsung Pay mobile-payment await the arrival of Apple Pay on
their debit- or credit-card capabilities, and digital-wallet systems, first our shores.


LARGE PHOTO
OF THE MONTH
B y R y a n Yo u n g
RIO HONDO COMMUNITY

COLLEGE, CALIFORNIA
Tesla, the electric-vehicle
company, makes three of the
five most popular EV models
in the expanding US market,
and plans to increase vehicle
production to 500,000 per year.
EVs don’t require as much
maintenance as gas-powered
cars, but there is some, and a
national shortage of mechanics
will affect EV owners eventually.
Tesla’s new START program
fast-tracks students into the
field. Here (from left), Tanya Aili
Castro, Natalie Dovales-Flores,
and Jose Chavez install a front
diffuser, which improves under-
car airflow, on a Model X. The
trio finished 700 training hours
in May as part of the second
START class. Graduates get a
full-time job at a Tesla service
centre with zero student debt.

THE TECH PAGE BY ALEXANDER GEORGE
A FRIENDLY
GUIDE TO THE
DIGITAL AGE.
The Digital
Summer
Now that winter’s on the way out, here are
a few gadgets you may want to get your
hands on before summer is in full swing.
BOOSTED MINI S you to care who sees you. The new Boosted
I admit to silently ridiculing the adults Mini S gets 11 km+ of range and will hit
I see riding Boosted electric skateboards. 29 km/h. More important, it’s the first
Would you want to see one of these Boosted board small enough to stash
things leaning against the wall below under a desk. For fun per rand, I’ll take
your attorney’s law degree? But try one, one of these over a drone any day.
and you’ll see they’re too much fun for ±R9,800
OLLOCLIP NEBULA CAPSULE JABRA ELITE 65T GOPRO HERO

Olloclip has finally made an Unlike most other compact After years of junk, finally, No, 1440p resolution won’t cut
iPhone X version of its snap-on projectors, the Nebula is bright non-Apple wireless earbuds it for pro YouTubers. But for the
lens rig. Of the base kit’s three and loud enough for outdoor good enough to recommend. rest of us, the HERO has all the
lenses, I use the super-wide the movie nights. And it boasts a They’re water-resistant, and necessities, like waterproofing
most. It broadens the camera’s WiFi connection, so it will play the noise-blocking feature is and voice control. At this price,
field of view to 120 degrees, so Netflix all on its own for over adjustable, so you can listen buying one is so much better
the same-size photo captures two hours, no fumbling with an for flight announcements than risking losing your snazzy
more of the scene. HDMI or charge cable required. without removing them. smartphone to a lake.
±R1,300 ±R4,600 ±R2,200 ±R2,600

/jj(
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THE BODY MECHANIC BY JACQUELINE DETWILER
THE SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY OF
HEALTH AND
WELLNESS
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY IMAGES
The Causes of Cancer

You may have already heard of big data, but you probably don’t
know about LUDMIL ALEXANDROV, the researcher who’s
identifying what causes cancer, one petabyte at a time.

THE ONLY ROAD MAP scientists have to help them
A CHINESE HERB cure cancer looks like one of those early renderings of the
DNA contains four bases Amazon River – questionable tributaries and threatening
(C, A, G, and T). These graphs blank spaces. The available information they have to help determine
show how carcinogenic what causes the disease is even less instructive. To continue the
substances change them map metaphor, it’s like a napkin sketch of Pietermaritzburg. Drawn
to cause cancer. In this case, in crayon. By a toddler.
the substance is a medicinal
To make sense of it, computational biologist Ludmil Alexandrov
herb called Aristolochia.
is sorting through tumour samples from 22 different countries at
the University of California, San Diego, Supercomputer Center –
on a computer so enormous it has a name: Comet. The idea is to let
Comet crunch thousands of genetic samples until it zeroes in on the
first molecular insults they have in common – mutations that can
cause a normal cell to become cancerous. These so-called mutational
signatures, and the biological or environmental factors that cause
them, are what doctors and scientists have spent decades searching
for: the causes of cancer.
So far, Alexandrov’s algorithm has found
90 mutational signatures. Many are created
by known carcinogens, such as tobacco, UV
light, and the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and
BRCA2. ‘Probably 40 of them we understand
well,’ he says. ‘But more than half, we just
TOBACCO don’t know what they are.’
Doctors already knew that Alexandrov’s team feeds Comet reams
tobacco could cause cancer, of data about the samples, trying to find
but Alexandrov’s work showed out why, for example, the rate of prostate
how – by preferentially mutating cancer is 100 times higher in Scandinavia
certain bases (such as cytosine) than in South America. ‘We try to associate
into others (adenine). the signatures we find with epidemiological
characteristics, clinical characteristics, gene I want to
expression,’ Alexandrov says. Sometimes see how this
he gets a hit. A corn mould appeared in one interacts
analysis. A plant called Aristolochia, which with our
is popular in Chinese medicine, popped up genetic
in another. material.
Here’s what you just read: A pervasive Are some
mould and a popular Chinese medicine both people
cause cancer, and one guy in San Diego with immune?
a supercomputer just proved it. Imagine if he – Ludmil
could figure out what causes the other 50 or Alexandrov,
so signatures. computational
CORN MOULD Unfortunately, determining the cause of biologist,
Some moulds that grow in food an unknown mutational signature can take UC San Diego
crops such as corn, wheat, rice, an enormous amount of time and money:
and seeds release a carcinogen Alexandrov’s latest project grant, to use the
called aflatoxin. In the US, the computer for an analysis of just 5 000 patients, clocked in at
FDA tests for it, and recalls $30 million (±R400 million), and even with that much, his team
have been issued. couldn’t evaluate every variable they wanted. It’s disappointing
that the work is so expensive, Alexandrov says, because scientists
with less money might have smart ideas for what to test, and
finding even a single new cause of cancer could drastically
reduce deaths.
For example: When another team expanded Alexandrov’s
work on Aristolochia, they found that the plant can be considered
responsible for 80 per cent of liver cancer in Taiwan. ‘If you find
something that causes 80 per cent of cancers, you can think
about preventing 80 per cent of cancers,’ says Alexandrov.
That statement may sound tautological on the surface.
But read it again. Because wow.

GREAT PARTS AND SERVICE
THE UNSTEALABLE CAR

BY E Z R A DY E R
VERIZON HUM X
The Humx consists of a plug for the OBD port that gathers vehicle data, and a wireless Bluetooth speaker that
clips to your sun visor. If you wake up to an empty space where your car was parked the night before, open
the Humx phone app and you can see your car’s location. But the idea isn’t to help you find the perp and go
all vigilante. The Humx is there to say that the owner is watching. Because unplugging it triggers an alert, too.
±R200 per month
UST
HA IV
X
E
E
THE
TEST
T HE CLUB
;OLYL»ZHZJYL^KL]PJLZWLJPÄJHSS`KLZPNULK[VIYLHRP[YLWVTLUSV]LP[3LNLUKOHZP[[OH[[OPL]LZ^V\SKMYLLaL
the bar with liquid nitrogen, then shatter it with a hammer. Or you can just hacksaw the steering wheel. But what
about simple tools and brute force? We took a drill to the lock, then hammered in a screwdriver, snapping the welds
HUKYLSLHZPUNVULVM[OLOVVRZ+PZX\HSPÄLK&5HO3PRLHSS[OLZLKL]PJLZ;OL*S\I»ZQVIOHZHS^H`ZILLU[V
announce that this car is more trouble than it’s worth. Thirty-two years later, it still does. ±R560
COURTESY IMAGES
In a modern car, even basic components are packed with technology. hat’s why a 2016 Nissan
P H O T O G R A P H Y:
Altima is so convenient, so safe – and why replacement headlights can cost more than R26,300.
hose expensive parts have increased demand for black-market discount alternatives. Pair that
with security gaps in features such as remote unlocking and push-to-start, and auto theft is up in
the US: 4 per cent in 2017, and 7,4 per cent in 2016. So how can you convince an opportunistic thief
to move on to an Altima that’s not yours? We tested three high-tech deterrents – and he Club.
OWL CAR CAM

If this dashcam detects motion in
or near your car when you’re not
in it, LEDs light up the interior, and
it sends live video straight to your
phone and to Owl – even if a thief
steals it, you’ll still have his photo.
The device also has a speaker, so
if you get an alert, you can say,
‘Hey, you, with the soul patch and
the Insane Clown Posse tee, just
letting you know that my steering
wheel is covered with botulism!’
And that the cops are on the way.
±R3 900 plus
±R132 per month
MISSION DARKNESS
FAR ADAY BAG
This pouch is made of fabric
woven with conductive metals
that block any electronic signal
from getting in or out. If you park
within range of your key fob,
stash it inside this bag to stop
a thief from copying the signal.
Even with the flap open, our
tester Jaguar XF couldn’t read
the real key’s signal from inside
the car. Unconcerned with
aesthetics? We found that
two layers of aluminium foil
work just as well.
±R237

GREAT NEW STUFF
FOR THE LOVE OF GADGETS
HUAWEI
FREEBUDS
Compiled by BRENDON PETERSEN ([email protected])
Wireless earbuds are all the rage, so it should come

as no surprise that Huawei has introduced its own
wireless buds.
The FreeBuds look remarkably similar to Apple’s
AirPods, and even offer analogous gesture controls
and auto-pause. However, unlike the 5 hour battery life
of the AirPods, the FreeBuds promise up to 10 hours.
The buds offer a double-tap control to activate the
voice assistant, play or pause music, and to answer
or end calls.
One of the major complaints with Apple’s AirPods
has been that they tend to fall out of some people’s ears.
Huawei has addressed this by adding silicone tips to the
FreeBuds and including additional tips in a variety of
sizes in the box. And unlike AirPods, you can get them
in white or black.
FreeBuds also make use of AAC technology – basically
the successor to MP3 – which offers vastly improved
sound quality.
Available in black or white,

at selected retailers from
September. R2 499

GREAT NEW STUFF
LAND ROVER EXPLORE SMARTPHONE

When we first heard about a Land Rover
branded phone, we thought that this was just
another marketing gimmick. We were wrong.
The phone has fairly standard specs for a
2018 Android device: IP68 rating, 4 000 mAh
battery, 16 MP rear-facing camera with PDAF
technology, an 8 MP selfie camera, a 5-inch
TFT FHD display, 4 GB RAM and 64 GB
on-board storage. FITBIT ACE
What makes this phone special, though, Fitness trackers for kids
is the way it has been optimised for anyone are a thing now, thanks to
who loves being outdoors. the new Fitbit Ace. Created
Not only is the phone tough and durable for children aged eight and
thanks to its MIL-STD 810G rating, it also up, the Ace has a fully
has a fantastic add-on in the form of an adjustable showerproof
adventure pack. This attaches to the back wristband and up to
of the handset magnetically, similar to those five days’ battery life.
Moto Mods on Motorola phones, and adds Because this device is
an additional 3 600 mAh battery, as well as aimed at children, Fitbit
a 25 × 25 mm ceramic patch GPS antenna. has ensured that parental
The phone comes with the ViewRanger app, consent is required in
an all-in-one GPS app designed for adventure order to set up an account,
seekers, as well as the customisable Outdoor and this gives parents the
Dashboard app, which brings together useful final word on who their
data such as your altitude, bearing the weather children connect with
and more in one easy-to-find place. via the device.
The Ace allows you to
control which stats your
children see, so parents
can choose not to let the
kids dwell on calorie intake
or weight and body fat –
and still keep an eye
on their well-being.
Included in the box is the handset, the

adventure pack, a bike pack and a karabiner.
ruggedphones.co.za
02 03takealot.com, R1 589

DJI RONIN S
DJI recently launched
this 3-axis handheld
gimbal, designed to
stabilise video and
photo captured on
a DSLR camera.
Able to support a
DSLR up to 3.6 kg in
weight, the Ronin-S
is also easy to set up
thanks to Auto Tune,
which is located on
the gimbal itself. Orms, R13 399
The Ronin-S has up
to 12 hours of battery
life, and the companion
app allows you to film
panoramas, time-lapse
shots and more.
04
GREAT NEW STUFF
HUAWEI ENVIZION 360 CAMERA

Huawei recently jumped on the
immersive-picture-and-video trend
by releasing its own 360° camera.
Unlike other 360° cameras, the
EnVizion 360 Camera plugs into
your phone’s USB-C port, making
it compatible with a wide range of
Android handsets.
The back-to-back 13 MP cameras
each house a 210° wide-angle lens
on either side and let you capture
5K photos and 2K video.
You’ll be able to capture, view
and edit your 360° photos in
panorama, fisheye, planet
or VR modes.
Cellucity, R2 199
05
06
P R I C E S C O R R E C T AT T I M E O F P R I N T A N D S U B J E C T T O C H A N G E .
LENOVO YOGA 730

Lenovo’s Yoga range has set the
standard for convertible laptops,
so it should come as no surprise

that the company is bringing the
new 730 to SA.
Available in either a 13.3-inch
or 15.6-inch display, the 730 has
the latest-generation Intel i7
processors, a touchscreen, and
stylus capabilities.
It comes with Windows 10
Home, rapid charge and up to
11½ hours’ battery life.
Available in the last quarter of 2018

INNOVATION SUMMIT
Eternal FLAME
OFF GRID INNOVATIONS AND THEIR IHARVEY ARE THE WINNERS

OF THE POPULAR MECHANICS READERS’ INVENTOR OF THE YEAR
AWARD AT THE SA INNOVATION SUMMIT INVENTOR’S GARAGE.

he idea started in 2011, most off-grid households use without
when the tablets-as- having to modify them.’
textbooks-replacement At this stage, Goldberg approached
cart was placed before the mechanical engineer Paul van Lingen
underpriviledged-children- with his idea, who suggested a paraffin lamp
don’t-even-have-electricity be used as the heat source. Some 18 prototypes
horse. Luckily, the founders and multiple variations later, the pair realised
quickly changed strategy that standard wicker holders and chimneys
to better serve the needs caused too much heat loss to allow the system
of the communities they first identified. to produce usable electricity and that led to
‘According to Statistics South Africa, 49 the design of the wick-based burner.
of South Africa’s 213 local and metropolitan Thanks to his experience in combustion
municipalities maintain they are “servicing control, Van Lingen was able to produce
indigent households with at least one form of a burner which reduced emissions by
off-grid energy”,’says Allan Goldberg, 83 per cent and reduced emissions from
MD of Off Grid Innovations. ‘We decided 40 mg/m3 down to 0,01 mg/m3.
to investigate the possibility of using The new burner provided enough
photovoltaics (solar), but soon realised we heat thanks to a design that optimised
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WREULQJEDVLFHOHFWULFLW\DQGPRGHUQ
DFFHVVRULHVWRWKRVHZKRQHHGLWŲ
would have to rethink our idea because of heat rather than light as the primary
the required size of the panel needed in function – which is how standard paraffin
order to provide reliable functionality in all lanterns operate.
weather conditions.’ ‘The TEG structure and electronics were
That, combined with the setup and optimised to give us what we have today,
maintenance costs, as well as not being which is probably one of the most fuel-
completely user-friendly, meant that the efficient power generators on the market,’
company had to look at other alternatives. explains Goldberg. ‘In December 2012, we
During this time, Goldberg, an electrical made prototypes in order to test our design
engineer by trade, was experimenting with and show off the functional product to
thermoelectric power-generating modules that investors.’ The design was well received, and
harvest energy using the Seebeck Effect: when the unit is now almost exactly the same as
a difference in temperature between two the successful prototype, with a few minor
different electrical conductors produces a aesthetic changes. FerroTec joined as
voltage difference between the two. ‘This partners shortly after, and iHarvey was born.
made us wonder whether we could we produce You can buy an iHarvey for R1 500 at
enough usable electricity using heat sources sustainable.co.za
THE BIG IDEA:

iHarvey works by converting heat produced by burning fuel into electricity.
It produces a continuous output of 5 Wat 5 V. It can power between three LED
C O U R T E SY I M A G E S
lamps and a USB device (such as a cellphone) at the same time.

P H O T O G R A P H Y:
It uses only 35 ml paraffin per hour, burns clean with 0 ppm CO2 and 0,01 mg/m3
of particulates, and is acceptable for use indoors in an unventilated room.

18 NOVEMBER 2018
R1800 INCLUDES: Dream Rider registration, charity start time, goodie bag,
ALL NEW cycling shirt and access to the VIP hospitality tent after the race.
[email protected]
FARM TO FORK
ED
RY
R C
U NA
O L I
S
- CU
R M O PUTTING FOOD ON THE
A
F RYP T BLOCKCHAIN MAY STOP THE
NEXT LISTERIOSIS OUTBREAK
BEFORE IT HAPPENS.
www.popularmechanics.co.za
C BY T I A N A C L I N E
SEPTEMBER 2018 39
FARM TO FORK
ACCORDING TO A REPORT BY blockchain. Transactions are recorded brokers. Zimbabwe has already signed
PricewaterhouseCoopers, food fraud in blocks that are linked and secured. a memorandum of understanding
costs the global food industry around These records are verified and stored with the group for a fully integrated
$40 billion every year. We’re talking across a network, making the ledger Financial and Commodities Ecosystem
about the horsemeat scandals, rat meat difficult to tamper with. (FinComEco) to provide enablement
sold as mutton, methanol in whisky, ‘The really interesting part is that solutions and capacity building for the
salmonella in peanut butter, and recent blockchain, this incredible combination country’s agricultural sector. Early
listeriosis outbreaks of varying degrees of capabilities in computing, connecti- impact estimates peg the GDP to grow
in South Africa, Australia and Europe. vity and cryptography, has applications by 1,5 times between 2018 and 2022,
The World Health Organization not only in the financial world, but creating about 630 000 (combined
estimates that around 1 in 10 people in any transactional environment,’ direct and indirect) jobs.
becomes ill every single year from explains Dr Adriana Marais, head of Zimbabwean farmers will benefit
eating contaminated food, but the innovation at SAP. ‘The question of from better crop prices, and see
main issue is that when there is a how to verify, secure and manage reductions in loan-repayment rates
food scandal, it can take weeks, if identity and [data] is more pertinent because the proposed blockchain
not months, to solve the bigger food- today than ever before.’ system is transparent. This should
system jigsaw puzzle and isolate the Companies and global research give smaller farmers far better insight
issue. And not destroying or recalling centres are in the process of developing into interest rates and commodities
problem products in a timely fashion portable technologies – DNA barcodes, trading and, ultimately, democratise
can have serious consequences. if you will, that will allow consumers to the sector’s financial system by
This is a socio-economic issue that check the content of food labels. Just maximising its earning potential.
extends beyond the bottom line, which imagine being able to test your grocery
is why it’s time to re-examine the supply haul at home, or in the shops, to see if TRUST IN FOOD
chain as a whole. Food supply chains that palm-oil product was fair trade and Labelling a product as organic, cruelty-
are becoming increasingly intricate. not detrimental to the planet or the free, or sustainable is a very popular
From farm to fork, we expect that food people producing it. Wouldn’t you like marketing tactic, which is why we need
producers should be able to provide us to know if that punnet of glistening to start asking ourselves what these
with honest, straightforward answers red strawberries is truly organic and labels really mean. Who determines if
to questions we have around ethics and grown without pesticides? something is organic? How do they do
transparency. The reality is that there According to iBOL (the International it? Can we trust it? And, if a deal is too
is still work to be done to achieve this Barcode of Life Project – the project good to be true, could it mean that
vision. Blockchain technology can help. to build a barcoded reference library of your bottle of extra virgin olive oil
DNA for every living thing), by about isn’t Italian in origin, but French?
MORE THAN BITCOIN… 2167, we will be able to identify single And does it matter?
While the most common association specimens of every organism on the Today’s more ethically conscious
with blockchain technology so far has planet, as well as routinely spot species consumer demands answers, insists on
been cryptocurrency – be it Bitcoin, among millions of organisms. They transparency and, most of all, wants to
Ethereum, Dash, Monero or countless also say we will do all of this without ensure a product marked ‘Organic’ or
others – the secure nature of this sending samples to a lab. ‘Free range’ lives up to its label. This is
relatively new tech has led to exciting In sub-Saharan Africa, Global more than a trust issue: It has massive
uses, from tracking blood diamonds to Markets Exchange Group International socio-economic repercussions.
tracing the origins of your avocados LLP can create a blockchain-based ‘Our food system lacks transparency
and olive oil. platform for African commodity markets and trust,’ explains IBM’s Nigel Gopie
The main technology underlying to help connect farmers with buyers and
all of this is a distributed ledger, or
BUT HOW DOES IT WORK

Blockchain adds an extra level of security to the food
industry. It completes the story by enabling an accurate
view of food as it becomes digitised on its journey from
the farm to the store, and then your plate – think producers,
suppliers and retailers. Consumers can use a smartphone
to scan a QR code on the package to obtain information
at each stage of production, including where and how the
chickens were raised and what they were fed, as well as
where the meat was processed. It’s about uncovering
a complete history of their food’s journey.

in a company blog post:
‘Current processes conse-
quently do not provide the
complete end-to-end food-
supply-chain transparency
and assurances that many
consumers demand. Misla-
belled food poses food-
safety concerns and costs
consumers extra. For instance,
mislabelled fish is more likely
to contain toxins, increased
levels of antibiotics, and with a beef manufacturer in
environmental chemicals Mongolia, using blockchain
such as mercury.’ to track the production and
Millions of us are duped delivery of frozen beef. This
daily into buying pricier means that people living in
products that do not meet Shanghai, Beijing and other
organic standards. Which major cities in China can
is why IBM’s Food Trust is easily find out more about
so important. Powered by the their meat – from when the
IBM Blockchain Platform, the cow was born to what it was
Food Trust is a collaborative eating – before it’s served up
web of growers, processors, on their dinner tables.
wholesalers, distributors, And in the US, Walmart
manufacturers, retailers and is turning to blockchain as a
others, enhancing visibility food-safety solution because
and accountability in each when there is a food scare,
step of food supply. It directly there is not only a need for
connects participants via a transparency (telling the
permissioned, permanent consumer what is going on),
and shared record of food- but also efficiency (how soon
origin details, processing you get the guilty product
data, shipping details and off-shelf) and speed. Is the
much more. Blockchain product in question really
makes it easier to detect the culprit?
fraudulent companies by
providing a detailed history IN BLOCKCHAIN
of food items. WE TRUST
One interesting example Bridget van Kralingen, IBM’s
is with China’s second-largest New York-based senior VP
current e-commerce platform, for global industries,
JD.com. It’s working closely

FARM TO FORK
platforms and blockchain, locally produced food, and

told Popular Mechanics this that is why IBM’s Asian food-
is essentially about validating, safety alliance is so important.
verifying, recalling and showing ‘As a business model, and
where food really comes from. as an enterprise mindset, it
‘It’s explicitly for food is good for everyone to have
provenance and origin. It’s provenance. In the IBM Food
asking: is that tin of baby Trust, the groups involved
formula actually made from realised none of them (as
the good stuff that I expect it individual companies) could
to be made from? It’s huge in solve these global food issues
terms of merging blockchain individually – they had to
with the physical supply chain,’ solve it collectively.’
adds Van Kralingen. People want others to be
In 2008, a scandal broke treated fairly. And this is what
when it was discovered that a blockchain promises for future
popular brand of baby formula food economies. It’s about
in China was tainted with the helping people make trust-
industrial chemical melamine. worthy food choices for them-
The scandal involved other selves and their families, and
food materials (but mainly their communities as a whole.
dietary supplements) and ‘This is not just a proof
it’s estimated that there were of concept, and not a one-off
more than 300 000 victims, meal. Dozens of items are now
54 000 of which were babies on the blockchain, representing
who had to be hospitalised. hundreds of thousands of
Today, Chinese shoppers are transactions. There’s no hype;
sceptical of the quality of it’s real,’ says Gopie.
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE MISLABELLING?
In 2012, Castle Cheese Inc was busted by the US Food and Drug Admini-
stration (FDA) on a tip that its Parmesan wasn’t quite right. It turned out
that the Pennsylvania-based manufacturer was filling its sprinklers with
cellulose, a common anti-clumping agent made from wood pulp, and, in
some cases, simply using cheaper cheddar. On further investigation into
more imported Parmesan brands, it turned out that grated hard cheese
marketed as Parmesan to unsuspecting cheese lovers was mostly an artful
combination of Swiss, white Cheddar, Havarti, Mozzarella and cellulose.
How do you solve a problem like mislabelling? A block(chain) of cheese?
Carrefour, Europe’s largest retailer, has blockchains in place it uses
to verify the origins of its honey, eggs, cheese, milk, oranges, tomatoes,
salmon and even hamburgers. It also uses a blockchain to trace the
production of free-range chicken in the Auvergne region in central France.
Fish-loving Finnish consumers can now trace a purchased fish fillet all
the way back to the actual lake where the fish was caught, thanks to
S-Group’s Pike-perch radar solution. All they need to do is scan the QR
Code on the package of Kotimaista-kuhafile fish, or use a tracking website.

SNAPT
MAKE IT FASTER
MERCHANTS
SPEED
SNAPT IS A LOCAL START-UP THAT CRACKED
THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET BEFORE THE
BUBBLE POPPED.

Do you want to know how your favourite websites open
quickly? So did we, so we called up Snapt co-founders
Dave Blakey and Douglas Cherry to explain it all to us.
You may have spotted the company name in the ‘Women
Who Make SA Work’ story in last month’s issue of PM.
Snapt develops high-end solutions for application delivery,
load balancing, web acceleration, caching and security
for critical services. The company has been disrupting
the market since 2012, and achieved year-on-year
growth of 500 per cent in both 2015 and 2016.
Products and services are designed to improve and
protect clients’ virtual infrastructure while providing
fast delivery and a stellar customer experience. The
ultimate ambition is to stay on the cutting edge, with
a product that is powerful and easy to use. With some
of the biggest companies in the world on their books –
NASA, Target, MTV and Intel – we can’t see any reason
for Snapt to not dominate for years to come.
POPULAR MECHANICS: Please explain what

Snapt does to us as though we are 12 years old
Doug and Dave: At 12, kids these days are busy
writing their own games, but here goes… Snapt is the
leading software-only application delivery controller
(ADC). We ensure that business-critical websites or
services can handle huge amounts of traffic, are always
online and lightning fast, and are secure from attackers.
PM: Load balancing is a very dynamic process,

but why is it so hard that Snapt is the only
company offering the service on the continent?
DD: Firstly, Africa has some incredible talent available,
especially in the field of technology and computing.
Load balancing has become something of a commodity
term – anyone sending traffic to two servers is a load
balancer. The field in which we compete is about taking
a holistic look at the performance of something critical
to a client’s business. We take responsibility for the
delivery of your content, API, news or e-commerce
store, for instance, and look to massively improve every
component. This is a large and deeply technical solution
with millions of lines of code. Operating at the level we
do, it would be fair to say there are very few companies
globally that do what we do. It’s great for us to be able to
represent the African continent in this field of technology,
knowing that we help to keep some of the biggest and
most well-known websites online and performing at their
peak, no matter the circumstances.
PM: Let’s talk about the future of cloud

computing? It’s all just server farms built
on rapidly improving hardware. Who wins
the hardware war: Nvidia with Volta/Tesla,
or Google’s TPU?
DD: In some ways, neither! Cloud computing means
so many different things to different people, but this
question is really asking where computing power will
come from. With so many IoT devices coming online,
computational power will become a much more open
and shared market, where devices all over the world
can be used to process information as a mesh. Which
players manage that, and with what currency (crypto,
potentially) will be the exciting part.

Snapt
In terms of cloud computing, a really interesting really hard. 65 per cent of generosity in leaning in to help
as of today, just as everyone project making use our sales are from the US and us through opening up their
went from tin (hardware) to of Snapt’s services? we are doubling down in that networks and giving us advice.
VM (virtual machines), and We can’t say, unfortunately, market. We’re working with We feel that we have so much
from VM to the cloud, the but Snapt is used by large some cutting-edge technology that is positive to work with
next step will be towards micro- educational bodies, a few partners and continuing to and leverage precisely because
services and containerisation government departments, build really amazing products; we are South Africans.
– vendor-neutral, bare-bones, healthcare groups, banks and we just need to keep doing
efficient systems that can be e-commerce. Snapt has also this consistently, and stay true PM: Outside of some
scaled or moved with ease. As been used in some pretty to our values and culture, and coding knowledge, what’s
this continues to take hold, notable scientific studies hopefully we’ll still be having the most important skill
it is likely to spawn massive relating to our solar system, a lot of fun along the way. to have right now?
distributed mesh networks. which is really neat. We also Dave: Problem solving.
We’re really excited to be have the largest music- and PM: Why is Snapt We don’t hire developers –
a part of this future. pop-culture content providers, based in South Africa? we hire problem solvers. No
as well as a favourite kids toy, Dave: The founders are one starts with knowledge of
PM: Tell us more about and now content and gaming all South African! Moving all the programming languages
pay-per-hour virtual companies as clients. forward, though, we can’t we use, but they can learn
machines – how do they In a way, Snapt is very much wait to leverage the growing them quickly.
make running websites a behind-the-scenes solution, talent pool available in South What we absolutely need is
more efficient? but it’s really awesome to know Africa to compete with global someone who can understand
DD: The Snapt ADC is also that we play an important part players – we have amazing a client’s needs, the network,
a powerful web accelerator. in some extremely exciting people here, and it’s easier and also how to think about
This means simple things local and global companies. than ever to work globally, implementing, debugging, and
like caching and off-loading creating solutions for the needs
computationally expensive of today and tomorrow. I don’t
processes from your web
server, but, much more
‘If an e-commerce site is making even have a matric, and I’ve
never looked at a developers’
interestingly, it means
accelerating content to your $100 000 per day, a one-second university results. It’s all about
how you think, and you can
users. We all understand
changing a website from
loading in 20 seconds to 5
page delay can cost you about train yourself to approach
things in the right way by
tackling difficult problems.
seconds being important, but
did you know how important
$2,5 million in lost sales every year’ Doug: I’d rather phrase it as
a change from 3 seconds to what I think is really important
2,5 seconds can be? For this reason, we try ensure so we intend to continue to the business and, without a
If an e-commerce site is we are assisting the start-up using and growing great doubt, I would say its culture.
making $100 000 per day, and smaller DevOps environ- talent in South Africa. Snapt has an incredible product
a one-second page delay can ments, too, because we are and the company is on a great
cost you about $2,5 million always wondering what the Doug: We are very proud to path, but it’s the people who
in lost sales every year. The next great technology, service be South African and we are will really get us to where we
Obama fundraising campaign or idea will be to emerge, and always going to celebrate our ultimately want to be. We set
increased its donation rate by we want to be a small part of roots here. We also have an ourselves pretty lofty goals as
14 per cent just by decreasing all of these incredible stories. incredible talent pool, as Dave an organisation, and we know
page loads from 5 seconds to points out, as well as a great that success will be found in
2 seconds. PM: What’s the next way of life and, for now, we the tiniest of margins.
This is done transparently step for the company? wouldn’t want to be anywhere We are building an incredible
using Snapt, and requires Dave: Expansion. Snapt is else. What is also amazing is team that truly believes in our
no additional knowledge or the best solution for next-gen how much goodwill there is mission, that is supportive of
tweaks to your web server ADC deployments, and we are globally towards South Africa. one another, works as a unit
or website. aggressively developing our So many people in Silicon and solves problems instead of
We’ve also found that we are brand and awareness over Valley have worked with or creating friction, and it is this
saving our average customer the next 12 months. We’ll be know South Africans and they that will ultimately determine
more than 40 per cent of their expanding around the globe, really love to tell stories about if we are those fractions better
hosting fees by improving attending more shows, and how they have some or other than the rest.
their infrastructure efficiency just getting the product in connection to SA. There is This is something we, as the
this way, which has a material front of as many people also a really successful South company’s leaders, focus a lot
impact on most any business. as we can. African diaspora who are well of our energy on building and
connected and have learned sustaining, and it’s a pleasure
PM: We know you Doug: We’re growing fast at a lot of the lessons that we to be able to work with such
probably can’t divulge the moment, and we need to are currently trying to learn, a cosmopolitan group of
client names, but what’s make sure we keep pushing and they have an incredible genuinely great people.

GETTING SNAPT
Dave Blakey started tinkering

in computer science at high
school with a strong interest
in next-generation software
networking. His background
is rooted in network security
and programming and he is
very active in the open-source
community and in creating
software solutions.
Serial entrepreneur Doug
Cherry came to Snapt as an
investor with venture-capital
fund 4Di Capital – before
Snapt was an actual product.
His partners at 4Di were very
supportive of his deepening
involvement in the business.

FACTORIES
Inside
BY LINDSE Y SCHUT TERS
Billions of rands are pouring into SA factories. We see what

they’re being spent on and why labour unions are still upset.

The manufacturing sector accounts for
about 13 per cent of South Africa’s GDP
(the fourth-largest contributing sector) and
it’s estimated that every R1 of investments
adds R1,13 to the economy. We’re a nation
of makers; this is how we build things.
South
African
Manufacturing
FACTORIES
Rumours of South African manufacturing's demise

have been greatly exaggerated. Things are obviously the Ranger, which stretched to 6 391 export units
on a downturn right now, but automakers alone in July 2018.
account for about seven per cent of the country’s Mercedes-Benz boasts the latest high-profile
gross domestic product, and a third of our overall investment, expanding C-Class production at its
manufacturing output. And government has big East London assembly plant. The C-Class is by far
plans for expansion. The target output for 2030 is the biggest export car made in South Africa (9 179
1,5 million units per year, with a healthy portion units in July) and R10 billion is money well spent
of that going to the export market. to increase production of the popular C43 and C63
There’s only one problem, though: The industry performance families alongside the standard models.
is currently hitting production highs of 600 000 But that’s only one sector of local manufacturing
units per year, and while demand isn’t exactly that’s currently on a good wicket. It may not seem
falling, global economic pressures have seen like it because most of your clothes and shoes were
customers hang on to their vehicles for longer. made in the East, but those industries are also
There’s also the improvements in public transport experiencing a bit of an upswing. Interestingly,
to contend with. It seems that South Africa is there are far fewer government incentives for
making carts to illicit a horse response. these companies to do so; it’s more innovation
That said, things aren’t bad right now. Investment out of necessity. K-Way, for example, has taken
is pouring in and international brands are expanding a commanding lead in its market through quality
operations. Ford Motor Company South Africa was enhancements and efficient practice. Bolton Footwear
among the first to invest billions. The money went is starting to turn things around in what has long
mostly to its Silverton assembly plant in Pretoria been considered a dying industry. But I’m getting
and Struandale engine plant in Port Elizabeth. This ahead of myself. Let’s lift the curtain on what is
move was to feed southern-hemisphere demand for going on in the factories.

South Africa exported a
total of 222 252 vehicles in
2017, which translates to
R165 bn. The UK was our
biggest customer by far
(54 402 units), with the US,
France, Japan and Turkey
rounding out the top five.
FACTORIES
The China factor
The vision of the completed BAIC plant

Here’s the thing about developing markets: At some
stage, you just stop developing. The Chinese consumer
market has matured, and the country now needs to
find its own China to keep up with consumer demand,
and offset labour costs for the export market. Luckily
for them (and us), there’s an entire continent made up
of developing markets that is in desperate need of jobs,
hospitals and schools to help lift themselves out of
poverty. Africa is also rich in natural resources, and
the global rules the world is trying to force China to
comply with don’t really apply to our continent.
In 1971, the UN General Assembly voted on which
government would represent China. The US opposed
the People’s Republic of China and was supported by
much of the African continent – the PRC won the vote
and has represented China ever since. When the General
Assembly was called in 2007 to decide on what should
be done about human-rights violations in North Korea,
China received the backing of the bulk of Africa.
Why the turnaround in voting allegiance? Two words:
Economic influence.
Rail networks in Kenya and Addis Ababa, hydro-
electricity in Guinea and now a massive automotive
production plant in South Africa’s Coega industrial
development zone in Port Elizabeth – China is taking
up the risky investments no other country is willing to
touch. And this is all Africa needs to get its foot in the
economic-development door.
The hidden clause to these low- or no-interest loans
and foreign investments is two-fold. On one hand,
China is stacking its global influence so it can win
decisive votes – like those that could bring economic
harm to its global partners – and on the other, it buys
industrial capacity.
Years of double-digit economic growth have seen
the Chinese population transition into a middle-class
society through improvements in their education and
working conditions. When everyone wants to be an
engineer, you’ll suddenly find yourself lacking a labour
force, and when cheap labour was your stock-in-trade,
you’ll suddenly find yourself with a big problem.
You need look no further than the trade activity
between China and Africa for evidence of the deep
influence. In 2016, that trade of goods equated to

$128 bn, and it continues to rise. Investment, however, Currently the PE plant is assembling SKD units of
has been quite flat, with $12 bn in loans and foreign the X25, with a bakkie and SUV going into production
aid coming from China in 2015, along with $3 bn in in the near future. The goal is to have 60 per cent
investment across the whole continent. local production done on-site, with a panel-stamping
The Beijing Automotive International Corporation shop and supplier park being added in phase three of
(BAIC) plant in the Eastern Cape saw the first semi- development. By 2019, the plant is set to have created
knockdown (SKD) car roll off its assembly line on 24 around 1 400 jobs, rising to 2 500 when the project is
July 2018. We were in attendance at the gala event at complete. Production estimates are at 100 000 units
the plant, which included a live stream to Pretoria, per year.
where Presidents Ramaphosa and Jinping pressed Industrial Development Corporation chairperson
the button for a BAIC X25 to be wheeled out on stage. Busi Mabusa attended the event and confirmed that
This gala happened on the eve of the 10th annual those job totals unfortunately include the construction
BRICS summit in Joburg, and it was clear that the jobs that will become redundant once the plant is
buildings we were standing in had a tough deadline. complete. Although the temporary employment is
When completed, the R11 bn facility will represent much needed in the community, it does inflate the
the largest Chinese investment into Africa. This plant job-creation impact by almost 50 per cent. A hefty
is also the first of four global headquarters that are sum by anyone’s count.
the focus of BAIC’s international expansion. Mexico BAIC has pledged to achieve 90–95 per cent local
and India represent the gateway to the Americas and employment from the community and will also offer
the subcontinent, while South Africa is the gateway training at an academy on-site. These skills will also
into Africa. Further expansion in greater China will be transferable to the other plants in the area, such
service the Asian market. as FAW just across the highway.

Presidents Jinping and
Ramaphosa were on hand
for a live crossing to the
Handmade tale
BAIC launch festivities and
pressed the ceremonial Selwyn van Aarde runs the Bolton Footwear plant in
button to get manufacturing Elsie’s River in Cape Town, and knows shoe manufacturing
started at the plant. from the ground up. The threat of Chinese imports is
always there because of the sustained cheap labour
and poor union system, but he believes many of the
company’s retail problems come from brand positioning
and pricing. Van Aarde started out as a floor sweeper
at the Barker Footwear factory in nearby Epping, and
now oversees operations after Bolton took over the old
Jordan factory.
‘I started at Barker 39 years ago. Things have changed,
but there is still demand for formal shoes,’ says Van
Aarde. ‘If you look at the number of leather-sole shoes
going into retail, we only take about three per cent of
the market, and I’m convinced there is a gap there for
us. Welted construction is unique. There are only two
companies in South Africa that can do it.’
The Goodyear welt is a mechanised version of a
hand-stitched welt. Shoes are stitched and cemented
to the outsoles, creating an exceptionally strong bond.
Although there is an entire production line of specialised
machinery to achieve this bond, each shoe is handled
individually through each process and therefore can
still be classified as fully handmade.
‘The emphasis should be on the features of the shoe,
how long it keeps and the overall quality. This used to
be called the “banker’s shoe”,’ he says, grabbing a pair
of exquisitely crafted Barkers. ‘I still don’t think our
Proud tradition marketing is where it should be.’
Elsie’s River With Bronx, Barker and Crockett & Jones all being
in C ap e To w n manufactured under the same roof, marketing lines
used to be a were blurred in the past and Van Aarde attributes that
manufacturing to the decline of Bronx in the retail space. ‘Barker and
hub, housing a Crockett are still up there when it comes to the South
thriving textile African market. In the townships, these get handed
community and down from generation to generation. With Bronx,
the Leyland the quality isn’t as high, but the price jumped quite
factor y. It has considerably because of the economic climate. The
since fallen consumers didn’t respond well to this,’ he explains.
victim to poor ‘I believe that each brand has a signature and that got
zoning and lost over time. Barker and Crockett, for instance are
been overrun identical in construction and materials, but Barker
by years of has a plastic heel and then sits just below Crockett.’
gang violence Van Aarde is working with all the relevant parties
after the big to correct the pricing structure and create separation
companies among the different brands again. Besides for import
pulled out trade, he also laments the decline of leather production
of the area, in South Africa.
taking their
jobs with them.

FACTORIES
It’s now a 99 per cent import market for skins, and

the shoe manufacturers don’t have the same buying
power as the automotive market, which takes the lion’s
share. Shoe manufacturers are then left with so-called
small skins, which makes production planning more
difficult. You ideally want to fashion a pair out of the
same skin so that you get consistent characteristics.
Treating small skins is also a specialised process and
requires intensive training and skills development.
Walking the floor of a shoe factory is like taking
a step back in time. You start to realise how many
once-proud trades have fallen by the wayside because
of lack of investment. Bolton runs a training programme
for future managers and recruits from local tertiary
institutions for that.
Each prospective candidate starts in the factory,
spending time working on each station. When they
eventually ascend to the higher company structures,
they have a full understanding of the process they
are in charge of. There’s also the opportunity to get
to know the workers while working side by side.
While Bolton Footwear seems quite secure in the
market, with over 100 years of history to reference
from, the shoe-manufacturing industry in South Africa
is currently in a state of turmoil. Just two weeks after
our visit to the Elsie’s River factory, there were tense
demonstrations and tyre burning because of a union
wage dispute. Workers around the country had been
on strike for not receiving a 9,5 per cent increase. The
industry is instead sticking to their proposed increase
of just seven per cent.
Unnamed striking workers believe Bolton Footwear
to be the main holdout in the dispute, and that the
company is preventing the rest of the industry from
playing ball with union representatives.
These labour disputes come on the back of declining
revenues and increasing cost of living owing to a spike
in the fuel price and a poor-performing rand. These
factors are further aggravated by disruption in public
transport due to recurring train-, taxi- and bus-worker
strikes. It seems like the world is conspiring against
the factory workers right now.
56 SEPTEMBER 2018
Bolton Footwear was started
by Charles Searle in 1859,
before being bought by
Desmond Bolton in 1980.
The company supplied boots
to WWII soldiers and the
shoes Nelson Mandela
walked to freedom in.
FACTORIES
X marks the spot

Up in Pretoria, BMW South Africa has begun production
on the first X cars to be built outside the US. It was quite
a coup for the local arm of the company and brought in a
R6,1 bn investment from BMW AG. What swung this car
our way was the 45 years of excellent production work on
the 3-series for the global market.
‘At the time of the announcement, the investment was
the highest in the automotive industry in South Africa and
symbolic of our long-term commitment to the upliftment
of South Africa and its people,’ says Edward Makwana,
group communications manager for BMW South Africa.
‘The investment and production of the BMW X3 is in
line with the Automotive Production and Development
Programme (APDP), a production incentive run by the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) that’s linked to
production of motor vehicles in South Africa. Essentially,
being able to create jobs and keeping employment stable
is the biggest benefit.’
In July 2018, BMW SA sent more than 4 000 cars abroad
and doesn’t show signs of slowing down as demand for
the model surges. X cars represent 30 per cent of total
global passenger-car sales for the brand, and halo cars
such as the upcoming X7 are soon to break cover and
further drive desire for the product.
Locally, BMW has been a vocal advocate for the
automotive industry. The company has in the past led
talks on electrification and mobility solutions between
manufacturers and government stakeholders. As one of
the country’s largest exporters, the company is once again
engaging with its peers within South Africa and lobbying
government to make decisions on crucial policies.
‘With the APDP due to expire in 2020, BMW South
Africa is engaged in ongoing discussions for a long-term
replacement for the APDP to run until 2035, known as the
South African Automotive Masterplan (SAAM),’ Makwana
explains. ‘We are approaching the relevant departments in
government unilaterally and with other local manufacturers
/OEMs through the auspices of the National Association
of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA).’
While the investment of billions of rands into X3
production didn’t come with any specific employment
targets, the car’s local production will have a broad effect
on the larger supply chain. The BMW X3 has the most
locally made components of any BMW ever manufactured
in South Africa, and the company is constantly looking for
In May 2018, BMW South Africa

exported the first BMW X cars not
built at the Spartanburg plant in
the US from Rosslyn, Pretoria.

FACTORIES
ways to increase that percentage and further support

the South African supply chain. When we spoke to project
managers earlier this year, the number was around 35 per
cent local components, with SA companies even getting
involved in the infotainment system.
It seems one of the key employment considerations for
BMW SA is retaining the skills that the company invested
training and development efforts into. ‘BMW SA has a
highly qualified workforce. With its excellent reputation,
it is regarded as one of the most attractive employers.
Therefore, we always aim to retain our associates and
their skills, even in the toughest times; like we have
done in previous years, as well as in current economic
conditions,’ says Makwana.
‘The production of the BMW X3 has enabled us to keep
our employment numbers stable. Increased flexibility and
higher maximum-production capacity at BMW SA’s Rosslyn
plant creates improved prospects for the extended value
chain and our stakeholders.’
There is a hard truth behind all this optimism,
unfortunately. The premium-vehicle segment is under
significant pressure as consumers take the strain of poorly
received government policy. The overwhelming response
has been better tailoring of financing packages by all auto-
makers, as well as a stronger focus on customer desires.
We may be nearing the end of the manufacturing age,
but these companies have never made better products
and there have never been better deals. Unfortunately,
local economics don’t allow for mass spending.
That said, at least South Africa is still an important
player in making products for the world. Even if only
because our currency is weak, and, by extension, our
labour is cheap. People need jobs, and factories will
provide them.
BMW SA upgraded the X3 production line to cope with 71 000

cars per year, but quickly had to expand capacity to 76 000.
Big brands all
Come to south
Africa because
the labour is
cheap and the
quality is high,
but economic
growth needs
to come from
P H O T O G R A P H Y: L I N D S E Y S C H U T T E R S , C O U R T E SY I M A G E S
somewhere

The OCEANS of
PHOTOGRAPHY:
BY KEVIN DUPZYK
JUAN C GIRALDO
W EST 79TH STR EET

HOW SCIENT ISTS, CRAF TSPEOP LE A N D
DIGITAL ENGINEERS CREAT E AN EXH IB IT AT
THE A MERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL H IS T ORY.
PAGE
62
Opposite: Celeste Carballo chooses
from a palette of fluorescent paints
to create a unique glowing pattern
on a model fish.
This page: More than 200 completed
models hang from a steel structure
in the completed gallery. It’s known
as Fishnado.
THE SHAPE OF WATER
PREFACE preparators. He’ll retire in a few years of the elk’s mouth would be pitch black, and
after four decades in the department of that wouldn’t look real. The human visitors
THE MIRROR exhibition. Quinn tells Meah about all the would see that it didn’t look real. And even if
tricks the old preparators used on the they didn’t quite know why it didn’t look real,
The shiny floors of the Hall of North American dioramas in this hall, the oldest of which something would be slightly off, and that
Mammals at the American Museum of Natural date to the 1940s: marble dust for snow. would defeat the purpose for the museum-
History, normally echoing with the footfalls Motor oil as the dark, slick soil traversed by goers who trudged through Central Park
of 14 000 daily visitors, are quiet. In a glass a wet animal. Static electricity on puffs of in New York and into this place 3 200 km
case, 4,2 × 2,4 m, a model bull elk – actual cotton to raise the fuzzy surface of a flower. from Trappers Lake, to look through this
size, clad in actual elk skin – bugles to attract Quinn asks Meah to look inside the bull’s glass window into a world that existed
more females, even as three already in his mouth. She climbs a ladder, and when she before their own.
harem graze on the chokecherry and aspen looks down into its maw, frozen mid-bugle,
around an approximation of Trappers Lake she sees a small mirror. It picks up the
in northwestern Colorado. The diorama is lighting in the diorama, and – subtly – it 103 DAYS
normally behind a sheet of glass, but the glows. Meah thinks about the preparators UNTIL OPENING
glass is broken. who worked in the same cavernous work-
Bec Meah is here to fix it. Meah is a shop on the museum’s fifth floor that she E A R LY
preparator, one of the trained fine artists – does, and the calculations they must have E XPERIMENTS
she’s a sculptor – who builds and maintains made about the angle of the glass, and the IN THE
the museum’s exhibitions. She’s working position and intensity of the lights. They CONSTRUCTION
with Stephen Quinn, dean of the museum’s knew that without the mirror, the inside OF BRAINS
Brittany Janaszak arrives at the museum

around 10 am. She’s on a team that has
just begun work on a major exhibit called
‘Unseen Oceans’. The museum stages one
or two new exhibitions each year, each of
which explores the cutting-edge science
on a specific subject, and the ocean is next.
It will run for a year, then travel for up to a
decade, educating people around the world.
The Exhibition Department has fourteen
weeks to build ‘Unseen Oceans’.
The American Museum of Natural History
was founded in 1869 and has the distinct
feel of a great library of antiquity. There
are 25 buildings on its 7,28 ha campus on
Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The museum
holds dinosaur fossils, Native American art,
mummies, and a slice of a tree with rings
dating back to 550 CE. It contains a graduate
school, a 500 000-volume research library,
Neil deGrasse Tyson, and a 34-million-object
collection, including (in the bowels of some
storage room pungent with formaldehyde,
in a metal tank the size of an above-ground
pool) a giant squid.
On this morning, Janaszak negotiates a
labyrinth of marble halls and grand staircases,
and approaches a freight elevator in the
museum’s northwest corner, which she rides
TH
H E 5 76 - S Q U A R E - M E T R E to the fifth floor. Its blue double doors open
directly into the exhibition workshop. The
SPAAC E I S D I V I D E D I N T O space used to be the museum’s coal-fired

power plant before New York City had a
CIRCU U L AR
R ROOM S, power grid.
Objects from the collection are shoved
G U IDINN G VII S I T O R S in every corner. Death masks of numerous

species hang on every wall – sometimes the
D E E PER U N D E RWA T E R preparators will pull one down to check the

exact shape of the ridge above a baboon’s
eyes, or the texture of a lizard’s scales. At
some point, the room was divided in two.

Above: Hannah Rawe finesses the clay fin joints on a large fish model. Opposite: In the work space at the rear of the museum’s former power plant,
a ray sculpted in clay sits between the two halves of the mold that has been created in its likeness.
The front space is for fine, quiet work, but is making is clear, so she’ll cast it in clear together with one-inch bolts and holds it
Janaszak makes her way to the back, under resin, but its organs – like these bug brains away from her. ‘I’ll probably drill a hole in
the roar of an industrial fan. She skirts past – are colourful. They’ve also got to go the top somewhere,’ she says, tilting it this
the paint booth and stops in front of a fume inside somehow. way and that. ‘At the highest point. And I’ll
hood, from which she retrieves two fairly- She considers the mold carefully. ‘I’m orient it so that as I pour in the resin it’ll
large model brains. calling it a bug, but it isn’t a bug,’ she says. force the air out.’ Maybe if she does that
‘Unseen Oceans’ is an exhibit about It’s actually a kind of plankton. ‘I haven’t had slowly enough, she can insert the brain
the fuzzy edges of our knowledge of the my coffee yet.’ The first thing preparators do during the pour and it’ll stay put.
70 per cent of the planet covered by water. when they start on a new exhibition is study
The exhibition consists of eight main rooms, all the science – if they’re building animals,
each focusing on the work of a scientist it’s biology, anatomy, ecology, behaviour. 87 DAYS
who uses innovative techniques to study They experiment with building techniques, UNTIL OPENING
his or her part of the ocean. It will start at then move on to the actual build, all in
the surface, and each room will take visitors consultation with the museum’s curators. HOW TO
deeper – closer to the ocean floor. At an art museum, the value of the work is A C C U R AT E LY
What Janaszak is working on is for the subjective. At Natural History, even if a kid PA I N T
second room, about the topmost layer of wipes her nose on it, a piece in an exhibition BIOFLUORESCENT
water and the tiny creatures that float in it. may be her first – or only – encounter with SE A LIFE
Each model brain looks like a shrivelled a distant corner of the natural world. The
pituitary gland that has been pulled out question every preparator confronts with John Sparks, curator of ‘Unseen Oceans’,
through someone’s nose in a horror movie. every new build is: Can I be enough of a makes his rounds. He’s only in his early
They’re made of cotton painted with orangey- scientist to get this right, and enough of fifties, and yet he can tell long-ago stories
red acrylic paint. They are stuck through an artist to make sure people remember it? about seeing his hand blow up like a balloon
with pins and suspended in the mouths of Janaszak picks up the two halves of the from the venom of a scorpion fish, and getting
Dixie cups, where they’ve been dripping mold and fits them together. She’s been rammed by a 4.8 m shark in a personal sub-
clear resin, which Janaszak dipped them in thinking all morning about this business marine at 700 metres. He has a boyish face
to create a hard outer shell. At a workbench of suspending the brains inside the resin and an undimmed enthusiasm for fish. His
she uses pliers to remove the pins and sets bodies. The question is whether the brains particular expertise is fish that glow, and the
the brains next to two halves of a waxy blue will float. If they bob even a little as the resin third room of ‘Unseen Oceans’ focuses on
mold. It’s the mold for some kind of insectile cures, they’ll leave tracks that will be visible his work on biofluorescence – on fish that
creature. She explains that this thing she under gallery lighting. She screws the mold absorb and give off light.

as a sandbox that becomes ocean, beach 25 DAYS every object in the room, and Peterson
and bluffs in real time. UNTIL OPENING writes software that tells the projector to
The least formed and potentially most spit out images based on what the Kinect
important idea – it’ll be in the exhibition’s HOW TO TE ACH WILDLIFE actually sees.
last room before visitors are funnelled to C O N S E R VAT I O N The lights are off. The projector is
the gift shop – is a still-nascent notion of spraying the floor with a swirling mass of
a fully immersive interactive display about Brett Peterson, an interactive-exhibit 7.5 cm polygons. Fish. They skirt any large
conservation. (The team mostly refers to an developer, has a lot of Xbox Kinects, the objects the Kinect has mapped, and when
interactive display as simply an ‘interactive’.) video-gaming device that allows people Peterson walks around the room, the fish
Alonso’s team is as tied to the science to control a game using body movements projections part to make way for him.
as the preparators are but unbound by the instead of a joystick-like controller. In his The point here is about conservation
constraints of clay, foam and fluorescent work area, there are Kinects everywhere. and the effect of humans on fish populations:
paint. Which means its challenge is a good Peterson has one rigged up to the ceiling The fish on the floor will dodge the museum-
old-fashioned ticking clock. pointing straight down, alongside a projector goers. If too many people come through, the
oriented the same way. The Kinect maps fish will be trampled and slowly disappear.
Peterson sits at the computer he’s using
Below: Interactive-exhibit developer Brett Peterson’s workstation, with a DIY arcade-game controller to debug the software, lights from the
for testing a submarine video game. Bottom: Peterson debugs/plays with the interactive conservation projector playing on his face. He’s working
game. Opposite: Neon-painted fish atop photos of their real-life counterparts, for comparison. on an idea that came from Ariel Nevarez,
the team’s technologist, who tends to fixate
on finding the one mysterious thing that will
change the way visitors think. This is the
idea: If you hold out your arms and make
a big circle – or, even better, stand together
in a circle with a few other people, holding
hands – the Kinect will see it, and inside the
circle new fish will be born. You’ll create
a marine preserve.
The parameter Peterson is adjusting is,
essentially, the birth rate. It’s an odd idea,
and the question is whether there’s a way to
make it clear to visitors how the interactive
works, without drawing too much attention
to it, which would sacrifice a bit of the magic.
So Peterson fiddles with the birth rate. If it’s
low, the preserves regenerate the population
slowly, maybe unnoticeably. But if it’s high…
Alonso, from interactive experiences, jumps
into the middle of the room and circles her
arms. Fish explode into being. ‘Woooo!’ she
yells, swivelling like a machine-gun turret,
spraying newborn fish in every direction.
‘Hold on!’ Peterson says, getting up from
his desk. ‘I have to get some of these out.
There’s a maximum amount you can have.’
He starts stomping all over the ground.
It’s a start.
THE GALLERY
I N S TA L L AT I O N
Construction on the ‘Unseen Oceans’

galleries has been going on for about three
weeks. The 576 m2 space has been divided
into a series of circular rooms that will guide
visitors deep underwater, and the contents
of each room are slowly arriving. Bob
Peterson (no relation to Brett), Alonso’s
animator, has dropped by to see the
13,5 × 2,7 m screen that will show his
animation of life-size sea creatures. It
requires a three-projector set-up, which
they’ve never tried before. The screen

THE SHAPE OF WATER
looks good, but the room, like

most of the gallery space, is
still a mess, scattered with
empty vitrines and submarine
parts, and carts of tungsten
track lighting that was swapped
out for UV. Bob finds himself
admiring the next room over,
which centres on an expanding
steel helix. Preparators attach
fish to it. Some, cast in soft
foam, are speared and bolted
into place. Hard-resin models
are glued to posts, and then
mounted on the rail.
4 DAYS
UNTIL OPENING
TROUBLESHOOTING
Brett Peterson is up on
a ladder, and Nevarez, the
technologist, is playing with
sand. He’s rooting around in it,
building mountains and digging
valleys. Digging down, all the
way down, in some cases, to
the black tub that holds the
sand of this part of the exhibit,
the topography interactive.
Peterson is futzing with
the settings on another Xbox
Kinect. As Nevarez reshapes
the mounds of sand, this Kinect
reads the heights of the mounds,
and its companion projector
paints them with a landscape.
Peterson and Nevarez have set
a certain height as sea level. If
Nevarez builds sand up a little
higher than sea level, Peterson
has programmed the projector
to colour it the light ochre of
a beach. A little bit higher still,
and it’s green grassy bluffs.
In Nevarez’s valleys, Peterson
makes the colour of the water
go from the turquoise of a
lagoon to the inky blue of
the deep sea.
Except, the network of Kinect
and projector is not working
quite right. The submarine
video game is boring the kids
testing it (and confusing adults),
the fish in the conservation
interactive are getting stuck
behind things, and Bob’s still
working on the high-resolution
rendering of his animation – and
now a problem that cameras

have solved for years with mirrors is giving An adjacent placard pictures the plankton, models sit on tables at chest level for kids
Peterson’s software trouble. This slight offset with its disgusting abdomen and terrifying, to see up close. They’re under glass so the
is wreaking havoc. spindly legs, side-by-side with the alien from kids don’t mangle them, not that they don’t
‘Okay, look,’ Peterson says. ‘So, if I just Alien. Did it inspire the monster? ‘What do pretty much always try.
do … scale this bit … that’s pretty close! you think?’ parents ask, and their kids look People filter into the fourth room, settle in
On X … yes or no?’ back and forth between the two pictures, to seats in front of Bob Peterson’s massive
Nevarez surveys the sand splashed with mouths agape. screen, and jump when the giant squid
colour from the projector. ‘Yeah, it’s close The third room: 75 m below the surface. clamps its beak on to the camera – then
on X,’ he says. The steel helix expands like a tornado from shriek when a humpback whale swoops in
‘Okay, so Y,’ Peterson says. the middle of the room, covered in brightly from off-screen and clamps the squid in its
‘Hold!’ Nevarez says. He sweeps his eyes coloured fish. Fishnado. The models, which jaws. In the fifth room, smiling faces hover
across the tub. “That looks pretty good on Y.’ were flat in the streaming daylight of the fifth over the sandbox while kids create their
They try shifting the whole projection set-up floor, look alive in the settled cool blue of the own ocean floor.
over slightly. gallery. The fluorescent paints, charged by By the sixth room, it’s clear that some-
‘Hmm,’ Nevarez says. ‘Good everywhere the UV, take on subtlety and nuance. A few thing happens as people walk through the
except the centre… It’s doing something exhibition. Each room takes them deeper,
weird.’ He’s stumped. but it also takes them farther – farther from
As Peterson and Nevarez stare at the the hustling city, from the concrete and the
sandbox, three of the museum’s education asphalt, from the subway, the traffic. Farther
staff walk up and start playing in it. They get from their classrooms and their Snapchat
it instantly – start building atolls and shaping accounts. Farther from the news cycle. Each
seamounts. One of them looks up. ‘You’re step they take deeper into the exhibit, they
going to get lots and lots of happy faces, roam farther from the thing they’re actually
I promise you.’ immersed in, which the kids may not even
‘All we want is happy faces,’ Nevarez discern yet – the sea of erratic information
says, still half a mind somewhere else. that is modern life, deeper all the time.
‘We got talked out of this, a lot.’ In the culminating room, a whole pack of
Nearby, an older man wearing an ID badge children gambol around on hands and knees
that says ‘Fossil Expert’ mills around. He’s a until they’ve trapped Brett Peterson’s fish
retiree, and has been a volunteer here at the in a seething ball, the way massive schools
museum since 2011. He’s walking the gallery are rounded up by sharks. They pound the
to learn the material. ‘Kids know more now ground with open palms, erupt in cries and
than we did,’ he says. It’s the smartphones, chants, trying to make the fish disappear.
the internet. There’s so much that is available They have surrendered to the exhibition.
now, so easily. But the fundamental appeal For the conservation note that completes
of the museum is the same, he says, even the descent, Alonso’s team has created a
as over his shoulder Peterson is up on a room that transforms kids into sea creatures.
ladder messing with a depth camera and And here a man stands over the children,
Nevarez is playing in scientifically modified someone’s uncle or dad or big brother. He’s
sand, and they’re speaking in code about got an exasperated look on his face, but a
X adjustments and Y adjustments. ‘You dawning smile is cracking on his lips. We
don’t need interactive,’ the man says. all want to maintain a little bit of this inside
‘They still press their faces to the glass.’ ourselves, and while the world bombards us
– plumps us up with so much that it hurts,
so much that we harden ourselves and take
OPENIN G no more in, and in so doing become a little
less curious, a little more cynical, and a lot
The first room of ‘Unseen Oceans’ is small, less childlike – the museum does quite the
maybe 24 m2, and the walls are the pallid opposite. It takes the unruly heap of facts
blue of a cloudless day at the beach. A scientists endlessly generate, and shapes
projector, suspended from the ceiling, shines them into something you can walk through,
a beach on to the floor – a looping video of shrinking the world of knowledge so it fits
surf crashing in and slowly receding. The into the tiny skull-size space between our
kids who step into the room stop and stare, ears. The man has his phone out, and even
momentarily puzzled, at the wash on their as he says, as gruffly as he can, ‘Okay, okay,
feet. Then they begin their descent. okay!’ he quickly snaps a picture so he can
In the second room, Meah’s copepod remember the scene. Then he says to the
hangs up against the wall. Under the UV Top: Glimmering clear-resin models of a group, ‘Let’s go.’
lighting, it radiates a kaleidoscopic palette Phronima (left) and a diatom in the exhibition The kids push themselves up to their feet
of delicate colours, like an oyster turned gallery. Above: A mock-up of a sonar device. and skitter out the door, out the maze of
inside out. In the centre of the room, under Opposite: Preparator Jake Adams skewers corridors, into the brilliant light of midday
glass that almost makes it feel like a real fish models and secures them to the steel in New York City. Taxis whiz past. A train
collected specimen, sits Janaszak’s plankton. superstructure of Fishnado. rumbles under their city of islands.

D I N …
T A R T E
S
G
T I N G
N
GE T
SU R F I BY JA
CQUE
LINE DETW
ILER
your feet on rocks, and get
smacked with your board. It’s
humbling. But it’s also worth it.
One day, maybe in a year, or
two years, or even three, you’ll
paddle like mad into a glassy,
green, unbroken wave, slide
down its slope and dig your
board’s edge (the rail) into its
For all the great mystique The hard part comes when face, sailing right across its heft
surrounding surfing, it’s not you love that feeling. When in a low crouch. When the wave
actually that difficult to ride you decide you want to surf for breaks around you, you’ll skid
a wave. On the right board, real, and on your own. There’s out in front of the foam, letting
in the right conditions, with equipment to master. Rules. it carry you farther in towards
a decent instructor, most people Lingo. Tides. Swells. The sea is the beach, until you finally sink
will make it to their feet the always changing, and you have down into the sea, face to the sky
first day. to learn how and when it’ll be in exaltation, while your board
And it feels amazing – like willing to play. pops out from under you like
sliding across the kitchen floor You’ll go out in slop. You’ll a Champagne cork.
in your socks, only the floor is get turned back by waves that ‘Look!’ a mom will say, towing
the ocean, and you’re walking are too big. You’ll get tossed her small child, plastic bucket in
on water. around underwater, and cut hand, toward the beach. ‘A surfer!’
Yes, you should get a lesson. They’re not crazy expensive – typically from R250 to R450
for your first time, depending on whether you go by yourself or with a group – and will
WHAT TO include a board and a rash guard or wetsuit. ‘We spend about 20 minutes on the beach
EXPECT going through a lot of safety stuff, learning about the ocean, rip currents, tides, and
IN YOUR hazards,’ says Richard Schmidt, the owner of an eponymous surf school in Santa Cruz,
California, who has been teaching surfing for 40 years. After that, you’ll post up on the
FIRST sand to determine your stance and practise pop-ups, smoothly transitioning from your
LESSON stomach to your feet. When it’s finally time to surf, you’ll head into the whitewash (see
The Visual Glossary on page 72) to practise catching already broken waves and popping up
to stand. Your instructor will give you a push at first to help you with speed and timing.
DO I NEED
A WETSUIT?
It depends. Find out the water temperature using a
surf-forecasting app such as Surfline or Magicseaweed.
Yoh. Surfing the West Coast

in winter? You’ll need a 5 mm
wetsuit with an attached hood
(Matuse Tumo, R7 900), plus
Less than 7 mm booties and gloves. Or
11 °C maybe just wait for summer?
Surfing is tricky enough to
learn without having to do it
in R10k worth of rubber.
A common temperature
on the chilly West Coast.
Locals often recommend
a 4/3 wetsuit (Patagonia R3,
R6 500) The first number is
the thickness, in millimetres,
11 to 14 °C of neoprene covering your
core to retain heat; the sec-
ond is the thickness covering
your extremities. Booties are
recommended, but gloves
are optional.
Standard South Coast water

YOUR FIRST BOARD – not freezing, but not quite
warm either. A 3/2 suit (XCEL
14 to 18 °C Drylock, R5 300) should give
you all the exposure coverage
Board rentals run R100 to R300 you need.
for a half-day, so if you find you
love surfing, it’ll be worth buying
your own. ‘You want a soft board There are various versions
as you’re learning,’ says Schmidt. of spring wetsuits that should
‘It’s a lot safer for the beginning cover you at this temperature.
surfer – and also for everybody Spring john/janes (O’Neill
18 to 23 °C, Reactor, R1 000) are gener-
else.’ As for size, bigger is better.
An eight-, nine-, or ten-foot board
or warmer, ally 2 mm thick, short-legged
has enough volume to catch even but windy and sleeveless, although
tiny waves, which is what you’ll be there are long-sleeved ver-
aiming to ride. A good option: sions, versions with full legs,
and even vests.
Vanhunks XPE Soft Surf (above)
Cheap and easy to ride. You
should get good use out of it If the air is also warm, you’re
as your skills develop. The key good to go in board shorts,
tech behind its great ride are the but consider a rash guard to
plywood stringer and specially protect against sunburn and
selected EPS foam. A squash tail 23 °C and up chafing. Ladies might want
also gives better control over a a one-piece: Bikinis are cute,
variety of waves. R1 750 but can be … uncooperative.
SEPTEMBER 2018 71
Getting started in surfing
Questions SH OU LD E R
from someone There’s slightly less
power here, which
who has never makes it a good place to
surfed hang out while you wait. If
THE VISUAL you catch a wave from here,
be careful not to drop in
GLOSSARY on someone coming
from the peak.
How do I take off a wetsuit? ‘Peel it

like a banana,’ says Corey Senese,
owner of Coreyswave Surf Lessons
in Montauk, New York. ‘Right-side
out is not gonna work.’ If you have
trouble getting started, have a buddy
pull the neck hole down over both of Parts
your shoulders. You should be able of a
to get it from there. wave
Do I have to get up really early? It
seems like surfers get up really early.
Maybe. Many surf spots have glassy
waves first thing in the morning that
get choppy and unsurfable once the
wind picks up. Mornings are more
likely to be glassy in many places,
but there’s loads of variability. In
some places, the waves are great all OU TSI D E
day or clean up in the early evening. The area outside
Surfers call the latter dusk patrol. where waves are
breaking. If someone
Is skateboarding a good way to yells, ‘Outside!’ in the
practise? ‘Skateboarding won’t line-up, a bigger set is
help with your pop-up, but it helps SET
coming. Paddle for
with the stance and turning – the Waves tend
the shoulder or
toe-edge, heel-edge feeling of to arrive in sets of
the horizon.
turning your board,’ says Senese. anywhere from three to
a dozen at a time. Timing
Are there rules about which beach your paddle out so
I can and can’t surf on? Yes, but you go between
generally only in the summer, when sets is always a
non-surfers want to enjoy the water smart idea.
as well. Ask a lifeguard or a surf
school, read signs, and look for
yellow flags with a black ball in the
middle. That means surfboards are
not allowed.
What about sharks? There were

only 88 unprovoked shark attacks
worldwide in 2017, with five fatalities
(two in SA). The same year, around WH I TE WASH
300 people here in SA were killed by The foam after a
lightning. Still freaked out? Try the wave has broken.
Sharkbanz Modom shark leash Your first lesson
(R2 000). It uses magnets to irritate will take place
sharks’ electroreceptors to chase here.
them away.
LI P
The very
top of the
PEAK breaking wave, BARREL
The part of used mostly by The hollow part
the wave with the advanced surfers of a breaking wave.
most power to push to do tricks. Getting inside is a
you. Surf away from surfer’s dream, and
the area that is can be called getting
breaking. pitted, barrelled,
or shacked.
HOW NOT
TO BE A
KOOK
Some old-timers don’t suffer

newbies lightly. They call clue-
less newcomers kooks. ‘If you
are aware of your surroundings
and you’re nice, you won’t get in
trouble,’ says Senese. That said,
many of the rules are there to
keep everyone safe, so it’s best
to be aware before you head out.
SURF RULE
No 1
LI NE -UP The rider has
The place where the right of way.
a group of surfers is When heading out to the
waiting for waves line-up, head around the area
to break. where people are riding waves
in toward the beach. It’s your
responsibility to avoid riders.
SURF RULE
No 2
Don’t ditch your board.
If you let go of your board, it
could hit you or someone else.
IN S I DE SURF RULE
The area
inside where No 3
the waves are Don’t drop in.
breaking. The person nearest a wave’s
peak, or who has been waiting
the longest, has priority. Letting
P H O T O G R A P H Y: I S T O C K P H O T O,
them have the wave helps

everyone avoid collisions.
C O U R T E SY I M A G E S
SURF RULE
Parts
of No 4
sur f b a Face the horizon.
r eak
Because that’s where the waves
will be coming from. Duh.

Advertorial
FORGE T MACHINE LE ARNING,

THIS IS MACHINE SAFETY
Axelent – a worldwide working brand in machine safety
Axelent is a Swedish company a unique set of guidelines for how it

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that characterise the organisation, is an important user guide to all the
and the company is the absolute laws, regulations and EU requirements
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keeping people safe from machines invaluable reference document for
in 60 countries around the world. the certifications and labels that
Known by the yellow posts and customers should look out for.
black panels, the company is seeing When it comes to workplace safety
an exponential growth in imitation and mesh wall systems, Axelent products
products. In response to the rampant are second to none. The automated
knock-off culture, Axelent developed production, packaging and warehouse
www.axelent.com
Axelent’s Safety Book
guides readers through
the veritable jungle of laws,
regulations, EU directives
and requirements. The
book also outlines the
certifications and labels that
are important to look out for.
facilities at the 25 000 m2 Hillerstorp mesh wall design. Those curved

premises in Sweden, for example, have panels integrate seamlessly into the
on-site raw-material storage and the X-Guard system. A comprehensive
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At full capacity, Axelent is able to most comprehensive machine-safety
produce 83 300 mesh panels every solution in the world.
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coating done on-site. standstills can cost, and is aware of
Completed panels are packaged in the consequences of poor safety in
P H O T O G R A P H Y & I L L U S T R AT I O N : C O U R T E SY I M A G E S
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Let him guide you
X-Key, for instance, is a unique solution customers with an effective and in a world full of
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give customers more flexibility in the world you are.
Sole distributor in Southern Africa • +27 11 608 3182 • www.yaskawa.za.com

PROJECT
EASY WAYS TO DO DIFFICULT
HARD THINGS
THINGS
WHAT YOU NEED

TO MAKE THIS
TOOLS:
• drill
• pocket-hole jig
• mitre Saw
• sander
• tape measure
• combination square
WOOD PRODUCTS:
Qty Description
(1) 19 × 140 × 1 220 mm pine board
(1) 19 × 89 × 1 220 mm pine board
(2) 19 × 38 × 1 800 mm pine board
HARDWARE AND SUPPLIES

(22) Kreg 32 mm coarse-thread pocket-hole screws
(10) Kreg pine pocket-hole plugs
(1) wood glue
(2) 5 × 90 mm flathead wood screws
PARTS LIST:
Qty Name
(1) Back 19 × 140 × 775 mm pine
(4) Long Brace 19 × 38 × 370 mm pine
WALL-MOUNTED (2) Angled Brace

(2) Short Brace
(1) Back Spacer
19 × 38 × 235 mm pine
19 × 38 × 195 mm pine
19 × 89 × 755 mm pine
WINE RACK
Keep a few of your favourite bottles
of wine on hand with this nifty wall-
mounted wine rack. The clever design
stores up to six bottles in a way that
also adds fun decor to any dining
area or kitchen. It’s made from just
a few boards and a couple dozen
pocket-hole screws, so you can
make one in no time.

GETTING
STARTED
STEP 1: MAKE THE BACK
Cut the Back to a length from 19 × 140 mm
pine, as shown in the cutting diagram. Set
a pocket-hole jig for 19-mm-thick material,
and then drill pocket holes in the Back at
the locations shown. With many projects,
it doesn’t matter if the pocket holes are
positioned precisely. When you’re drilling
pocket holes in the Back, though, you want
to pay close attention. That way, when you
start the final assembly of your wine rack,
you know that everything will correctly line
up. After drilling the pocket holes, drill two
5 mm holes through the Back at the locations
shown. These holes will be used to mount the
Wine Rack to the wall in the final step. Sand
the Back smooth.
STEP 2: MAKE THE BRACES

Next, cut four Long Braces and two Angled
Braces from 19 × 38 mm boards as shown
in the cutting diagram. One end of each of
these Braces is cut at 45°. Also cut a pair of
Short Braces, making square cuts on each
end of these. Next, you can drill pocket holes
in the Angled Brace and the Short Braces, as
shown. Make sure when you’re drilling them
that you create mirror-image left and right
pieces. That way, the pocket holes can all
be located facing inward when you assemble
the sides in the next step.
STEP 3: ASSEMBLE THE SIDES

Now you can create a pair of side assemblies.
Lay out two of the Long Braces, as well as
the left-side Angled Brace and Short Brace,
as shown. Use a piece of scrap wood to help
with alignment. Glue each joint (but don’t
glue the assembly to the alignment board),
and then secure the pieces using 32 mm
pocket-hole screws. (See the Tip overleaf to
help you decide on the correct screws.)
Repeat the process to put the right-side
assembly together. If you want to cover up the
pocket holes, now is a good time to fill them
with pocket-hole plugs. Glue the plugs into the
holes and let the glue dry. After that, trim the
plugs flush with the wood surface, and then
sand the side assemblies smooth.

PROJECT
Cut diagram
Detail: Back
Detail: Braces
P H O T O G R A P H Y: I S T O C K P H O T O ; I L L U S T R AT I O N : C O U R T E SY I M A G E S
TIP: MATCH THE SCREW TO THE WOOD

We built our wine rack of pine, which is classified as a softwood. Softwoods are less dense than a hardwood such as oak, so
softwoods require a coarse-thread pocket-hole screw. These screws have deep, aggressive threads for good holding power
in softwoods. If you decide to build your wine rack from a hardwood, such as oak or maple, use fine-thread screws instead.
They have less aggressive threads, but more of them, to hold in dense hardwoods.

COM
C A P E TO W N F OR C A P E TO N I A N S
Cape Town’s favourite site for the real scoop

o n w h a t ’ s ha p p e n i n g i n t he M o t h er C i t y
NEWS.
W E ATH E R & WATE R .
FOOD & WINE.
T R AVE L . A DVE N TU R E .
EN TE RTAI N M E N T.
W H AT’ S O N .
SCAN
HERE
capetownetc.com [email protected]
TOOL TEST
A B
A C TU A L
S IZ E !
STUBBY SCREWDRIVERS
For those tight spaces, where can barely fit your hand.
A B C D E
P H O T O G R A P H Y: R I C H A R D M A J C H R Z A K
DeWalt Harbor Freight Channellock Wiha Craftsman

Pittsburgh
Length: 10 cm Length: 11,5 cm Length: 8,9 cm Length: 8,5 cm Length: 10,5 cm

Diameter: 3,2 cm Diameter: 3,2 cm Diameter: 2,5 cm Diameter: 3,2 cm Diameter: 4,2 cm
This is a good one if A ball detent in the socket Ridges in its handle Has a stand-on-end The huge handle gives
you have small hands, holds a reversible flat/ provide good grip and handle and a unique plenty of twist. The tip
and offers multiple Phillips bit, or any it has the most stable bulb shape that provides is plated in industrial
grip options. plain-shank hex stand-on-end handle a surprisingly hefty diamond particles for
Plus: a hanging hole! screwdriver bit. of the lot. amount of torque. a sandpaper-like hold.
R165 (two-piece set) R40 R84 R145 (two-piece set) R73

KIDS
PA R E N T
PROJECT
Learn basic cutting and

fastening techniques while
creating the perfect new
toy to bring to the pool.
KID PA R E N T A N D K I D
A
1 Using a hand mitre pieces of PVC pipe to 75 mm

saw, cut two lengths of long. Crosscut them on the SHO P P I N G L I S T
pool noodle to 600 mm mitre saw [C]. Press each one
and two to 1 200 mm. into an end cap mounted to three pool noodles
the table.
Corrugated plastic
2 Use a utility knife to slit sheet: sign panel
each noodle down its centre. 6 Cut a piece of black mesh
6 × 600 × 1 200 mm
ribbon to 675 mm long and
four 40 mm
3 Find the centre line of the 150 mm wide. Wind a little
PVC end caps
plastic sheet by measuring ribbon around one of the net
600 mm in from the long end. posts, then use a hot-glue two 5 mm
stainless-steel
Mark a point 25 mm in from gun to attach the ribbon to
pan-head screws
either side on this line. With the post. Extend the ribbon
a cordless drill and 3,5 mm to the other side of the table. 40 × 600 mm PVC pipe
twist bit, drill pilot holes in Wind the ribbon around the one roll of black
the two marks. Use the same opposite post, and glue it in mesh ribbon
bit to drill holes in the base place [D]. Press another end plastic ping-pong
of each end cap [A]. cap on top of each post. paddles and balls
4 Place construction 7 Test-fit the pool noodles

adhesive on the playing to the edges of the game
surface around the pilot board. Once you’re sure they TOOL S
holes and press each end fit properly, glue each one
cap in position. Drive a to the board with a bit of • hand mitre saw
screw through the end cap construction adhesive. • utility knife
and into the pilot hole [B].
• cordless drill
8 Drill 6-mm-diameter drain
5 To form the net posts, holes near each corner of the • hot-glue gun
measure and mark two playing surface. B

OUR BUILDE R:
Andrew Garber
Play to 11.
Winner gets
to splash
the loser.
COURTESY IMAGES
PHOTOGRAPHY:
C D

t h e car is
o f it.
U T URE e not in
HE F e’r
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like ortable a edes are you can b
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BM wheel dr
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fo u
THE DR G
F O R E M O U S E R V I N.
T B E T O N OA R E S Y E T
S
JU TO AU ERS A RS
C
US OMAK BEST
A U TT H E I R
UP

THE (MOST PERFECT) CAR OF THE YEAR
>> I’ve loved the M5 since I was a teenager. The monster. Think again. The launch control is one
E39 M5 and its 4,9 L V8 laying down just shy of of the simpler systems I’ve encountered and even
300 kW and 500 Nm to the rear wheels via a in unaided take-offs, you’ll be able to dip below
Getrag 420G six-speed manual gearbox was five seconds without too much hassle.
pretty much automotive perfection for younger What’s really surprising, though, is that this
me. The only differences between it and the M5 will just as easily chew up traffic-light racers
Base price more pedestrian 540i was its more powerful as it will putter around a shopping-centre parking
R1 747 500 engine, reinforced clutch and a limited-slip diff lot and do sedate school runs. That’s the beauty
CO2 Tax with 25 per cent locking – even more impressive. of this beast. You can raise hell at any given
R15 433 With deep love for this brand established, I took moment and it’s still more than capable of driving
Acceleration to the driver’s seat of the current F90 version itself, parking itself, playing a movie for the kids
0–100 km/h with a fair bit of caution and much scepticism. on the back seat and keeping your bum warm.
3,4 seconds It wasn’t the exhaust note or the ludicrous And all customisable. You can set temperature
in-gear acceleration that won over my affections, triggers for a full range of climate controls. You
but the restraint. BMW engineers could easily can define exactly how many safety features you
have made a car that was undriveable for most want active at any time, or dial in exactly the ride
mortals with the ample power they had to play quality you want. And you can map all of those
with. At 441 kW and 750 Nm, the 4,4 L twin- settings to the two red ‘M’ buttons on the steering
turbocharged V8 plant can give established wheel, to instantly switch the car’s personality.
supercars some pause for thought. You’d also Downsides are few, but the exhaust defaulting
think that it is difficult to extract 0–100 km/h to loud every time you switch on the car is a great
sprints in the sub-four-second range from this way to make enemies in your cul-de-sac.
Base price
R834 900
Power
206 kW
Cargo volume REASON
525 litres No 37 WHY
(practical) DRIVING IS FUN
Towing jet skis
with a bakkie, which
everyone who sees
you will wish they
were doing.
REASON
No 3 108 WHY
DRIVING IS FUN
300 kW
plug-in Volvos.
>> It’s all about the steering. Because Alfa – which it, but a communicative wheel can make every drive
has the gall to build the 4C, a modern car with no just a little bit better. Oh, and the rest of the package
power steering whatsoever – understands steering. is pretty fantastic, too. You get a zesty turbo four-
And although the Stelvio is a high-riding crossover, cylinder, all-wheel drive, and 0–100 km/h in 5,4 sec.
it steers like its sports-sedan cousin, the Giulia. It’s Of course, there’s a Quadrifoglio model, if you need
light, but not numb – a rare combination. And great to own a crossover built for the Nürburgring. But the
steering is so underrated. You can’t put a number on base model is plenty to make you smile.
>> Off-road ability is subjective. The Land

Rover wins here, because it augmented my
modest 4×4 skills and kept my family in the
lap of luxury up and down the Ouberg Pass.
The pass isn’t particularly tricky, but has a
reputation for slaying tyres, and the vehicle
was sporting standard road-biased rubber
still inflated to highway pressure. While my
own ineptitude is a big part of this story,
the most remarkable thing is that I never
took the car out of the Terrain Response 2
system’s Auto mode – and my nervous-
Base price
off-road-passenger wife didn’t really protest
R976 200
too much, instead enjoying the breathtaking
views of the Tankwa Karoo basin. The new
Seats
Five or seven
Disco will go anywhere you have the courage
to take it and will chauffeur you in almost
SVX version
385 kW and
Range Rover levels of comfort. And that
a rear winch three-litre V6 diesel has also been refined to
an incredibly capable and frugal power mill.

REASON
No 2 521 WHY YO U D O
DRIVING IS FUN BUCKS N ’T H AV E TO
TO H AV D
Saturday-morning E A GR ROP BIG
meet-ups (look up E AT T I M
E.
a local Cars and
Coffee or Caffeine
and Octane) for
BS sessions with
other people who
love cars.
A B C
REASON
No 153 WHY
DRIVING
IS FUN
Unlikely match-ups D E F
at the drag strip.
Turns out an M-B
Maybach (12,3
seconds) and a
Jeep Trackhawk
(11,9 seconds)
make for a thrilling
quarter-mile.
A FORD KUGA TDCI B SUBARU OUTBACK R-S C NISSAN QASHQAI DCI

Great driving position, modest One of the cheapest six-cylinder Easily the most fuel-efficient
rough-road ability and a long list of cars on the market is pretty handy car we’ve tested in the past 12
standard specs when you choose off the line, and can handle itself months. The Qashqai is also the
REASON the right package makes this one well on unpaved roads. Bundled original sub-compact SUV, and
No 895 WHY of the most desirable compact in is a full Android Auto- and it only narrowly missed out on
DRIVING family SUVs out there. Get a diesel Apple CarPlay-ready Harman a spot in our three-car garage
IS FUN variant to be just a little bit kinder Kardon audio system, and its as the daily runabout of choice.
Off-roading, shown on your pocket in the long-term. EyeSight semi-autonomous Mispronunciation of its name
here with a Tacoma smarts to boot. aside, this one’s a solid option.
TRD Pro.
D FORD MUSTANG GT E VW GOLF GTI F NISSAN NAVARA 4X2

While not the head-turner it was More than half of all Golfs sold in Another point for Renault-Nissan
at the launch, this is still one of the South Africa carry the GTI badge, alliance engines. The 2,3 L diesel
cheapest ways to get noticed on but the latest version is the first mill is a brilliant balance of power
South African roads. There’s a one we can actually recommend. and fuel efficiency, and the Navara
facelift coming and, if you pray All those optional extras of GTIs still remains one of the most
hard enough to the car gods, past are now standard equipment, comfortable bakkies to drive
maybe a Shelby alongside it. making this an almost unbeatable on gravel unladen.
package from the get-go.
E E - M
E
R
S AY.
H
E E
T CAR G E
H
T ON
IN M
0 1 UR
8
2 O
A
F NG
O I
R
S S
R U
A
A
C RE
E
G
E
T W A
R I E
U
V O IF W
FA E ,
R G
U RA
O A
G
A VOLVO XC40
>> Narrowly beaten out by the
impressive M5 for the overall
title, the baby Volvo is every-
thing we love about the XC90
distilled into a visually striking
package – well, everything
except the sensible pricing,
because loading all the tech
C
trinkets on to this vehicle is a
very expensive exercise. This
model drops the finish quality,
with Harman Kardon speakers
instead of B&W and a less
accurate touchscreen than the
rest of the Volvo SUV line-up.
That said, XC40 is first in line
for the built-in Android Auto B FORD RANGER WILDTRAK
upgrades and will easily cocoon
four adults and their luggage in >> The new facelift brings this
class-leading safety. It’s also the amazing bakkie neatly in line with
most visually impressive of the the revved-up Raptor version that’s
family, so there’s that. hitting our shores later this year,
but it still carries a few trump cards
over its highly anticipated off-road-
ing sibling. The Wildtrak can tow
B PORSCHE CARRERA T more than the Raptor (solid axle
sports car on offer right now. and leaf springs versus indepen-
>> Is this the fastest Carrera? Less sound deadening, no rear dent suspension) and you also get
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY IMAGES
No. Is it the most exclusive? Not seat or infotainment system adaptive cruise control and forward
by a long shot, and that’s kind (no-cost options, though), a collision detection, both puzzlingly
of the point. At the local launch, mechanical limited-slip diff and absent from the Raptor spec sheet.
there was the story of this car the excellent PASM suspension There are now more luxurious and
paying homage to the 1968 as standard equipment makes more performance-focused bakkies
Monte Carlo Rally-winning this car a purist’s dream. We on the market, but Ford’s Ranger
original. That’s a bit of a stretch, love the seemingly endless grip is still the technology champion,
but this stripped-down Carrera levels and how easy it is to drive which makes it a must-have in our
is possibly the most engaging it fast. fantasy garage.

BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: [email protected]

CFP TECHNOLOGIES
Electric motors & Drives
Speed Control for Machinery,
Pumps, Conveyors, Fans, Mixers, etc
Variable Speed Drives for Electric Motors (VFD’s or VSD’s)
Single phase input, three phase output models. 0.18 kW – 7.5 kW
Three phase input, three phase output models. 0.18 kW – 1 000 kW
Electric Motors
Single Phase: 0.12 kW – 7.5 kW Three Phase: 0.18 kW – 330 kW
Please visit website for more information and prices.
Website: www.cfptech.co.za
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 012 567 3618 / 012 543 0683
Cell: 082 857 0324


GUIDER II
3D Printer
OBuild Volume 280 x
250 x 300mm
OHeated Build Plate
OFully enclosed controlled
chamber
OUSB & WiFi Connectivity
OColour Touch Screen Control
OFile Preview
OFilament Detection
OAssisted Bed Levelling
OResumes printing from
power failure
EinScan
3D Scanners
OFast
OAccurate
OReliable
OAffordable
• 3 detecting modes
(Park, Field and Beach)
• 4 frequency options
(5k Hz, 10k Hz, 15k Hz and Multi)
• Wired headphones supplied
Reverse Engineering of 3D scanned
mesh models
Sketches converted to Chassis optimised with

geometry with ‘Draw’ Generative Design
• 4 detecting modes stylus input
(Park, Field, Beach and Gold)
• 6 frequency options Product and Build instructions Chassis modiied with
(5k Hz, 10k Hz, 15k Hz, created with Solid Edge Convergent Modelling
20k Hz, 40k Hz and Multi) Technical Publications tools
• Bluetooth headphones and
WM08 wireless module supplied Data controlled with
Airflow and fan cooling
Teamcenter integration
optimised with Flow
Analysis
3D Printing on demand
Contact MINELAB South Africa

Zambesi Drive, Sinoville, Pretoria
Tel: +27 (0) 12 543 0198
[email protected]
www.minelab.co.za +27 (0)12 030 0193 O [email protected] O www.ams3d.co.za




014 597 3327 | [email protected]

www.3dprintingsystems.co.za
Unleash your creativity


DO IT YOUR WAY
USEFUL CLEVER TIPS FOR YOUR HOME
WINNING TIP
GET YOURSELF UNFILTERED
WIN SEND US YOUR HINT
– AND SCORE!
Send us your tip and you could win a
As those of you who are into Master Lock Hamper worth R2 000.
DIY car servicing will know, oil
filters can be tucked away in very Master Lock One Lock has a 55 mm
awkward places you can barely get body with a 7 mm hardened-steel shackle
for improved cut resistance. It also has
your fingertips on. And it seems
a directional combination padlock that
as though each car has a different, allows for up/down/left/right directional
more complex mounting option. movements to open the padlock and
Here is a simple, but effective is more secure than a standard
tool I made myself from an offcut combination lock.
piece of 12 mm square steel tube The One Lock code is resettable to any
(fits perfectly on to a 3/8” socket number of movements in any sequence.
wrench, and the ratchet will also Master Lock products carry a limited
lifetime warranty.
help out in the more awkward
spaces) with a hole drilled straight
Master Lock – Indoor Bluetooth
through to accommodate a strong Padlock gives you the freedom to monitor
piece of cord, as seen in the first access and control who is able to open
picture (top). the lock via the Master Lock Vault eLocks
The second picture (bottom) app on your smartphone. You’ll also be
demonstrates how the tool would able to track the history of when the lock
be rigged up on an oil filter. In this was opened and closed via the app.
case, I used a glass jar of a roughly Thanks to its keyless convenience,
you’ll be able to share access at
similar diameter to most filters as
specific times on specific days.
a stand-in for the demonstration.
You can tighten as much as you
need to.
GUY GRINTER
EASY ON THE O
I noticed, more than once,
that the two o-ring seals
on the sink mixer get a
bit sticky if you tighten
the neck nut too much.
And if you keep it a little
looser, it tends to leak,
or becomes undone.
The solution? Apply a

few layers of polytetra-
flouroethylene (PTFE) Send your tips to:
tape over the seals. The PM Do It Your Way, PO Box 180,
seal is water-tight and Howard Place 7450, or e-mail
the tape allows the neck [email protected].
Please include your name, address and
to swivel freely without
contact number. Regrettably, only South
unnecessary tension.
African residents are eligible for the prize.
TOMMIE THERON Prizes not claimed within 60 days
will be forfeited.
RESERVATION OF COPYRIGHT
The publishers of POPULAR MECHANICS reserve all rights of reproduction or broadcasting of feature articles and factual data appearing in this journal under Section 12 (7) of the Copyright Act, 1978.
Such reproduction or broadcasting may be authorised only by the publishers of POPULAR MECHANICS. Published by RamsayMedia for the Proprietors, POPULAR MECHANICS, 36 Old Mill Rd, Ndabeni,
Western Cape. Distributed by RNA, 12 Nobel St, Industria West, Johannesburg, and printed by CTP Web, 12-14 Boompies Street, Parow, Cape Town. Apple Mac support: Digicape
tel 021 674 5000.

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