TELEPHONES, MOTOR CARS AND FILM: TECHNOLOGY IN KRUGER’S TIME

By: Jaco Schoonraad, Site Curator: DITSONG: Kruger Museum and DITSONG: Sammy Marks Museum

Introduction

During Paul Kruger’s presidency, the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) was not isolated from the rapid technological advances of the late 19th century. Pretoria gained its first telephone exchange in 1890, linking government offices, businesses, and eventually private homes. In 1897, South Africans witnessed the arrival of the “horseless carriage,” when a Benz motor car was demonstrated before curious crowds in Berea Park, Pretoria. At the same time, the wonders of moving pictures reached Johannesburg, where the first short films were screened in 1896, and President Kruger himself later attended a command performance of nearly 50 films. These innovations – the telephone, motor car, and film – symbolised a changing world and brought the industrial age tangibly into the heart of the ZAR.

The telephone

Telecommunication gradually developed from telegraph system into telephone. By 1890, Pretoria had its own telephone central, with lines installed in most government offices and in the Raadzaal.  Following a resolution of the Executive Council of the meeting on 26 July 1892, Pretorians could apply to the Telephone Office for a telephone connection at a cost of £8.15. Additional lines were available at an extra charge. The service operated daily from 7.30 a.m. until 7.30 p.m., with limited hours on holidays and festive days – from 5:00 to 5:30 a.m. and again from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. This demand for extended coverage led to a significant increase in staff in both the Telegraph and Telephone Departments.

Church street 60 was one of the first homes to have a telephone installed in 1891. By 1899, the Pretoria Longland’s Directory listed 249 telephone subscribers in the capital.  Remarkably, dialling “1” would connect callers directly to President Kruger’s home.

Telephone lines in Pretoria, with the church on Church Square visible in the background.

The Motor Car (Horseless Carriage)

With the discovery of diamonds and gold in South Africa, many of the latest inventions of the Victorian era soon reached the southern tip of Africa by the 1890s. The ZAR adopted steam-powered hoists, stamp mills, mine machinery, an efficient railway system, and electric lighting. The ZAR also invested in the latest technology –particularly artillery – after the Jameson Raid highlighted the need to strengthen the republic’s defences.

Yet on 4 January 1897 the looming threat of war was briefly set aside as excitement swept through Pretoria. At Berea Park, crowds gathered to witness the demonstration of the latest invention – the horseless carriage or motor car. The car had been imported the previous year by John Percy Hess, a German Pretorian of the company Messrs Hess & Co., who became the sole agent for Benz Motors in South Africa. He instructed his bank, the Bank of Africa, to arrange payment to the manufacturer, Benz & Co. of Mannheim, Germany, and to ensure that the car was shipped to Port Elizabeth in 1896 before being transported to Pretoria. Hess became the sole agent for Benz Motors in South Africa and arranged for a Benz Voiturette to be imported via Port Elizabeth and delivered to Pretoria, where it made its debut. During the demonstration, Hess’s first passengers were his business partner A.E. Reno and State Secretary W.J. Leyds. President Paul Kruger was invited to take a ride, but declined, preferring to watch from the sidelines.  A commemorative gold medal was minted for the occasion, while spectators had to pay an entrance fee of two shillings and six pence to see this wonder.

At the time, the horseless carriage was promoted as the “craze of the century” and was here to stay as with the bicycle and “…as shortly we will bid farewell to horse sickness, expensive forage, broken harnesses, lazy grooms, and runaway horses. Our Motor Carriage can stand in the street unattended and the bumptious ZARP dare not interfere.”

Film

In May 1896, Carl Hertz introduced motion pictures to the ZAR when he brought a film projector from England and screened the first short production at the Empire Palace of Varieties in Commissioner Street, Johannesburg. Hereby he introduced the ZAR to the era of the “Bioscope” through a series of 30-second films.

Hertz, accompanied by entertainer and pioneering filmmaker Edgar Hyman, soon began filming scenes in and around Johannesburg. For six weeks they toured the country, experimenting with the newly developed Cinematography machine. A memorable scene was captured in 1898 when President Kruger entered his state coach, parked in front of his home on his way to the Raadzaal.  Kruger himself showed great curiosity about this invention. In early 1899, the Empire’s musical director Dave Foote and manager Edgar Hyman travelled to Pretoria to present the first official command film performance in the ZAR. A formal programme was printed, listing nearly 50 short films that were shown to an impressed President Kruger. The footage of Kruger was later distributed internationally through the Warwick Trading Company’s catalogue and was shown all over the world making him one of the earliest South African figures to appear on film.

Three days after the declaration of the Anglo-Boer War, W.K.L. Dickson (who worked for Thomas Edison) arrived in South Africa to record the war on film. Film as a new medium of documentation, was also employed as a tool of propaganda during the war, which was the first conflict ever to be recorded on film.

In January 1899, a special film screening was presented to President Kruger.

References

Changuion, L. Fotobiografie: Paul Kruger 1825-1904, p. 85.

Emms, M. ‘History of the telephone in South Africa. Lantern, March 1975, p 53.

Johnston, R.H. Early motoring in South Africa’, pp. 14, 15.

Longland’s Pretoria Directory for 1899, pp. 243-245.

Peacock, R. 1955. Die geskiedenis van Pretoria 1855-1902. Pp. 227-228.

South Africa’s Yesterday’s Reader’s Digest 1981, p. 132.

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/SOUTH-AFRICA/2002-12/1040938349

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http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/history-south-african-film-industry-timeline-1895-2003, accessed 2015/03/24

http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/history-south-african-film-industry-timeline-1895-2003, accessed 2015/03/24