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Trevor Baylis CBE, 80, UK inventor of wind-up radio -- interesting backstory
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That Derek
Mar 5, 2018, 1:07:16 PM3/5/18
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/05/trevor-baylis-inventor-wind-up-radio-dies-aged-80
UK news
Trevor Baylis, inventor of the wind-up radio, dies aged 80
Baylis died of natural causes, having been ill for some time, according to his company
Ben Quinn
@BenQuinn75
Mon 5 Mar 2018 11.06 EST
Trevor Baylis, the creator of the wind-up radio that helped millions in the developing world to access life-saving information, has died aged 80.
The inventor, who was awarded a CBE in 2014 for services to intellectual property, died of natural causes on Monday morning, having been ill for some time.
Baylis, from Twickenham in south-west London, was regarded as one of Britain’s greatest living inventors. He was best known for his BayGen clockwork radio, which he created in 1991 while watching a documentary about Aids in Africa that highlighted the value of educational radio programmes in tackling the spread of HIV.
“Before the show was over I was into my studio and I managed to get a bark of sound out of an instrument and that was, if you like, my eureka moment,” he recalled.
A first working prototype of the radio ran for 14 minutes and, after Baylis appeared with it in 1994 on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme, was put into mass production in Cape Town by a company that employed disabled workers to manufacture it.
In recent years he had complained of financial difficulties after revealing he had received little of the profits from sales of his best-known invention. It prompted Baylis to urge the government to introduce stronger legal protection for inventors.
However, his instinct to innovate did not leave him and in 2003 he told the Guardian of how ideas still came to him out of the blue: “If you can solve a problem, then you are well on your way to being an inventor.”
They included the Electric Shoes, which he demonstrated in 2001 while completing a 100 mile walk in searing temperatures across the Namib desert in southern Africa to raise money for the charity, the Mines Advisory Group.
Born in May 1937 in Kilburn, north London, his first job was in a soil mechanics laboratory in Southall where a day-release arrangement enabled him to study mechanical and structural engineering at a local technical college.
At the age of 15 he swam for Great Britain and also later, as well as work as a salesman, spent time as a stuntman. An edition of People of Today 2017 credits him with a stint as an “underwater escape artist in Berlin”.
In recent years he had complained of financial difficulties after revealing he had received little of the profits from sales of his best-known invention. It prompted Baylis to urge the government to introduce stronger legal protection for inventors.
Among those paying tributes yesterday to Baylis were those who credited him with transforming and saving lives as a result of his radio.
The Aids Alliance, which supports community groups in countries that were most affected by the crisis, said it hoped Baylis’s legacy would inspire other inventors to develop creative solutions to strengthen the response to HIV.
“Trevor’s radio invention was inspired by an urgent need to provide accurate information about HIV at a critical point in the epidemic, when many people did not have access to information,” said Shaun Mellors from the Alliance.
Others shared personal stories, including Russell Conway, who recalled seeing one of Baylis’s radios in action in a small shack in a village in Malawi, which he was visiting on a bird-watching expedition.
“About 30 of the locals were listening intently to a football match. Communication is important and he will have saved lives. So true that nobody wants to be the richest person in the graveyard,” he said on Twitter.
Stephen Kelly, chief executive of the software company Sage, described Baylis as “a man that exemplified true grit and determination to successfully produce the wind up radio despite initial rejection”.
David Bunting, the chief executive of Trevor Baylis Brands, said Baylis had no living relatives,.
UK news
Trevor Baylis, inventor of the wind-up radio, dies aged 80
Baylis died of natural causes, having been ill for some time, according to his company
Ben Quinn
@BenQuinn75
Mon 5 Mar 2018 11.06 EST
Trevor Baylis, the creator of the wind-up radio that helped millions in the developing world to access life-saving information, has died aged 80.
The inventor, who was awarded a CBE in 2014 for services to intellectual property, died of natural causes on Monday morning, having been ill for some time.
Baylis, from Twickenham in south-west London, was regarded as one of Britain’s greatest living inventors. He was best known for his BayGen clockwork radio, which he created in 1991 while watching a documentary about Aids in Africa that highlighted the value of educational radio programmes in tackling the spread of HIV.
“Before the show was over I was into my studio and I managed to get a bark of sound out of an instrument and that was, if you like, my eureka moment,” he recalled.
A first working prototype of the radio ran for 14 minutes and, after Baylis appeared with it in 1994 on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme, was put into mass production in Cape Town by a company that employed disabled workers to manufacture it.
In recent years he had complained of financial difficulties after revealing he had received little of the profits from sales of his best-known invention. It prompted Baylis to urge the government to introduce stronger legal protection for inventors.
However, his instinct to innovate did not leave him and in 2003 he told the Guardian of how ideas still came to him out of the blue: “If you can solve a problem, then you are well on your way to being an inventor.”
They included the Electric Shoes, which he demonstrated in 2001 while completing a 100 mile walk in searing temperatures across the Namib desert in southern Africa to raise money for the charity, the Mines Advisory Group.
Born in May 1937 in Kilburn, north London, his first job was in a soil mechanics laboratory in Southall where a day-release arrangement enabled him to study mechanical and structural engineering at a local technical college.
At the age of 15 he swam for Great Britain and also later, as well as work as a salesman, spent time as a stuntman. An edition of People of Today 2017 credits him with a stint as an “underwater escape artist in Berlin”.
In recent years he had complained of financial difficulties after revealing he had received little of the profits from sales of his best-known invention. It prompted Baylis to urge the government to introduce stronger legal protection for inventors.
Among those paying tributes yesterday to Baylis were those who credited him with transforming and saving lives as a result of his radio.
The Aids Alliance, which supports community groups in countries that were most affected by the crisis, said it hoped Baylis’s legacy would inspire other inventors to develop creative solutions to strengthen the response to HIV.
“Trevor’s radio invention was inspired by an urgent need to provide accurate information about HIV at a critical point in the epidemic, when many people did not have access to information,” said Shaun Mellors from the Alliance.
Others shared personal stories, including Russell Conway, who recalled seeing one of Baylis’s radios in action in a small shack in a village in Malawi, which he was visiting on a bird-watching expedition.
“About 30 of the locals were listening intently to a football match. Communication is important and he will have saved lives. So true that nobody wants to be the richest person in the graveyard,” he said on Twitter.
Stephen Kelly, chief executive of the software company Sage, described Baylis as “a man that exemplified true grit and determination to successfully produce the wind up radio despite initial rejection”.
David Bunting, the chief executive of Trevor Baylis Brands, said Baylis had no living relatives,.
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