Babies get the ride they deserve

By Bonnie JamesDeputy News Editor

The car cradle

The proverbial saying, necessity is the mother of invention, has inspired visiting Indian inventor Zakarias Mathew on many occasions.His latest product, Joanna’s Car Cradle (www.carcradle.in), was born out of his daughter Saino’s dilemma on how to carry her newborn girl safely during car trips.“I realised child seats are not meant for infants and set out to make the new product, get a patent and named it after my grand daughter,” Mathew said.Launched in Mumbai, India, on July 5 this year, the car cradle, has drawn appreciation from a number of doctors and others in the medical field for the safety and comfort it offers.With a maximum dry weight of 5.5kg, the cradle can buckle up infants weighing up to 12kg, and double as a swing when used in the house or as a basket to carry a baby safely.“I have received orders from Australia for the car cradle and trade inquiries are pouring in from the rest of India,” he said.The inspiration for creating a gadget to control violent elephants was the gory incident in a temple in Kerala which saw an out of control pachyderm trampling three people to death.“A small box weighing just five kg can be fixed to one of the hind legs of the elephant and linked loosely to the other hind leg with a belt that could withstand a load of more than two tonnes,” he explained.If the animal displays signs of turning violent, all the mahout need to do is to press a button on the remote control from within a range of 25m and the belt tightens, preventing the elephant from taking another step.This product has been successfully demonstrated in front of temple authorities and wildlife officials in India and Mathew is now waiting for clearance from the latter.The coconut plucking robot has been designed in mind with the severe shortage of personnel to do the job, be it in Mathew’s home state of Kerala, or other coconut growing states in India or elsewhere.“The pneumatic powered device I invented climbs coconut palms, snips off bunches of nuts and cuts leaves, responding to commands given by the person who operates it from the ground. It runs on a portable petrol engine placed at the foot of the coconut palm.”The rechargeable battery-powered rubber tapping machine allows easy operation, which would otherwise need trained workers to accomplish the task as one should be careful not to damage the trunk of the rubber tree.“The machine is calibrated to peel away thin layers of the bark to facilitate the flow of rubber sap. The trial phase is over and the authorities concerned are happy with the device.”Mathew got the spark to make the hydraulic hinged pole, when a worker repairing a tall lamp post from a bucket crane fell to his death in Mumbai when a vehicle rammed into it.“With my invention, lamp posts could be tilted and the top end brought parallel to the ground for any maintenance work, thereby avoiding the need for workers to be sent up.”A collapsible bridge made to order by Mathew’s Senzo Engineering for the famous Tirupathi Temple in India and commissioned in 2009 is being used by thousands of devotees daily.The inventor has received a 1000 machine order for a sugar cane sampler, which costs Rs 5mn each. When sugarcane laden lorries line up outside factories this machine could be deployed to move from vehicle to vehicle and take samples from deep within each load without unloading the cane stacks.