Category: Inventions

The very first postmark in the world was the invention of Colonel Henry Bishopp (or Bishop or Bisshopp) (1605-91) in 1661. He had bought the monopoly for delivering letters around the country and had become the first ‘Postmaster General’ in Britain.

He wanted a method of recording the date each letter was handed in to the post office. This was because of complaints from customers about delays in delivery. His ‘bishopmark’ provided the means of better organising the delivery schedules.

The bishopmarks were approximately half an inch diameter black circles with the month and the day inside. Each wooden stamper was chiselled individually in the first year and kept for re-use thereafter. Postmarks, as they later became known, have been used ever since.

(Image: Alwyn Ladell at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In 1959 the British Motor Company (BMC) launched the Mini to meet public demand for smaller cars with more economical petrol consumption. It was innovative not just on the exterior but also under the bonnet, having one of the first front-wheel-drive systems.

It was fun to drive, easy to park and it soon became a 1960s icon. The Mini Cooper S was the sporty version and it won the Monte Carlo Rally several times in that decade. Up until 2000, when production ceased, almost 5.4 million Minis had been sold in the UK and abroad.

Since 2000, BMW has owned the name and has rebranded it as the ‘MINI’. Their car has similar looks to the old Mini, and, in a nod to its British ancestor, has a Union Jack picture on its rear lights!

(Top image: Mark Brown at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Alan Dower Blumlein (1903-1942) was born in London and became a pioneer in the field of sound technology. He carried out work on standards for long-distance telecommunications and the reduction of cross-talk effects and filed a total of 128 patents. At EMI (Electric and Musical Industries) in Hayes, Middlesex, he invented stereo sound in 1931, devising techniques still in use today.

It is said that he was prompted by the abysmal sound distribution through speakers at a cinema! He realised that a new model of sound was needed which did not assume that two speakers represented two ears. His solution ~ to record two channels that are replayed simultaneously ~ received a prestigious recognition posthumously, with a Grammy Award in 2017. He was carrying out top secret research on aeronautical radar equipment during WW2 when his Halifax bomber aeroplane crashed in a field and he and the rest of the passengers were killed. Crucially, his work was recovered and was of immense importance in operations such as D-Day.

(Image: AlanBlumlein at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)

The 8-spindle ‘spinning jenny’ for spinning wool or cotton was invented by James Hargreaves (1720-78) of Lancashire in 1764 and it was an important step towards the Industrial Revolution. At first, some spinners were upset that it was taking away their jobs, but Hargreaves moved to a mill in Nottingham, where he continued to develop his ‘jenny’ (engine). The largest jenny accommodated 120 spindles.

Hargreaves died in 1778 and his wife, who was not called Jenny, nor were any of their daughters, received £400. Hargreaves had not been able to properly establish a patent on his invention, as he filed the application years after others had copied his design. By 1810 it had been replaced by newer machines.

These problems with patents and disgruntled workers had also been encountered by John Kay (1704-c.80), a fellow Lancastrian, who had invented the flying shuttle in 1733. It was Kay’s invention which created the need for the spinning jenny, since textile mills were struggling to keep up with yarn supplies to service the increased speed of weaving output.

(Top image: Woodcut, 1887, unknown creator, colorised later / Public domain)

The hovercraft was invented by engineer Sir Christopher Cockerell (1910-99) from Cambridgeshire, who patented his idea of a boat propelled on an air cushion in 1954. He continued its development and found it could be amphibious, something which was very appealing to the military. Cockerell began work on the prototype in his boatyard and the first launch proper was on 1st June 1959. A few weeks later, on 25th July, it took only two huors to cross the English Channel!

These versatile craft are used by the military and coastguards all over the world. Their use for public transport ~ to and from the Isle of Wight, for example ~ dipped after fuel costs rose in the 1980s, but this has the potential to re-emerge at some future point.

Cockerell died on the 50th anniversary of the very first launch, to the exact day, 1st June 1999.

(Top image: Mypix at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)