Wright has her own manufacturing line in the lounge of her home on the slopes of Bosberg, overlooking Somerset East. Wright is known as a pieceworker. She puts five toothpicks and a glass stirring rod into a plastic tube, which is sealed with a red lid. In other homes across Somerset East pieceworkers are assembling other elements of the chemistry sets, such as micro-burners to heat chemicals and current indicators to test electrical activity. Micro-science has had an impact on the town, says Wright.
Unemployment here is rife.
From Cincinnati in the US, he never dreamed that at 64 he would be spending half his time in the Karoo. He came to South Africa for the first time in 1993, when he brought his science sets for an exhibition promoting American products. No one was interested until Mark Hynd of Sterilab, which specialises in medical equipment, came along. The success of Somerset Educational has been phenomenal. The company is expected to list on the stock exchange in three to four years, but profit is not the motive.