Welsh innovators who gave us the modern world

Despite Wales’ relatively small population, it can boast scores of inventors who have played significant parts in shaping our world.

On World Intellectual Property Day (April 26), European patent attorney Dr Gillian Whitfield profiled some of those innovators, and argues why their achievements should be used to inspire a new generation of pioneers

THERE have been times when Wales has been accused of being too parochial, so it may come as a surprise to learn that it was the Welsh that first flew, pioneered radar, developed the internet, made climate change an international issue, changed shopping habits - and developed the BBC’s pips.

Intellectual Property means that if you created something, you can own it, and there are worldwide laws to protect your creations from being copied by others.

Innovation remains at the heart of the Welsh Assembly Government’s economic policy. It understands that we won’t compete with emerging nations like China on labour costs. So we have to look to countries like Germany to build a highly-skilled, high value economy.

Wouldn’t it be good if the Assembly was to introduce a Welsh Inventors Day in schools, drawing upon the work of these pioneers to encourage tomorrow’s innovators? Students would hear more about their achievements, and could be encouraged to believe in their own creative abilities. Tie-ins with local companies could strengthen the initiative and benefit both schools and business.

Here are some examples of Wales’ rich legacy of inventors, and the inspiring lives they led.

Edward Bowen
Born in Swansea, Edward ‘Taffy’ Bowen was a major figure in the team that developed radar, which in turn played a huge role in saving Britain from Nazi invasion.

Graduating from Swansea University College, Bowen was recruited by Robert Watson-Watt, the ‘father’ of radar, and developed the transmitter for ground-based radar. This crucial technological advantage that Britain held over Germany may never have been developed into an early warning system after a demonstration failed in front of top brass. But Bowen, who was later awarded the CBE and became a Freeman of the Royal Society, worked through the night to fix it.

Radar was as important as the Spitfire, as it allowed a vastly-outnumbered RAF to know when the Luftwaffe was coming. Unable to win air superiority during the Battle of Britain, Hitler shelved Operation Sea Lion - the invasion of the UK. It was a fundamental strategic error and led, five years later, to the defeat of Nazi Germany. Bowen died in 1991.

David Brunt
It should be Abertillery-born Sir David Brunt that we thank for the science of air quality and pollution. He first became involved while serving in the army in the First World War, investigating how poison gases were dispersed.

A brilliant mathematician, Sir David joined the Met Office after the war, and used his skills in statistics to chart fluid dynamics, or the movement of gases, which causes weather change.

Working at a time when airplanes were having an increasing impact on the atmosphere, his later research concentrated on weather conditions and human health, concluding that the ideal climate for man was New Zealand. He died in 1965.

Donald Davies

Packet switching allows data to be transferred between computer networks. Most of us take this for granted. However, had it not been for the work of Treorchy-born Donald Davies, we would not have the internet.

Graduated from Imperial College London, he went to work with Alan Turing, but it wasn’t long before he earned his mentor’s ire, spotting and pointing out errors in Turing’s seminal paper, On Computable Numbers.

He developed a packet switched network independently of American scientist Paul Baran, who originated the same system for the US military. Both are credited with its creation, although Davies focused on creating resource sharing. Appointed a CBE in 1983 and FRS in 1987, Davies died in 2000.

William Frost
A carpenter from Saundersfoot, Bill Frost first came up with the idea of constructing a manned flying machine some time in the 1890s.

His creation, Frost Airship Glider, took to the skies on September 24, 1896, over seven years before the Wright brothers made their historic flight. Observers say it covered around 500 metres – considerably further than Wilber Wright’s 120-feet, 12-second effort – before crashing into a bush.

Unfortunately for Frost, the event was witnessed and not recorded. But he did register the Frost Airship Glider (patent number 1894-20431) in 1894. Sadly, through poverty, the patent lapsed four years later. He died without wealth or recognition in 1935.

John Houghton
Another distinguished Welsh meteorologist, Sir John Houghton is co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and lead editor of the first three IPCC reports that were to inform the decision-making at the Rio, Kyoto and Buenos Aires summits.

Once a professor in atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford, Sir John – CBE and FRS – is a former chief executive at the Met Office and founder of the Hadley Centre, the Met Office’s research centre for climate change.

Martha Hughes Cannon

Llandudno-born Hughes Cannon emigrated with her parents to the United States when she was three, and would go on to become a doctor, suffragist and the first woman ever elected to the US Senate.

Her family became Mormons and moved to Salt Lake City. She worked at Deseret Hospital from 1882 to 1886, and the Utah State Department of Health is currently housed in the Martha Hughes Cannon Health Building there.

Hughes Cannon became involved in the Utah Equal Suffrage Association and, following the restoration of women’s right to vote, she successfully stood as a Democrat against her Republican candidate husband Angus and went on to serve two terms as Utah’s Senator.

During her time in office, she successfully pressed for funding for speech and hearing-impaired students, introduced a law regulating working conditions for women and girls, and established a board of health. She died in 1932.

William Jones

3.14159265358979323846… and on and on it goes. Pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, and a seemingly endless number, was first devised by Welsh mathematician William Jones.

Born in Llanfihangel Tre'r Beirdd in Anglesey in 1675, Jones taught maths on board ships and in London, as well as working in government.

A close friend of Sir Isaac Newton, he published Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos in 1706, a theorem on differential calculus and infinite series.

His son, also called William Jones, discovered the Indo-European language group, which includes Welsh.

Arthur Moore

It was in the early hours of April 15, 1912 that Arthur ‘Artie’ Moore, sat in his homemade wireless studio near Blackwood received the world’s first SOS call, from the Titanic.

It had previously been thought that wireless could travel just a fraction of the 3,000 miles between South Wales and the Titanic’s last known position. Artie’s discovery brought him to the attention of Guglielmo Marconi, who had sent the first ever wireless communication over water from Lavernock Point, near Cardiff.

Artie joined the Marconi Company and worked on radio fittings on military ships. Later, he developed the thermionic valve that allowed further radio advancement and patented an early form of sonar, before his death in 1949.

Pryce Pryce-Jones

Newtown in Powys is where Pryce Pryce-Jones built one of the very first mail order companies into a global business.

Pryce-Jones had established himself as a successful draper when the arrival of the railway and an expanded Post Office led him to realize that remote rural customers could be reached by sending them leaflets from which they could order.

As the railway network grew, Pryce-Jones was able to count Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale among his customers, and sell Welsh flannel in America and Australia.

He built the Royal Welsh Warehouse, a Newtown landmark, and was also knighted and served as MP for Montgomeryshire. He died in 1920, before the Great Depression led to his company being sold.

Other notable Welsh pioneers

Alan Cox
Developed the linux kernel, an important part of open source software.

William Robert Grove
Invented the Fuel Cell.

Frank Hope-Jones
Developed the Synchronome electric clock system – the 'pip' signal first broadcast by the BBC.

Dyfrig Jones
Developed the theory of planetary radiation.

Ernest Jones
Introduced psychoanalysis into Britain and North America.

William Morgan
Inventor of the Vacuum Tube and the Coolidge Tube, and founding father of modern actuarial science.

Dr Richard Pryce
Developed the times tables as a teaching aid.

Robert Recorde
Published the first English language book on Algebra which included the equals symbol for the first time.

Herbert Ackroyd Stuart
Developed and patented a compression ignition engine in 1885.

Sir Tudor Thomas
World famous eye surgeon, he pioneered ophthalmic corneaplasty in the 1930s.

Alfred Russel Wallace
Worked with Darwin on the theory of evolution.

- This feature first appeared in the Western Mail's Magazine on Saturday, April 26, 2008

Let's Face(book) the music and dance

MARK Zuckerberg, the multi-millionaire founder of Facebook, is facing a trip to the courts to fight over the trademark for his popular internet site.

Former classmate Aaron Greenspan says that the term "facebook" was in common use across the Harvard campus where the website was started. As such, he says, Zuckerberg had no right to trademark it back in 2005. Mr Greenspan, who runs a business selling a variety of software, wants to use Facebook in a title of a book he's writing.

No masterpiece

ANOTHER troll story, this time from the US. A small, Pennsylvania-based patent company Rembrandt is suing 14 US businesses, among them some of the best known corporations in America.

Rembrandt claims it owns the rights to part of the technology being used to facilitate the digital TV switchover. It wants millions of dollars in royalties from companies like Walt Disney Co's ABC, General Electric Co's NBC Universal, CBS Corp and News Corp's Fox Broadcasting for patent infringement.

Now the American Antitrust Institute, a non-profit advocacy group, is asking federal regulators to bar Rembrandt from enforcing its patent. The Government may be persuaded, as it has ploughed $1.5 billion into the switchover, giving $40 coupons to every home in the US.

Stripping out the stripes

THE question of when is a trademark not a trademark can now be answered by adidas, which would say: “When it is two stripes and not three.”

Tired of lookie-likey, value-priced sports gear from the likes of C&A, H&M and other manufacturers, the German manufacturer took the matter to the European Court of Justice, pointing out that similar designs often feature two vertical, parallel stripes of equal width.

Judges dismissed arguments that stripe motifs should be free to be used by anyone, reported Earth Times. Instead, they found that by consumers establishing a link between the two designs it was enough to cause confusion.

It was the end of a 10-year-plus battle. Anne Putz, adidas spokeswoman, told Bloomberg: “We do not seek to prevent the use of decoration, but the use of striped markings that confuse consumers.''

Google ‘trademarking’ creates “free for all”

INTERNET giant Google has caused howls of online outrage with its announcement that it will allow companies to bid for sponsored listings of rival brands.

Until now, if a user entered “Bloggs Logs”, for instance, it would be given the link to the website of the company of the same name, However, under the new rules, which are expected to come into effect on May 5 and mirror those already in existence in the US and Canada, Frances’ Branches could now bid for that sponsored link and have users divert to its website instead.

It led swiftly to calls for industry watchdogs to oppose this development. TTGLive reported that Google UK director Matt Brittin believes the change would give users “greater choices”. But he added that companies would not be allowed to use competitors’ brand names in adverts.

But Kane Pirie, Travel Republic finance and operations director, said: “Google’s move is a most unwelcome development and it will create a free-for-all with everyone bidding on everything.”

However, not even a week after the Google announcement, a court case began in the US that could bring an end to its plans. e-consultancy.com reported that Computer repair company Rescuecom is suing the internet business for allowing its competitors to purchase adverts that appear when somebody searches for "rescuecom", a trademark.

Trademark and patent attorneys already believe that the case could have considerable ramifications for the future of online trademark law if Google wins. If it doesn’t, the case could become a long, drawn-out affair.

Here be trolls

IT’S a nightmare scenario for small businesses. You’ve set up on your own, the tills are ringing and the company is beginning to pull in a profit. Then a letter arrives through the door, accusing you of trademark infringement and threatening to stop you operating unless you pay a lot of money to the trademark’s owner.

The practice, according to BBC Scotland, which caused chaos in the US, has now hit our shores. The owners of two juice bar businesses in Glasgow, one of them the city’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year, were contacted by John Blanchard, of Never Give Up Ltd, who claimed they owed his company a licence fee running to tens of thousands of pounds.

The BBC investigation found that Never Give Up has attempted to register trademarks for around 34 different juice-related names, at least four of which belong to existing juice companies, at the government's Intellectual Property Office in Newport.

However, most of them, including the two Glasgow businesses, are still in the application stage, and Mr Blanchard doesn't even own them yet.

Trademark and patent trolls have become such a problem in the US that corporations like Google have taken expensive legal action to curtail their activities. Typically, a troll will register the name of a business already in existence and then demand money to lease or sell it back.

Trolls may not be on safe ground when engaging in this kind of practice, as companies that trade under the name for a considerable period are responsible for building the reputation of the trademark – something the courts will take into consideration.

However, says Dr Gillian Whitfield, Astrum managing director, the safest option is to register the trademark when the company is formed. “You can apply for it, and use the ‘TM’ mark even while it is in the application process,” she said.

“While many troll cases have been thrown out as worthless, you have to ask yourself if you have the time and the resources to fight this case. Better safe than sorry.”

Milking it for what it’s worth

Most innovators will know that they need to protect their creations, but how does the process work? Arella Creations, which has patents pending on its Topster design, tells how its design went from the drawing board to the high street.

IT WAS 2005, and Steve Thomas’ three-year-old daughter Ella was drinking milk “like it was going out of fashion”. The harassed father found himself making multiple trips back and forth to the kitchen, tearing the tops off plastic bottles, slopping milk all over the side, down the front of the bottle, and making a mess in the fridge.

His irritation focused on the pouring part of the process and, “having always been creative”, he began experimenting with tape and funnels, eventually settling on a design for the Topster, an easy-to-use device that answered Ella’s demands as well as providing a solution for a wide range of users.

Some two-and-a-half years later, Steve formed Arella Creations with co-director Michael Farr, who also works as a lawyer in Cardiff, while Steve still works at Nationwide’s head office in Swindon. Since the start of this year, it has sold 8,000 pairs of Topsters, supplying them through a deal with high street chain Lakeland.

“After all this time, it’s great to see people buying it,” said Steve. “We have a website, and we’ve been getting some great feedback. One customer said the Topster really changed her life. It essentially turns your milk bottle into a jug, with loads of benefits. I’ve found that once you start using it, you never want to go without.”

Ella, who is six, now fetches her own milk, as does Steve’s arthritic mother-in-law, who previously faced extreme difficulties in making a cup of tea while her husband was at work. Now the Topster has given her back a degree of independence.

Steve and Mike - whose two children Andrew and Rebecca, along with Ella, gave the company its name - knew that the design would need protecting. After shopping around for patent attorneys, they settled on Newport-based Astrum, run by Dr Gillian Whitfield.

“Gill was fantastic,” said Steve. “I never knew there was such a thing as patent attorneys, but once I did, I knew I had to get one involved in what we were doing. Mike went to see one or two and I saw a couple in Bath, but they didn’t seem very interested. It was like sitting in a doctor’s waiting room.”

Mike said, “We heard of Gill through the Wales Innovators Network. What I really like is that she is passionate about our product. She’ll happily drop documents off at the Patent Office (in Newport) at 11pm to make sure we make a deadline. She’s given us European protection on the design. It’s very important for us that she believes in what we’re doing, and that she’s coming on a journey with us.”

Arella Creations currently produces two colours – blue and green, for full fat and semi-skimmed. There are plans for a red version, to denote skimmed, and a black and white Friesian cow design. This may lead on to some character designs.

Although Topster is manufactured by a plastics moulder in Gloucestershire, with whom Arella Creations can place orders of any size, Steve and Mike both admit that distribution is the biggest challenge currently facing the business.

Steve said, “I think the potential for Topster is pretty big. There are 24.5 million households in the UK. If we put our product into 10% of them, which isn’t a big percentage, that would mean a significant amount for us. I’d like to see Topster sold in supermarkets, right next to where the milk is. Then you can go in, get your milk and get your Topster at the same time.”

- Topster retails at £2.99 for a packet of two. Visit www.lakeland.co.uk or www.thetopster.co.uk for more details.

- Astrum is currently in the process of registering the Topster trade mark. For more details on how you can protect your designs and branding, visit www.astrum-ip.com.

(This feature first appeared in the South Wales Argus on April 1, 2008)

Don’t pop those corks just yet

THERE were great celebrations in a small part of France recently as notoriously strict Gallic wine lawmakers for once decided to say “oui” to proposals to extend Champagne country.

OK, so it’s only 40 villages in the Rheims area, and it was preceded by decades of internecine feuding. But it’s less a right to grow and more a licence to print money, as the other 319 champagne-producing communes (village districts) are struggling to keep up with the rocketing worldwide demand for fizz – some 339 million bottles last sold year, with the UK only second to the drink’s home country as the biggest consumer.

But is it a good move for the brand in the long term? It all depends on whether this decision sets a precedent. Suppose demand continues to rise, will this put more of France under vine? Of course, there’s a finite limit to ‘the right conditions’ such as flinty soil, but every time the area is extended, the brand becomes diluted.

Some of you, who remain less than impressed with Gallic snobbery, may be thinking “good”. But any business that wants to protect their brand value can learn a lesson from the way that the French have shielded one of their finest exports.

Think about it – no matter how many times a wine expert tells you that certain supermarket Cava is superior, you’ll still buy a bottle of Bollinger or Laurent Perrier for that special occasion, and you’ll happily pay more.