May
2002
Amazing facts: Nottinghamshire inventors
Find out about a Nottingham shopkeeper who invented
the recipe for HP Sauce, the deepest-toned bell in Britain...and many
more amazing
facts about local inventors and innovations.
9th
May 2002
Did you know...
An inventor from Nottingham has just come up with a product
that can dry moisture out of boots and clothing.
 |
| Testing
the Dampire |
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.
[Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/news/2002/05/09/dampire.shtml] |
Did
you Know....
 |
| Not
these sort of cat eyes! |
It was a Nottingham
man who invented "cats eyes" found along the centre of most
European roads.
The British cats eyes are two glass spheres embedded in rubber.
The weight of a passing car will depress the spheres and clean
them. [Source:
] |
|
Did
you know...
Nottingham was the first city to install Braille signs for
blind people in its shopping centres. |
Did
you know...
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!
 |
| HP
Sauce |
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.
[Sources:
and ] |
Did
you know...
Little
John is the deepest-toned bell in Britain, weighing 10.5 tonnes.
 |
| Little
John |
It hangs below
the 200-foot dome of Nottingham's Council House clock, and strikes
the hour.
It sounds out the time to the city every 15 minutes and is believed
to be the loudest clock bell in the country.
[Source: ] |
|
Did
you know...
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.
[]
|
Did
you know...
Born
in 1793, the son of a Nottingham miller, George Green was a
mathematical genius much admired by Albert Einstein.
 |
| Green's
Windmill |
He had just
one year of formal education, yet his work was the beginning
of modern mathematical physics.
Green worked in a study at the top of his father's Sneinton
windmill.
Now restored to full working order, the mill contains 'hands-on'
science museum, which reflects Green's work. |
Did
you know...
 |
| Ball
of yarn and a knitting needle |
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. |
Did
you know...
The first aerial press photo was taken in Nottingham in
1910. |
Did
you know...
Nottingham set up the first police forensic laboratory in
1934. It also sent the first radio message by police car in
1932. |
Did
you know...
 |
| Tomato |
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. |
Did
you know...
Shin
guards for football were invented in Nottingham in the late
19th Century.
 |
| Shin
pad |
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!
[Source:
]
|
Did
you know...
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. |
Did
you know...
 |
| Army
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. |
Did
you know...
Nottingham had the country's first two miles of wooden track,
which connected coal mines in Strelley and Wollaton. It was
laid in 1604. |
Did
you know...
Nottingham
had the country's first high-pressure water supply.
In 1830 the Waterworks Company abandoned and the River Leen
as their source of supply in favour of purer spring water collected
in a reservoir of about one acre at Scotholme, Basford.
 |
| Papplewick
pumping station |
Water from
the reservoir was fed by gravity through a 10-inch iron pipe
to a new pumping station on the River Leen at the foot of the
Castle Rock. It was then pumped to the reservoir close to the
General Hospital.
The pumps at the Castle Works could be driven either by a water
wheel or a rotative beam engine of about 16 HP each. The new
Trent Waterworks Company opened its works near the present Town
Arms at Trent Bridge in 1831.
This remarkable system, the first in the country to provide
a supply at constant high pressure - preventing contamination
from entering the mains - was constructed under supervision
of its designer, 25-year-old company engineer Thomas Hawksley.
[Source:
[] |
Did
you know...
 |
| Nottingham
Trent University crest |
Nottingham
Trent University's fashion courses are world famous.
So is its high-tech research for the textiles trade.
This research brought about the world's first virtual-reality
catwalk.
|
Did you Know...
The
inventors of the video recorder were two Nottingham men, Norman
Rutherford and Michael Turner, in 1957.
 |
| Modern-day
video |
Before video
equipment, all video recordings consisted of cine film.
Video recording took off very quickly in the industry and is
in use now daily in the home too.
[Source:
] |
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