Trevor Baylis, inventor famous for his wind-up radio
1937-2018
● Trevor Baylis, who has died at age 80, was the inspired creator of the “clockwork radio”. His simple yet effective design won him recognition as one of Britain’s foremost inventors.
Baylis got the idea in the early ’90s after seeing a TV report that showed how basic radio communication was impossible in parts of Africa.
From his garden shed, he developed and built his Freeplay Radio, powered by a spring-energy dynamo, an idea inspired by the old-fashioned wind-up gramophone.
Baylis found it difficult to get commercial backing. Eventually, in 1994, an appearance on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme gave his radio the springboard it needed.
It was recognised as a winner by Christopher Staines, an accountant, and Rory Stear, a South African entrepreneur. They took the design to South Africa, where it was manufactured by Baylis’s newly formed company, Baygen, in factories staffed as much as possible by disabled workers. The radio gave rural people access to education and information.
In 1999 he co-founded the Electric Shoe Company and the Personal Power Company, making gadgets that powered cellphone batteries through walking.
Baylis, who failed to get into grammar school, showed an aptitude and passion for technology and Meccano sets. At 14 he built a diesel engine and later developed a car that ran on whisky and turpentine. He was also a talented swimmer who represented Britain at the age of 15, going on to do stunt diving and underwater escapology. He was also a circus performer.
He became a prominent campaigner for the establishment of a British Academy of Inventors to provide advice and protect them from “spivs, crooks and vulture capitalists”.
In the cluttered garden shed where he produced many of his gadgets, Baylis gave the appearance of an eccentric boffin, but his success sprang from an infallible self-belief and an unflagging enthusiasm for creativity in science.
In 1999 he was named Pipe Smoker of the Year. — © The Daily Telegraph, London