TWO young aspirant Komani inventors ‘attracted’ top honours at the prestigious Science and Technology Awards – constructing an electromagnetic crane from waste material.
Grade 7 Lukhanji Primary School learners, Lukho Detyana (14) and Linathi Buti (12), were not only placed first in the Grade 7 category, but also won the Chris Hani District Municipality round. They will now compete at provincial level.
The competition, presented by the Department of Education, took place at J.J. Serfontein High School in Komani earlier this month.
The electromagnetic crane, especially designed for scrap metal dealerships, consists of dried water reeds that are joined together with insulation tape. A 1.5 volt battery cell is used to generate an electric current, which is transferred to the carrier via copper wires.
“In order for the crane to be able to attract metals, we wound the copper wire from the battery cells around a steel nail on the crane’s tip,” said Detyana.
“The electrons from the battery generate strong magnetism fields, enabling the crane to attract and hold heavy metals.”
According to her, their invention only attracts the needed material from scrap metals, unlike other machinery that picks up everything and still needs to be sorted by hand afterwards – making it unique.
Co-inventor Buti said that their crane had an on-off switch that allowed the operator to break the electromagnetic current, thus allowing him to pick up and let go of material.
According to a proud science and technology teacher, Khayalethu Tyutu, the learners had less than a week to assemble their winning crane.
“The learners made the crane from material that others would regard as waste,” he said.
“As science and technology educators, it is our duty to teach learners to recycle and to reuse waste products.”
