SME event: British Library exhibition celebrates ingenious Britons

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With economic growth dependent on the nation’s ability to innovate and diversify, Britain’s inventors have a key role to play in developing the new products and services that will drive the recovery.

Looking to stimulate creativity and encourage innovative thinking across Britain, a British Library exhibition – Inventing the 21st Century – is tracing the journey behind 15 British products developed over the last ten years, from the revolutionary Dyson Air Multiplier to President Obama’s favourite dog bowl.

Every year the UK generates over 25,000 patents, trademarks, and design rights for new products and services. The curator of the exhibition and the British Library’s resident patent expert, Stephen Van Dulken says: ‘The British Library hopes this exhibition will inspire a generation of aspiring inventors to explore their ideas and turn creativity into a reality.’

Inventing the 21st Century: Celebrating British Ingenuity will run from 6 September – 28 November 2010 in the British Library’s Folio Society Gallery.

The inventions featured:

• The Double Broom
  A double-headed broom invented by Samuel Houghton, who was just three years old at the time, after he watched his dad struggle to sweep up leaves in his back garden.

• SeaRaser Wave Power Generator
  A self-cleaning, low maintenance wave energy device that uses just the motion of the waves to pressurise water through a system of floating pistons to create energy. Creators Dartmouth Wave Energy Limited say 11,000 units could generate enough power for the whole of Britain and reduce energy bills by as much as three quarters.

• Magnamole DIY Solution
  Produced by a Dragon’s Den winner, the Magnamole enables building contractors and home improvement enthusiasts to pass cables through cavity walls more quickly, easily and most importantly more safely.

• Karbon Kinetics Gocycle®
  An innovative electric folding electric bike which allows users to go for up to an hour without recharging and reaches speeds of 15 mph.

• Money Saving Ewgeco Energy Monitor
  Attached to a domestic or commercial power supply, this single device makes monitoring your usage of electricity, gas and water easy through a simple traffic light warning system.

• All Terrain Trendy Trekinetic® Wheelchair
  With a wide wheel base and a shock absorbing rear wheel, this radically redesigned wheelchair not only looks much cooler than traditional designs but has been designed with an active user in mind.

• Lifesaver Portable Water Filter
  Using a triple filter pump activated system to remove bacteria and viruses, as well as mud and dirt, Michael Pritchard’s chemical free Lifesaver is literally saving lives – enabling victims of natural disasters quick and easy access to clean water.

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• Pop Open Packaging
  Packaging involves many often unseen innovations to ensure a cheap yet reliable product. Developed by the British Library’s own Inventor in Residence, Mark Sheahan, Pop-i packaging provides easy access, re-sealable containers for all sorts of confectionary and cosmetic products.

• Dyson’s Bladeless Fan (pictured)
  Known as the Air Multiplier®, the latest product from Dyson is 15 times more efficient than standard existing fan technology, producing air in the base and amplifying it over an aerofoil hoop to create a smooth, powerful, un-buffeted blast of air.

• Yoomi Self-warming Baby Bottle
  At the press of a button this innovative baby bottle warms baby milk to the correct temperature every time, wherever and whenever required. Using a rechargeable warming device, the feed is heated in through a series of channels on the outside of the warmer – heating just the milk being drunk, whilst keeping the rest fresh.

• Mosquito Security System
  Emitting a high-pitched series of pulses, at 15.5 to 17.5kHz, which can only be heard by young people, this controversial device was designed to tackle anti-social behaviour by preventing groups of teenagers from hanging around in public places.

• Road Refresher® Dog Bowl A specially designed water bowl for dogs, the Road Refresher enables dogs to drink as you drive and prevent the motion of the car spilling water everywhere. Despite failing to secure funding from the Dragons’ Den, inventor Natalie Ellis has gone on to crack the US market with her product – even the Whitehouse now has one.

• Speedo’s Shark Inspired Swimsuit
  At the 2008 Beijing Olympics 94 per cent of races were won by competitors wearing Speedo’s high-tech new swimsuits. Designed to improve times by up to 4 per cent, the cutting edge, water repellent design has been so effective that as of this year they are now banned from competitions amid allegations of ‘technological doping’.

• Revolutionary Retinal Scanner
  Using an ellipsoidal mirror to reflect a laser beam and provide high-resolution images in a single scan, the Optos retinal scanner has now been used in over 24 million eye examinations world wide and even helped to save the sight of one of the inventor’s sons.

• Rail Track Leaf Laser
  In 1999 Railtrack announced they had spent £50 million tackling the disruption caused by autumn leaves, concluding that they would ‘never beat nature’ and relying on the costly method of ‘lineside vegetation management’. Unwilling to give up on the challenge, LaserThor have developed a much cheaper but yet to be commercialised system of lasers and mirrors to blast debris from the line.

Tags: British Library, Events, inventions, small business, SMEs, startups

Posted by Vicki Owen on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 4:46 pm.

Filed under Events, News, SMEs, Starting a Business, Tagged as: , British Library, Events, inventions, small business, SMEs, startups.