I love inventing, or more appropriately, developing things.
Timevendor
In the 1960’s I developed a system and a machine for managing time costing and won a Gold Medal for the item at the International Inventors Exhibition held in Brussels in 1965. The Plaque is on my office wall.Everyboby thought that it was a great idea for someone else. Weird that!
Loudspeakers
Also during the 60’s I did a great deal of work building loudspeakers. At the time I was the agent for the Danish loudspeaker manufacturer Peerless. I discovered that mid range units needed to be in a separate enclosure. I did this work at my premises in Kensington High Street where I was visited by Raymond Cooke of KEF on many occasions. I demonstrated to Raymond that in conventional design (at the time) both mid-range and bass drivers were mounted in the same enclosure and sound clarity was impaired by the back wave of the bass unit modulating the cone of the mid-range unit. By enclosing them separately the sound clarity was much enhanced. I shared this with Peerless and they were the first company to offer the mid-range with an enclosed rear “can” to isolate the back of the driver cone. Knowledge of this travelled quickly in the sound industry and soon both Raymond and John Wilkins of Bowers and Wilkins (B&W) mounted both mid-range and high frequency units above the bass bin (see Raymond Cooke’s Reference Series etc).
Record Cleaning Machine
In the 70’s I designed a record cleaning machine and patented it. The patent was strong as the record spun in an anti-clockwise direction whereas all record players (on which other cleaning machines were based) operated in a clockwise direction. The benefit of ant-clockwise rotation is that when operated at speed to dry the disc the fluid is flung off by centrifugal force and not drawn back into the centre of the record. At that time I did not have enough cash to manufacture and market it so I sold the patent .
New Home Building Improvements
When I bought Leofric in 1995 my first aim was to make domestic concrete buildings more acceptable and I designed and introduced the log cabin, resembling logs but made from concrete These have been a steady seller for over twenty years and have yet to be copied. Likewise the Pavillion which incorporates arches not found in any other manufacturers product line.
Recently I developed one-piece moulded uPVC roofing which runs fron gutter to gutter eliminating the possibility of leaks at the ridge of the building.
Now I am introducing Garden Rooms and Sheds framed from lock-together aluminium profiles that carry a wood/plastic composite planking made from recycled plastic bottles and pulverised wood. The aluminium frame also doubles up as the support for shelving, work tops and storage.