Sunday Mercury - Inspect-a-gadget

An ear nibbling invention to heat up Valentine's Day

2008-12-11T16:08:02Z

SHE'S been called eccentric. She's been called wacky. And she's been called weird.

But the name-calling didn't stop Midland inventor Hazel Jones from creating some of the most innovative gadgets of the 1990s.

Inspired by motherhood, the Walsall-born inventor produced an array of amazing devices which brought joy to people's lives.

Among her many creations were an ear nibbler and chin chucker - especially produced for lovers on Valentine's Day.

The playful devices were intended to help partners to tickle and nibble each other into submission.

]]> She also made a blush cooler, biscuit dunker, tea-leaf steam iron, fluff collector, currant stretcher and a chocolate safe for chocolate buttons.

When interviewed by the Sunday Mercury in 1993 Hazel, then aged 30, said: "I don't think I'm eccentric and I certainly never intended to be. It just happened.

"I like to work with things which get ignored, like belly button fluff and currants.

"Usually they make people laugh, some are amazed by them and others say, 'Why on earth have you done this?'."

Hazel's customers used to pay up to £400 for one of her creations in the 1990s.

An Australian fan bought a currant stretcher for £200 to take home with him as a souvenir of his trip to Britain.

Hazel busily toiled away at her workshop at the Studio of London's Young Vic Theatre producing her masterpieces.

Her story cannot be told without giving mention to the Tea-Splatters, for throwing minute quantities of tea around, and the Ticket Winders, Shredders and Fancy-Edge Rippers, to while the time away on buses.

They may not have changed the world, but they certainly made life more interesting and raised many a smile.

Write Stuff For Brum

2008-10-28T11:02:26Z

LIFE without a mobile phone seems impossible to imagine these days.

The crazy ring tones and bleeping text alerts have become everyday features of an essential means for us to communicate with one another.

Yet it wasn't that long ago when it was only a few posey yuppy types who owned one.
And we had to rely on more basic technology to keep in touch.
One everyday instrument we rely on to communicate is, of course, the humble pen.

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Just a few pence allows us to pick them up readily from a variety of shops.

And most of us have a couple hanging around our person, either in handbags or nearby drawers at home and work.

But pens weren't always so available.

It wasn't until Birmingham manufacturuers John Mitchell, Joseph Gillott and Josiah Mason began the mass producing them from 1822 that everyday people began to come into contact with them.
Until John Mitchell pioneered his hand pressing techniques at his factory on Newhall Street in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter those that could write had to rely on the Quill pen.

The flight feathered items were developed from the offerings from crows, eagles, owls and turkeys.
And it was only the very learned and well connected in society who used them.

Steel pens preceeded the biro and the brains in Birmingham who made them cheap and accessible have been credited with spreading literacy throughout the world.

Much has been reported on Joseph Gillott's development of pens, as it is he who began using machinery to the process them.

In the 1820s the production of steel pens was a labour intensive business.
Each nib had to be cut out individually from a shteet of steel, and this was followed by a protracted procedure of moulding, slitting and and annealing before it was ready to use.

As a result it was a costly item, retailing at one shilling (5p) each.
That's not to say that the job could not be done quickly by a skilful pair of hands.
Gillott himself clamied to have made 144 pens on the moring of his marriage to John Mitchell's sister.

He then went on to apply similar presses used in button-making to steel pens.
Such mechanisation required plenty of cheap labour, a production line of operations and large premses.
From a garret in Bread Street, now Cornwall Street in Birmingham city centre, Gillott moved economically upwards to a workshop in Church Street.

He then took over a larger workshop in Newhall Street.
And finally, in 1839, he moved his business to one of the first purpose-built factories in Birmingham - The Victoria Works in Graham Street.

There he employed around 450 workers, mainly women and girls, who stamped out nibs at an extraordinary speed.
The price dropped from a shilling each to a few pence for 144 (a gross).

All in all, the Birmingham steel pen trade was producing more than 700 million pens a year, and it's no exaggeration to say that it transofrmed the writing habits of the world, just at the time when literacy levels were on the rise.

It has been estimated that three-quarters of the writing done in the Victorian era was done with Birmingham pens.
And today the city's contribution to the development of education and literacy throughout the world is kept alive by The Birmingham Pen Trade Heritage Association.

You can learn more about the Birmingham pen makers and pens at The Penroom Museum at the Argent Centre, on Frederick Street in Hockley.

Upside down cupboards that didn't catch on!

2008-10-09T08:20:00Z

IT was the year that Prince Andrew, Duke of York, married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey, British journalist John McCarthy was kidnapped in Beirut and Argentina defeated Germany 3-2 to win the FIFA World Cup.

But these were not the only events that helped to shape1986.
Meanwhile a Midland inventor was working hard to try to ensure that our daily domestic lives could run that little bit smoother.

Arthur Perks, who was 71-years'-old at the time, and lived in Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, produced this special space saving creation - a kitchen turned on its head.

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The resourceful pensioner believed that by attaching all his kitchen cupboards to the ceiling he would produce the perfect solution to provide more space to cook below.

And Mr Perks, who described himself as a '21st Century Space Creator' even sold a copy of his inspiring invention to a Solihull pensioner for £3,000.

The idea was simple.

If you fix just about everything but the kitchen sink to the ceiling even the smallest kitchen can have masses of free space at ground level.

The secret lies in the specially designed trays, which fit inside the cupboards and hold plates, cups, coffee, washing powder and breakfast cereals.

To get an item down all you have to do is lower the aerial trays with an 'adhesive padded retriever' - specially designed by Arthur himself.

Sadly the upside-down-style did not have lasting mass appeal and is not in common use today.

Car designer's major Birmingham success with the Mini

2008-10-01T09:55:53Z

HE failed his maths exams three times while at school.

But that did not stop car designer Sir Alec Issigonis from providing the Midlands with one of its most iconic inventions - the Mini.

The best selling Mini is the most popular car ever made in Britain - boasting a production run of 5.3 million.
It became a fashion must-have in the 1960s when it first rolled off the production line at Longbridge, in Birmingham.

]]> King of Cool Steve McQueen was the proud owner of a 1967 Mini Cooper S 1275, one of the faster models.
When he bought the car it was British Racing Green, but the movie legend customised it and repainted it brown, had the wheels chromed and reversed, a sunroof added and the interior retrimmed in brown vinyl with a wood dash.

Other famous Mini owners include singer Marianne Faithful, Beatle George Harrison and Formula One racing driver Niki Lauda.

And of course the car played a starring role in the 1969 cult movie The Italian Job starring Michael Caine, Noel Coward and Benny Hill.

The Mini was just one of the many classic models that rolled off the Longbridge production lines since the plant opened under the direction of Herbert Austin in 1905.

Birmingham car workers also produced the all time favourite the Austin 7, in 1952 the sporty Austin Healy rolled off their production lines, the Farina was a favourite in the 1950s and 1960s, the Morris 1800 was popular in the 1960s and 1970s and the Austin Allegro became an symbol of the 1970s.

Sir Alec Issigonis designed the Mini for the then British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1959.
Born in Greece he moved with his mum to Britain in 1923 following the death of his father a year earlier.

He studied engineering at Battersa Polytechnic in London, but failed his maths exams three times and subsequently called pure mathematics 'the enemy of every creative genius'.

He joined BMC's Longbridge plant in 1955 and was asked to design three new cars - the third of which was the Mini.

The groundbreaking design, with its front wheel drive, transverse engine, sump gearbox, 10-inch wheels and phenomenal space efficiency has been the inspiration for almost all small front-wheel drive cars produced since it came to life in 1959.

Sadly production of the classic Mini at Longbridge ceased when MG Rover collapsed in 2005.
The 5,387,862nd and final was fittingly driven off the production line by another Sixties icon - Lulu.

After 41 years of continuous production the singer rode off in the gleaming red car, with the registration 1959-2000, marking the end of a wonderful era in the Midlands.

The new BMW Mini is now produced at the Cowley works in Oxford.

Making a Mini at Longbridge

Longbridge plant

Birmingham: The home of invention!

2008-09-16T13:31:23Z

BIRMINGHAM might be classed as Britain's number one regional city.
But its achievements are frequently overlooked and character belittled by outsiders.

They mock our Midland accents, they sneer at our concrete constructions and cringe at our to glam rock music stars.

Meanwhile Manchester is known for its successful football clubs and music scene, Liverpool has got its special scouse brand of humour and the Beatles, and Newcastle is renowned for its lively night life.

Yet the creativity and innovation of Birmingham people and those of the wider Midlands has been crucial to shaping the world we live in.

]]> Birmingham used to be regarded as the workshop of the world which spearheaded the industrial revolution.
Hockley inventors Matthew Boulton and James Watt put rail travel on the right track by creating the first effective steam engine, John Baskerville revolutionised printing and Joseph Priestley was one of the key developers in the discovery of oxygen.

And, as well as the industrial discoveries, the region has produced some of our best known commercial products too.

Custard powder was cooked up by Digbeth pharmacist Alfred Bird, the world's first pure chocolate cocoa drink made by Cadbury's in 1864, and Nottingham grocer Frederick Gibson Garton produced the original recipe for HP sauce.

Although not all of the efforts of Midland inventors are a success, one Midlander applied for a patent for his less well known creation - a brick patterned satellite dish, designed to fit in with buildings.

Midland inventors are still working hard to improve life.

Last year the Patent Office received nearly 2,000 patents from inventors in the East and West Midlands.
And Birmingham inventors are currently working on a range of products.

These include an oral hygiene wand, which acts as a tongue cleaner and can be used by all the family, and a cheap tent for disaster zones, called a tentahedron.

Every week this blog will feature the stories behind the region's successful, and unsuccessful inventions.

IN our increasingly high tech digital world we are used to clever gadgets which can help to make our lives easier and safer.

And in 1966 one inventor came up with an idea to help protect police officers who were in charge of directing traffic.

The idea came after a special constable police was killed in a road accident.

The plan was simple - to use the distinctive blue flashing light, still used on police vehicles today, and to place it on top of a police man's helmet.

The designers hoped that the light would make officers on traffic duty more visable to drivers and, therefore, safer.

The helmets were operated by an accumulator, an apparatus for storing energy or power, which was worn at the belt.

They were first trialled in Derby.

And Derby Borough Council said they planned to use a dozen of them.
The items were produced by Birmingham manufacturer Jospeh Lucas Ltd, which was closely associated with the motor industry at the time.

The company was founded by Joseph Lucas, along with his son Harry, around 1872.
Initially called Joseph Lucas & Son it was based on King Street, Birmingham.

At first it made general pressed metal merchandise, including lamps for ships and coaches, and later moving into oil and acetylene lamps for bicycles.

In 1902, the company started making automotive electrical components such as mangnetos, alternators, windscreen wipers, horns, lighting, wiring and starter motors.

But the company started its main growth in 1914 with a contract to supply the Morris Motor Compnay with electrical equipment.

During World War One Lucas made shells and fuses as well as electrical equipment for military vehicles.
At its peak the company employed 92,000 employees. It has since merged to become Lucas Varity plc.

But the company has proven more successful than its flashing police helmets.
Police forces elsewhere in the UK declined to buy up the items.

They are now on display in West Midlands Police Museum in Sparkhill, Birmingham.