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History of the Super Sopper |
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Gordon Withnall, creator of the Super Sopper |
Len Withnall, son of Gordon |
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In 1974 my
father was playing golf at Liverpool Golf Course in My father
applied for, and received a world patent for the 'Super Sopper'. It was
interesting for me to look at all the water removal inventions over the last
one hundred and fifty years. Some used rollers etc., but none squeezed the
water through the perforated cylinder into a holding tank. This was a world
first! At that time
there was a television program on ABCTV called 'The Inventors'. During that
year of 1974 the 'Super Sopper' machine was entered and was voted the best
machine of the night. I distinctly
remember Di Fisher asking 'Does it come in any other colours?'. The Super
Sopper then made it to the end of year finals, where it came second to a
'so-called' petrol saving device that was fitted to a car's carburettor. From the
ensuing publicity from this program, we started to sell about fifty small
machines each year to schools, councils, tennis courts and cricket clubs. One day in 1979
my father received a phone call from Ian Johnson, who was the arena manager
at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He wanted Gordon in We had worked
on a few prototypes previous to this but they had not been successful yet.
Gordon struck on the idea of having two large rollers in tandem with the
driver, motor and drive mechanism mounted between the rollers. It's
appearance was not dissimilar to Fred Flintstone's automobile. The first
machine was going to have a clutch and an FJ Holden gearbox, but hydraulic
drive was becoming popular and had many advantages over earlier drive
mechanisms. The idea was to
distribute the weight evenly over the whole machine and keep the overall
gross weight as light as possible, thus not damaging the hallowed turf.
Lightweight tube was employed in a truss and this technique is still used
today. The original prototype had a V-belt drive and aluminium pulleys. We
realised soon after, that this just wasn't strong enough, so we went to
heavy-duty double row industrial chain. We used a
'Southcott' hydraulic pump and various other parts which enabled us to
deliver the first whale to the MCG. That year in
Melbourne it was very wet, but the MCG was always dry thanks to the Super
Sopper. It didn't take
long for the word to get out. All the VFL clubs in I've actually
driven from Harry Brind,
curator of 'The Oval' in London, was in Australia at the time on a 'fact
finding' mission and arranged to get a demonstration of the 'Whale' Super
Sopper at the MCG with Jack Lyons, curator at the MCG. Harry was so
impressed by the amount of water removed by the 'Whale', that he flew to So now we had a
machine in Cricket playing
countries from around the world saw these machines and now there are at least
one or two 'Whales' at each ground. In 1984 a
Japanese company approached us and started purchasing 'Whales', 'Sandpipers'
and 'Minnows' in large quantities. At one time we were sending six hundred
'Sandpipers' a year to them. 'Sandpiper's
have been used with fantastic results on synthetic grass tennis courts
especially when tennis clubs have a tournament coming up and they have
torrential rain just hours before play. A 'Sandpiper' can dry an entire
tennis court within fifteen minutes. Over the years
the only trouble we have had with 'Whales' is people not treating them kindly
eg. bashing into goal posts and fences, and failing to undertake regular
maintenance. The hydraulic system has proven to last twenty-five years or
more and we can change the petrol or diesel engine after many years' work. We have now
sold one hundred and twenty 'Whales' worldwide and have exported to ten
different countries. In 1995 my
father retired and sold the factory and land, which had become a residential
area. I moved the business to Taree, Mid-north coast, NSW, about four hour's
drive north of We sell
'Sandpiper's also to multi-storeyed building sites, where the walls aren't
finished yet. The wind blows the rain onto the concrete floors preventing
work to continue. The Sandpiper quickly dries the pools of water. Also we make a
machine , the 'Sandpiper Industrial', that picks up oil, kerosene and petrol
spills. I will I
remember that day in 1974 after my father played golf, and to think my whole
working life was making 'Super Soppers', and having lots of fun on the way. Len Withnall Kuranda
Manufacturing 11 February 2000 |
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A Whale Super Sopper at the |
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