Cape innovator takes up Thomas Edison’s torch and invents, patents a new universal socket
Cape Town - A South African inventor is all set to be the biggest name in light bulbs since Thomas Edison by changing lighting forever.
Capetonian David Harte, 64, has invented and patented a light bulb socket able to mechanically and electrically interface both screw-type and bayonet-type light bulbs as well as downlight-type light bulbs.
“I was motivated by the fact that the design of Thomas Edison’s screw socket hasn’t changed in 140 years since its invention.”
Harte’s invention has now been patented in the biggest markets in the world – these are the US, Australia, China, India and, of course, South Africa.
The invention, which is ready for market, means Harte’s name can stand alongside that of Mark Shuttleworth, who created the Ubuntu open-source Linux operating system that helps connect everything from drones to thermostats to the internet.
Harte’s light bulb moment occurred to him while sitting in a dark prison cell in Mauritius where he was serving a 9-year sentence for smuggling 500 grams of heroin into the country.
“My life had gone to pieces after my second divorce and I had been reduced to living in a backpackers’ hostel and was desperate.”
Harte, who lost his home in the aftermath of his divorce, had gone from living a middle-class life in the Southern Suburbs to sharing a dorm with strangers at the backpackers.
When he was asked by an acquaintance at the backpackers to courier drugs hidden in the sole of a pair of sandals to the island in return for a few thousand dollars, the idea seemed to be a no-brainer.
He was on his second drug couriering mission to Mauritius when he was caught in a police drug bust. His time in the prison is now the subject of an episode of the NatGeo TV series, Locked up Abroad.
Harte was a model prisoner and turned his life around by teaching basic computer lessons to fellow inmates. Because his lessons were such a success, he earned himself a few privileges, such as a light in his cell so he could read at night.
One night, the light bulb expired and when he obtained a replacement, it was the wrong sort of bulb.
“I thought to myself: why hasn’t anyone come up with a light bulb that can fit any socket?”
The thought stayed with him and he began to research the idea of what he now calls “the universal light bulb socket or UBS”. After he left prison, his twin, Harold, took him in and encouraged him to keep working on the idea in his garage.
Harte’s invention has for the first time enabled Edison’s humble light bulb socket to mechanically and electrically interface both screw-type and bayonet-type light bulbs as well as down light-type light bulbs.
Harte has gone a step further in that his invention comprises a safety mechanism for electrically isolating the electrodes within the socket.
Twin Harold said: “This is so that you have no risk of shocking yourself even if you change the light while the current is still running.”
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za