The British inventor Trevor Baylis has died age 80. His best known invention is the wind-up radio he devised to help fight AIDS. Baylis realised that at the time radio was the main method of mass communication in rural Africa. This could be used to transmit information about HIV infections but many were restricted to listening for a few hours because of the cost of batteries.
Baylis experimented with clockwork mechanisms to provide a source of energy that could be converted into electricity to power radios indefinitely.
In 1991, he saw a television programme about the spread of AIDS in Africa and that a way to halt the spread of the disease would be by education and information using radio broadcasts. Before the programme had finished he had adjourned to his workshop and assembled the first prototype of his most well-known invention, the wind-up radio. The original prototype included a small transistor radio, an electric motor from a toy car, and the clockwork mechanism from a music box. He patented the idea and then tried to get it into production, but was met with rejection from everyone he approached.
The turning point came when his prototype was featured on the BBC TV programme Tomorrow's World in April 1994. With money from investors he formed a company Freeplay Energy and in 1996 the Freeplay radio was awarded the BBC Design Award for Best Product and Best Design. In the same year Baylis met Queen Elizabeth II and Nelson Mandela at a state banquet, and also travelled to Africa with the Dutch Television Service to produce a documentary about his life. He was awarded the 1996 World Vision Award for Development Initiative that year.[7]
Baylis filed his first patent in 1992.[8] The original Baygen radios used the windup mainspring design which is no longer in production. The year 1997 saw the production in South Africa of the new generation Freeplay radio, a smaller and cheaper model designed for the Western consumer market which uses rechargeable cells with a generic crank generator
Baylis was a keen swimmer, almost qualifying for the Olympics. He spent his (then compulsory 2 years) National Service as a PE instructor in the Army. When he left, he joined a company selling rigid-sided swimming pools. His demonstrations of these led to him becoming an entertainer, including making high dives into a tank of water. Using the money he earned from this, he set up his own company selling swimming pools to schools. His time as a stuntman also meant he was aware of the needs of those severely injured in accidents and he developed a range of aids for them.
Production of the wind-up radios provided work for disabled South Africans. His experience of trying to get them made resulted in him setting up a company to promote invention by supporting inventors and engineers in getting them to market.
Trevor Baylis received many honors during his lifetime but perhaps his best legacy is the continued use of radio to provide information in rural Africa and the lives they help save.