| Eleven Nottinghamshire inventors |
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| A Nottinghamshire man invented
the tomato - well nearly |
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The people of Nottinghamshire are
very clever - not only did they invent GM tomatoes but also the brown
sauce to go on them. |
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| 1
- HP Sauce |
A
Nottingham shopkeeper invented the recipe for HP Sauce, but
missed the chance of making his fortune, when he traded the
recipe with a Midlands' vinegar company to settle a debt!
Garton's HP Sauce was developed by FG
Garton, who ran a small grocery shop in Nottingham.
He called the sauce HP because he claimed
to have heard that it was available in a restaurant in the Houses
of Parliament.
A businessman called in on Mr Garton
with regard to some unpaid bills and noticed his sauce-making
activities. The recipe and brand were sold for 拢150 and
the cancellation of the debt.
HP is known as `Wilson's Gravy' after
Harold Wilson, the Labour Prime Minister of the 1960s and 1970s,
who was rumoured to cover his food with HP Sauce. |
| 2
- Spinning Jenny |
James
Hargreaves fled from Lancashire when his new invention the Spinning
Jenny was wrecked by fellow weavers.
He settled in Nottingham, where he built
a small spinning mill off Lower Parliament Street in 1767.
His invention resulted in massive changes in
the spinning industry, but he died in obscurity in a Nottingham
workhouse in 1777. |
| 3
- Stocking knitting machine |
William
Lee, a Calverton clergyman, invented the first stocking knitting
machine in 1589.
Queen Elizabeth I feared it would cause
unemployment.
Lee was forced to take his frame to France. |
| 4
- GM Tomatoes |
Professor
Don Grierson of the University of Nottingham led the team that
produced the first genetically engineered tomato.
The tomato was the first genetically
modified plant food to be approved for sale on both sides of
the Atlantic. |
| 5
- Shin guards |
Shin
guards for football were invented in Nottingham in the late
19th Century.
In 1865 a group of youngsters attached to St. Andrew's Church
on Mansfield Road, Nottingham, formed a football club and since
they played on the Forest Recreation Ground, the town's racecourse,
they called themselves Nottingham Forest.
Hacking of shins, tripping and elbowing
were allowed and the goalkeeper could be charged out of the
way of a shot even if he was nowhere near the ball.
Forest were the first team to wear the
shin guards, invented by club player Samuel Widdowson in 1874.
It sounds like they were needed! |
| 6
- Bicycle gears |
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James Samuel Archer, 1854-1920, was the co-inventor of the famous
Sturmey-Archer gears, the three-speed bicycle gears. He lived
in Nottingham, and worked at the Raleigh Cycle Company. |
| 7
- The tank |
A
Nottingham man was partly responsible for modern mechanical
warfare when he came up with the idea of the tank.
His invention was turned down by the
War Office as 'too cranky', but the first tanks were eventually
manufactured in 1915.
The Tank was developed in Grantham and
enjoyed limited success in WWI. |
| 8
- The video recorder |
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inventors of one type of video recorder were two Nottingham
men, Norman Rutherford and Michael Turner, in 1957. |
| 9
- Walking clothes dryer |
An
inventor from Nottingham has just come up with a product that
can dry moisture out of boots and clothing.
Guy Tinsley from Cotgrave has developed a pouch containing a
chemical crystal that acts like a giant sponge. It goes into
something like a boot and draws out the moisture, preventing
damp and mould.
The Dampire can be dried out on a radiator, in a microwave or
by hanging from a rucksack and then used time and time again. |
| 10
- MR scanners |
Perhaps
the most far-reaching invention of the past fifty years is the
development of magnetic resonance imaging as a medical diagnostic
tool.
This was pioneered by Professor (now Sir) Peter Mansfield in
the early 1970s in the Department of Physics at The University
of Nottingham.
Now hospitals throughout the world have MR scanners. Sir Peter
was knighted in honour of his discovery. |
| 11
- Invisible bra |
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Dr Joanne Morgan from Stapleford, Nottinghamshire
has won a national business award for her bra idea that could
give the lingerie industry a big boost. Find
out more.
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