Pratley Putty, an epoxy adhesive, became the first South African product to go to the Moon.

It was used to secure landing equipment on the Apollo 11 Eagle landing craft, which landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface on 20 July 1969, when they became the first humans to land on a body other than Earth.

This came four years after the American space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, had first used the adhesive to bond several components together on its Ranger 9 lunar probe, which took photos of the Moon’s surface for 19 minutes before intentionally crashing onto the lunar surface in March 1965.

However, it had taken nearly two decades for George Pratley to turn what was once a small manufacturing company into a global success.

Pratley, who was born in Johannesburg in 1917, lost his father at age nine and later used his small inheritance to study at the Rugby College of Technology and Arts in England.

After completing his studies, he went to work for the British Thomson-Houston Company, which specialised in heavy industry engineering and manufacturing.

Pratley intended to join the British Army following the declaration of war in 1939 by Britain on Nazi Germany. Despite resistance from his employer, he eventually managed to do so in 1942, taking part in the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944.

When the war ended in 1945, he returned to South Africa and found employment at the Durban Deep Gold Mine in Roodepoort in 1946.

Two years later, Pratley decided to start his own business using the experience he had gained overseas and in the mining industry.

When it was launched in 1948, the Pratley Manufacturing and Engineering Company operated from a rented garage in Hillbrow, with its initial business consisting of jobs for nearby mines.

Pratley and his first employee, Sam Matlebe, started with £349 worth of equipment and eventually opened trading premises in Roodepoort.

The company soon began to make a name for itself due to the quality of its products, which led to its expansion.

According to Pratley Adhesives, a large part of its early success can be attributed to the reconditioning of water pumps for mines, which was an intricate yet lucrative business.

Continued success saw George Pratley purchase a site in Krugersdorp, where he built two workshops and an office.

It was only in the early 1960s that Pratley Putty, a world-first product, was developed as an insulator and adhesive for fixing brass terminals inside cable junction boxes, one of the company’s top-selling products.

However, it soon became clear that the product had a wide range of uses, such as mending cracked swimming pools and repairing pipelines, allowing it to penetrate the consumer, industrial, and mining markets.

The putty was eventually turned into a paste and began being manufactured under licence in the United States and New Zealand.

In addition to being used on the Ranger 9 space probe and the Apollo 11 Eagle landing craft, Pratley Putty was also used in the repair of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

George Pratley died in 1983 at the age of 66, and his son Kim, who had joined the company four years earlier, took over its leadership.

Andrew Pratley succeeded his father, Kim, as CEO following his passing in 2021.

In 2019, Pratley Putty was featured in the South African Mint’s commemorative coin series celebrating local inventions. Today, the company offers several versions of its globally renowned product, including Pratley Quickset Putty and Pratley Steel Putty.