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