Episode 2: COMMUNICATION Ground-breaking Australian inventions that forever changed global communication

BIONIC EAR WI-FI

INVENTOR: Prof Graeme Clark INVENTOR: Dr John O’Sullivan and his CSIRO Team YEAR: 1978 YEAR: 1992

A bionic ear (or cochlear implant) is a neural prosthesis designed to produce hearing sensations WiFi is a way of getting broadband Internet to a device by electrically stimulating nerves inside the inner using wireless transmitters and radio signals. Once a ear of profoundly deaf patients. It consists of a transmitter receives data from the Internet, it receiver-stimulator that is surgically placed under converts that data into a radio signal that can be the patient's skin behind the ear, and an external received and read by WiFi enabled devices. sound processor that sits behind the ear, similar to Information is then exchanged between the a hearing aid. transmitter and the device.

TELEPHANE PRE-PAID POSTAGE

INVENTOR: Henry Sutton INVENTOR: James Raymond YEAR: 1885 YEAR: 1838

Unsung hero of the late 19th /early 20th century, Since 1680 in Britain, and adopted in Australia just Henry Sutton was not confined to one particular field over a century later, the postal system was post-paid. of science. A prolific inventor, Sutton invented a That meant, the recipient paid for the letter. The method by which we could “see by electricity” called system was expensive and vulnerable to fraud. the 'telephane'. His published research findings of James Raymond, Colonial Postmaster-General of New apparently successfully transmitting an image in South Wales, introduced the world’s first pre-paid London in 1892 contributed to Scotsman John Logie postal system selling envelopes marked with the post Baird developing and inventing television. office’s stamp for use throughout Sydney.

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