Inventors

Got a good idea for a product? You'd better get yourself a patent. Alex McGowan (left) heeded this advice and now his Magic Flute invention is making quarries, mines and oilfields safer.

An accident to the survey ship McGowan captained taught him that compressed air has explosive power. He developed and patented an air-operated device that can break rock without risk, and has won awards and contracts with major companies.

Trevor Bayliss, whose clockwork radio brought reception to places with neither mains electricity nor batteries, wants more business people to understand the importance of patents. Even schoolchildren should be taught how to get them, he says. He recently announced the formation of an Academy of Inventors aimed at turning bright British ideas into marketable products.

Words and pictures published in First Voice magazine.