Philip Dulhunty

Philip Wellesley Dulhunty, (27 April 1924 - 29 November 2020) was an Australian aviator, power distribution entrepreneur and inventor. He invented the widely-adopted "dogbone" damper for the protection of overhead power lines and produced the world's first battery-powered laptop computer. He was chairman of the Australian National Committee of the Conseil International des Grands Réseaux Électriques (CIGRÉ) and a member of its international administrative council and executive committee. He formed the Seaplane Pilots Association of Australia in 1972 and was its chairman for 44 years.

Early life Dulhunty was born in Kempsey, New South Wales, in 1924, great-grandson to Robert Venour Dulhunty, the first white settler of what was to become the city of Dubbo, New South Wales. He was one of five children born to Robert Dulhunty and Phyllis. At age six, the family moved to Port Macquarie where Dulhunty left school after completing his Form Three Intermediate Exam, no higher school tuition being available in Port Macquarie at the time.

Dogbone damper Stockbridge dampers, invented and patented in the 1920s by George H. Stockbridge, an engineer for Southern California Edison, contributed greatly to the durability of overhead cables in conditions giving rise to Aeolian vibration. Failures were still common, particularly in the great featureless expanses of the Australian landscape, and Dulhunty was inspired to invent the Dogbone damper in 1976. His innovation was to offset the weights sideways in order to introduce a third degree of freedom, twisting the damper cable in addition to bending it up and down. Additional intra-strand friction was created in the damper cable, dissipating significantly more energy. The design configuration, a larger metal sphere attached to the end of the damper, with a smaller sphere projecting sideways from it, resembled a dog's bone. was reflected in the council's 1982 task force report of which he was the lead author. The design was adopted worldwide and sold in the millions.

Marine inventions Aqueon Dulhunty grew up in Port Macquarie where he was a keen swimmer and won the North Coast Junior Open Surf Race in 1940. He claimed it had a propulsion efficiency of 86 per cent, as compared to 25 per cent for the average swimmer. Al Westbury was transferred to lead the development programme, Dave Irwin to come up with the initial idea and design; the world's first true, battery-powered laptop computer, the Dulmont Magnum, which went into production in 1983, was the result. The product was marketed both domestically and internationally by a joint venture with Tramont Ltd, a subsidiary of the Belgian National Electricity Authority, one of Dulmison's customers.

In 2008, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) conferred its James N Kirby Award on Dulhunty for "outstanding eminence, distinction, and public recognition".