INVENTOR

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Alan is semi retired and lives in Benoni, Gauteng South Africa. He attended Michaelhouse School in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa and obtained a B Sc degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Witwatersrand University (Wits).

Alan currently writes provisional patent specifications and assists in developing working models for inventors.

Alan is also busy writing a book called "The Inventors Handbook", which will be available on the Internet.

BUSINESS CAREER

After graduating from Wits in 1950 Alan worked for The New Consolidated Goldfields mining group. The first mine he worked for was known as The Sub Nigel Gold Mine, one of the richest gold mines in the world at that time.

After a spell of two years on Sub Nigel, Alan was transferred to Head Office for further training. It was at this time when working for the Consulting Underground Engineer that Alan first became involved with a breed of people known as inventors. Often strange people would come to see the Consulting Engineer for advise and financial help. Alan says, "I was duly told by one of the Consulting Engineers that it was my duty to help any inventor, they are essential for the progress of the human race and invariable cannot help themselves."

Head Office was followed by a spell on The Libanon Gold Mine as a Sectional Engineer. Later Alan joined The Mobile Refining Company as a project engineer. It was in Durban where he met and helped several inventors. Only one inventor was directly involved with the refinery business the others came from other walks of life. At Mobile Alan became interested in the new I.B.M. punch card machine that was used for controlling companies wages. This machine saved hours and hours of manual calculations and was operated by only one person, surely an invention to beat all inventions.

Always looking for new challenges in 1963 Alan joined a consulting firm known as Moreland Technical and Engineering Consultants. This firm provided consulting services to the sugar industry, Tongaat Sugar in particular. Two major projects, namely the provision and installation of the first de Smet sugar diffuser, and building the textile mill at Tongaat, were the most interesting and exacting jobs done in Natal.

During 1968 Alan attended lectures and studied the new computer language at the time Fortran. Data was captured and entered into the computer using punch cards. The computer would then return an answer for the calculation and formula entered via the cards. The time savings were great and the accuracy phenomenal.

After working for several years for a Structural Engineering firm he branched out with two partners and opened their own Structural firm which eventually closed - leaving Alan with lots of time to become involved with the new generation of computers, P.C's and inventions.