In 1993 Trevor Baylis was watching a programme about the AIDS crisis in Africa, which observed that in many regions radio was the only available means of communication, but lack of batteries or electricity made them useless. There was a need for an educational tool that did not rely on electricity. That set Trevor off. His brilliantly simple idea was to combine the modern technology of the electric generator with the ancient technology of the wind-up watch to make something completely new, the wind up radio. When he put his idea in front of manufacturers the reaction was predictably negative. He needed luck, so he worked hard to find it, getting on BBC's Tomorrow's World, where his idea was at last spotted by the right entrepreneur.
Trevor will be joined by Jonathan Hare, who had to make something from nothing over and over on BBC's Rough Science, and by the University of Brighton, who are working to create the brilliant innovations of tomorrow.
You can also practice your own ingenuity. The spectroscope is a brilliant invention, which allows us to see what a star is made of even though it is trillions of miles away. You can make one from a CD and a cardboard tube with Darren Baskill from the University of Sussex to help you.
Children's toys have to be incredibly simple, so there is a lot of brilliance packed into their design. But pity the poor creative genius behind them who can only look on gloomily while babba sucks on it for a few months, then chucks it away. Toys Arrrgh Us will conduct autopsies on some dead toys to expose their internal brilliance.
The Incredible Machine is there for you to play around with your own ideas. And, naturally, lots lots more. Even as I write this other bright ideas are being emailed through. Keep refreshing that page.
Wednesday 22 February, 7.30pm,
Sallis Benney Theatre, 58-67 Grand Parade, BN2 0JY.
Ages 14+. £7/£5 (IOP members free)
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