It’s my great pleasure that I can announce that top British inventor and renowned sheddie, Trevor Baylis has agreed to be one of the judges in next years Shed of the Year competition.

If you have been under your shed for the past few years, here’s a little bit about Trevor and his very interesting life.

Trevor Baylis is most famous for the creation of the ‘Clockwork Radio’ and his career is built on a lifetime interest in invention and innovation. Trevor was born in 1937 in London during the Blitz. At the age of 15, Trevor swam for Britain, and on leaving school, worked as a stunt man, escapologist in a Berlin circus, and as a Physical Training Instructor for Army.

Later he joined a swimming pool company as a salesman, and then moved into R & D. In 1970, he designed and built a large portable glass sided tank which was used for giving high diving and underwater swimming exhibitions. This lead to his setting up his own swimming pool company which successfully sold a pool of his own design to over 350 schools throughout the UK – many of which are still in use today. During this time he also invented a series of products for the disabled called ‘Orange Aids.

The first ideas for the development of the Clockwork Radio came to him in the early 90s after watching a programme on the spread of AIDS in Africa. He recognised the need for a means of getting health information to poor areas of the country where there was little or no electricity and batteries were beyond the means of most of the population. The first working prototype ran for 14 minutes. With support and encouragement from the BBC World Service in 1994, the Clockwork Radio was featured on ‘Tomorrows World’ after which a product champion was found and plans were struck to employ disabled people in the manufacture of radios. The factory was opened in 1995 in South Africa and QED made and broadcast a documentary, which further raised the product profile and in 1996, he won the BBC Design Award for the Best Product and Best Design, and in 1997 he was awarded an O.B.E. for services to Africa.

Trevor has always worked tirelessly to promote the cause of the lone inventor, and has been concerned about the neglect of invention, inventors, and intellectual property in the UK for many years. To help improve this situation, he set up a company called Trevor Baylis Brands plc which helps inventors take their products to market. The company has been a great success, and now has a share listing on the stock market.

Today, he is in great demand as a speaker, sharing his extraordinary experiences with companies and associations all over the world. He inspires and motivates people to think ‘outside the square’, and is still devoted to finding new solutions developing new ideas and products.

I will be conducting an interview with Trevor in the next few weeks, so if you would like to ask him about his inventions and how they have changed the world for a lot of people or just about his workshop, then please post them in the comment box.

We look forward to him sharing his shed soon.

Below are some pictures of Trev with some of inventions in his workshop and of course his pipe (he won Pipe smoker of the year 1999).

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Shed tags: Just Sheds Tuesday > Shed News > Shed Week 2008 //