Trevor Baylis was born on May 13, 1937 in Kilburn, London, England as Trevor Graham Baylis. Inventor Trevor Baylis came up with a solution to this problem in 1996, when he introduced the world to the first ever hand-powered, wind-up radio. inżynierem i sprzedawcą, a także nurkował prezentując możliwości tego asortymentu. Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. This led him to later form his own aquatics display company, where he worked as a swimmer, stuntman and entertainer. Eventually they sold the radio, to great success, in Africa and beyond – and patented some parts of its workings. And it was largely true, except for two important facts. There are bachelors of art and of science, so why not have bachelors of invention, says Trevor Baylis Basically, he invented a radio that did not need batteries or electricity to run, it could be wound up like a clock and would run like a regular radio. In 2001 in one of his most memorable publicity stunts, he walked 100 miles across the Namib Desert to demonstrate shoes that could charge mobile phone batteries while walking. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Inventor of the clockwork radio, Trevor Baylis, has been made a CBE in the New Year Honors list.. Mr. Baylis very much deserves this honor as his inventions have directly and indirectly fueled many self-powered innovations we enjoy today.. I’m honored to have spoken with Mr. Baylis over the years; he’s a brilliant, caring fellow with a sharp mind for solving problems and inventing solutions. The idea, simple yet efficient, would lead to millions of people around the world gaining access to radio for the very first time. He also studied engineering at a local technical college in Southall, Middlesex during the day and worked at a Soil Mechanics Laboratory at night. Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. 10 Great Scottish Inventors and Their Inventions, 10 Most Famous Black Inventors and Their Inventions. We think it’s a great idea.”. In 2002 a certain David Broughton, whose contribution to this invention is still little known, was recognised as joint inventor by the UK’s Patent Office, after having fought for that status. The only aspects of his radio that could theoretically be patented were to do with the constant force spring, which controlled the rate at which the energy was released, allowing the radio to keep working for longer than the crank had been turned. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. In September 2003 Trevor teamed up with a group of experienced business professionals to create ‘Trevor Baylis Brands’, a company formed to help inventors learn more about their inventions, how to go about protecting them and seek routes-to-market for the commercially viable ideas. Still, his first thought was somewhat self-involved: he pictured himself in colonial times, wearing a pith helmet and monocle with a gin and tonic in his hand, listening to a large wind-up gramophone with His Master’s Voice records blaring out of a large horn. He was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 1997 by the Anne, Princess Royal at the Buckingham Palace. Taking his first strokes in the rancid waters of Grand Union Canal, he soon realised he might also become good at swimming, and dedicated himself to that sport. “I wrote to Tony Blair asking him if he could call my team and speak to us on the mobile while we were on the trek but he just refused,” Baylis grumbled at the time. On the walls of his home, he has hung pictures of himself with Queen Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela and various honorary degrees he has received from universities all over the world. His first working model would play for 14 minutes with a two minute wind. I met him on two occasions. You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. He also studied engineering at a local technical college in Southall, Middlesex during the day and worked at a Soil Mechanics Laboratory at night. Still, Baylis’s dogged promotion of the machine led to its eventual mass market production. But Baylis continued to make gadgets in his workshop, and gave regular interviews, in which he ferociously defended the rights of inventors against “the sharks” that try to steal their ideas, and criticised with equal passion the UK’s patent laws, which he claimed did not adequately protect inventors against such theft. He became a subscriber to The Model Engineer, reading every word of every issue, and spent hours learning from his father in the family shed, which to Baylis was “like a shrine”. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. Trevor G. Baylis was born in Kilburn, London, in 1937 and spent his boyhood in Southall near London. Trevor Baylis, a tinkerer who turned to old-school technology in an effort to disseminate accurate information about AIDS through Africa, inventing a portable radio … One afternoon in September of 1943, his Sunday school teacher asked him to stay behind after class, and raped him. He lived with his dog on Eel Pie Island, on the River Thames in Twickenham, west London, in a quirky house he built for himself in the mid-1970s. Trevor Bayliss Photos - Trevor Baylis, inventor of the wind-up radio, is being forced to sell his home on the Eel Pie Island after failing to make money from his inventions. For two months the molestations carried on, then abruptly they stopped. But the stunt work kept him busiest, and soon he was diving into glass-sided tanks in various exhibition halls, including abroad. First, he did not develop the wind-up radio all on his own. He became increasingly serious about his swimming, too, sometimes training as many as five hours a day. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. He later wrote that during Christmas of 1970 he spent over a fortnight doing underwater escapology at a Berlin circus, performing the perilous act under the stage name of Rameses II, after the Egyptian pharaoh. But he added: “We got Richard Branson to call us instead.”. Leaving school at 15, he started work at a firm specialising in site investigations prior to building work and stayed there till 1959, when he began his two-year military service. The boy did not tell his parents, as he thought they would not believe him, but he did eventually tell the story, in all of its horrid detail, in his 1999 autobiography, Clock This. Baylis, who died aged 80, with no immediate survivors, was a master craftsman of practical solutions to everyday problems, conceiving hundreds of inventions and swiftly realising their prototypes. Invention. Using this money, he founded a company Freeplay Energy and his radio came to be known as the “Freeplay Radio” which won the BBC Design Award for “Best Design” and “Best Product” in 1996. Trevor set up the Trevor Baylis Foundation and Trevor Baylis Brands PLC to promote and encourage young inventors as he feels that inventors like himself struggle with the bureaucracy when trying to get their products to the market. Art is a pleasure, invention’s treasure Trevor discusses the difficulties he had in getting my Clockwork Radio taken seriously as a product… Trevor Baylis | You Can Invent on Vimeo Join The idea was a good one, but the prototype Baylis made was mediocre. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Trevor Baylis (ur.13 maja 1937 r. w Londynie, zm. Now in his late 70’s, Trevor Baylis is unmarried and lives on Eel Pie Island in the home he built for himself 40 years ago. He would often demonstrate the product by swimming in the pool himself, which attracted a large crowd. The Trevor Baylis Brands PLC. Jane Lambert I am very sorry to learn of the death of the inventor, Trevor Baylis CBE. The inventor of the wind-up radio, Trevor Baylis, has died aged 80, the manager of his company has confirmed. Trevor Baylis: Inventor whose wind-up radio helped remote parts of Africa tune in to education. But it was nine years before he thought of the invention that would make his name. One evening in the autumn of 1991, Trevor Baylis sat at home, watching a documentary about the spread of Aids in Africa. However, the limited supply of electricity and batteries meant that people did not have easy access to radio, and therefore could not receive the required information which could potentially curb the spread of AIDS. Aged 70, he wrote: “Death is my next big event – but once I had a life and I lived it to the full.”, Trevor Baylis: Inventor whose windup radio boosted education in Africa, Ray Dolby: Inventor who transformed sound reproduction, Emma Chambers: Dawn French’s comic sidekick in Vicar of Dibley, Barbara Alston: Singer with Sixties girl group The Crystals, Lewis Gilbert: Bond director behind era-defining British films, You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully, Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification. Into a pool and started swimming back and forth of a comedy diving trevor bayliss invention, then not so a! 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