The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*
I doubt the idea of a wind up wireless would have appealed to Joe and Mary Ann.
They may have been born in the 19th century but they grew to maturity, married and settled into the fine new home on Beech Road in the 20th century.
And the 20th century was the century of all things electric and so I rather think they would not have given house room to something that you needed to wind up.
Not so me who fell on the windup wireless as a pretty neat thing.
It was invented by Trevor Baylis back in 1991 after he had watched a programme about Africa and the absence of mains electricity across swathes of the continent.
It took him just half an hour to invent the machine and it went into production a few years later.
And around 1998 having come across the story of the wind up wireless I went out and bought one from Argos.
It was a novelty and a talking point as well as an opportunity to be silly but it was just what you need while taking a bath.
Ours survived many steamy baths, as well as being dropped from a great height.
It was in those pre smart mobile phones a pretty neat idea offering instant communication.
I went looking online and now there are lots of models.
And just after I posted the story my friend Suzanne sent over these very nice pictures with the story of how "by coincidence, earlier this year David and I were wandering around Eel Pie Island when an elderly gentleman started talking to us, he said building his house on the island was the best thing he’d ever done and he invited us inside.
We went through a large workshop, then a swimming pool to the sitting room then out to the garden by the Thames.
It turned out to be Trevor Baylis and he regaled us for 2 hours with many tales.
He showed us the original wind up radio, wind up torches and he had invented a shoe that charged your phone as you walked".
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; advert for radios, 1949, from the collection of Graham Gill and the photograph of Mr Baylis, 2017, courtesy of Suzanne Moorehead.
*The story of a house,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house
They may have been born in the 19th century but they grew to maturity, married and settled into the fine new home on Beech Road in the 20th century.
And the 20th century was the century of all things electric and so I rather think they would not have given house room to something that you needed to wind up.
Not so me who fell on the windup wireless as a pretty neat thing.
It was invented by Trevor Baylis back in 1991 after he had watched a programme about Africa and the absence of mains electricity across swathes of the continent.
It took him just half an hour to invent the machine and it went into production a few years later.
It was a novelty and a talking point as well as an opportunity to be silly but it was just what you need while taking a bath.
 |
| Trevor Baylis, 2017 |
It was in those pre smart mobile phones a pretty neat idea offering instant communication.
And just after I posted the story my friend Suzanne sent over these very nice pictures with the story of how "by coincidence, earlier this year David and I were wandering around Eel Pie Island when an elderly gentleman started talking to us, he said building his house on the island was the best thing he’d ever done and he invited us inside.
 |
| Mr Baylis with windup wireless and his car, 2017 |
We went through a large workshop, then a swimming pool to the sitting room then out to the garden by the Thames.
It turned out to be Trevor Baylis and he regaled us for 2 hours with many tales.
He showed us the original wind up radio, wind up torches and he had invented a shoe that charged your phone as you walked".
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; advert for radios, 1949, from the collection of Graham Gill and the photograph of Mr Baylis, 2017, courtesy of Suzanne Moorehead.
*The story of a house,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house
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