Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (born 30 July 1940) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. ... The term is a loanword...
and
inventorAn inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find...
of the slim-line electronic pocket calculator in 1972 (
Sinclair ExecutiveThe Sinclair Executive was Clive Sinclair’s first venture into the pocket calculator market. The Executive was the world’s first “slimline” pocket calculator...
) and the ZX80, ZX81 and
ZX SpectrumThe ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. Referred to during development as the ZX81 Colour and ZX82, the machine was launched as the ZX Spectrum by Sinclair to highlight the machine's colour display, compared with the...
computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, among many other things. The ZX80 was the UK's first mass-market home computer for less than £100. Sinclair has been fascinated by electronics and miniaturization since his teenage years. In 1961 he founded Sinclair Radionics after spending several years as assistant editor of
Practical Wireless and
Instrument Practice to raise funds.
Sinclair has become a poker player. He appeared in the first three seasons of the
Late Night PokerLate Night Poker is a British television show in which poker players, mostly professionals or strong amateurs, compete in a short series of No-Limit Texas hold 'em tournament games for a prize of approximately £50,000.-History:...
television series in Britain. He won the first season final of the
Celebrity Poker ClubCelebrity Poker Club is a British television show featuring celebrities playing poker. The program debuted on Challenge TV in 2003 as a spin-off to the popular Late Night Poker series...
spin-off, defeating
Keith AllenKeith Philip George Allen is a Welsh-born actor, comedian, musician, singer–songwriter, artist, author and television presenter. He is the father of British singer Lily Allen.-Acting career:...
. His most recent invention is the
A-bikeThe A-bike is a type of folding bicycle invented by Sir Clive Sinclair in the United Kingdom and released on 12 July 2006. It weighs and folds to 67×30×16 cm, small enough to fit in a rucksack....
, a folding bicycle for commuters that weighs and folds down small enough to be carried on public transport.
Early life, family and education
Sinclair's father and grandfather were engineers; both had been apprentices at
VickersVickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 1999.-Early history:Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor &...
the shipbuilders. His grandfather George Sinclair was an innovative naval architect who got the
paravaneThe paravane is a form of towed underwater "glider". It was developed by Cdr Usborne and Lt Burney financed by Sir George White, founder of the Bristol Aeroplane Company....
, a mine sweeping device, to work. George Sinclair's son Bill Sinclair wanted to take
religious orderA religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practice. The order is composed of initiates and, in some...
s or become a
journalistA journalist is a person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that are not biased.Reporters are one type of journalist...
. His father suggested he train as an engineer first; Bill became a mechanical engineer and has been in the field ever since. At the outbreak of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in 1939 he was running his own machine tools business in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
and later worked for the
Ministry of SupplyThe Ministry of Supply was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. There was, however, a separate ministry responsible for aircraft production and the Admiralty retained...
.
Clive Sinclair was born to George William Carter Sinclair and Thora Edith Ella Marles in 1940 near Richmond, then in Surrey. He and his mother left London to stay with an aunt for safety in
DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
, where they eventually travelled to
TeignmouthTeignmouth is a town in Devon, England, situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign. In 1690, it was the last place in England to be invaded by a foreign power...
. A telegram arrived shortly afterwards, bringing the news that their home in Richmond had been bombed. Clive's father, Bill Sinclair, found a house in Bracknell in Berkshire. Sinclair's brother Ian was born in 1943 and his sister Fiona in 1947.
Clive enjoyed the freedom of holidays and swimming and boating. At an early age he designed a
submarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has only limited underwater capability...
, possibly influenced by his grandfather George. During holidays he could pursue his ideas and teach himself what he wanted to know. Sinclair had little interest in sports and found himself out of place at school. He preferred the company of adults, which he got only from his family.
Sinclair attended Box Grove preparatory school. He excelled in
mathematicsMathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
. By the time Clive was ten, his father Bill had financial problems. He had branched out from machine tools and planned to import miniature
tractorA tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
s from the U.S.; he had to give up the business. Because of his father's problems, Sinclair had to move school several times. Sinclair took his
O-levelsThe General Certificate of Education or GCE is an academic qualification that examination boards in the United Kingdom and a few of the commonwealth countries, notably Sri Lanka, confer to students. The GCE traditionally comprised two levels: the Ordinary Level and the Advanced Level...
at
Highgate SchoolSir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate is a British independent school in Highgate, London, England. It is a member of both the Headmaster's Conference and the Eton Group. Highgate recently made the move towards co-education ending over 400 years of single sex education...
in London in 1955 and A-levels in physics, pure maths, and applied maths at St. George's College, Weybridge.
During his early years, Sinclair earned money mowing lawns and washing up, and earned 6d (old pence) more than permanent staff in the cafe. Later he went for holiday jobs at electronic companies. At Solatron he enquired about the possibility of electrically propelled personal vehicles. Sinclair applied for a holiday job at
MullardMullard Limited was a British manufacturer of electronic components. The Mullard Radio Valve Co. Ltd. of Southfields, London, was founded in 1920 by Captain Stanley R. Mullard, who had previously designed valves for the Admiralty before becoming managing director of the Z Electric Lamp Co. The...
and took one of his circuit designs; he was rejected for theoretical precociousness. While still at school he wrote his first article for
Practical Wireless.
Sinclair did not want to go to university when he left school just before his 18th birthday; he wanted to sell miniature electronic kits by
mail orderMail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
to the hobby market.
Sinclair Radionics
Sinclair's Micro Kit was formalised in an
exercise bookA notebook is a book, made of paper or computer based, of which various uses can be made, including writing, drawing, and scrapbooking.-Paper Notebooks:...
dated 19 June 1958 three weeks before his A-levels. Sinclair drew a radio circuit, Model Mark I, with a
componentAn electronic component is a basic electronic element usually packaged in a discrete form with two or more connecting leads or metallic pads....
s list: cost per set 9/11 (49½p), plus coloured wire and
solderA solder is a fusible metal alloy with a melting point or melting range of 90 to 450 °C , used in a process called soldering where it is melted to join metallic surfaces. It is especially useful in electronics and plumbing...
nuts and bolts, plus
celluloidCelluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1856 and as Xylonite in 1869 before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is easily...
chassisA chassis consists of a framework that supports an inanimate object, analogous to an animal's skeleton, for example in a motor vehicle or a firearm.- Examples of use :...
(drilled) for nine shillings (45p). Also in the book are advertisement
rateIn mathematics, a rate is a ratio between two measurements, often with different units.. If the unit or quantity in respect of which something is changing is not specified, usually the rate is per unit time. However, a rate of change can be specified per unit time, or per unit of length or mass...
s for
Radio Constructor (9d (3¾p)/word, minimum 6/- (30p)) and
Practical Wireless (5/6 (27½p) per line or part line).
Sinclair estimated producing 1,000 a month, placing orders with suppliers for 10,000 of each component to be delivered.
Sinclair wrote a book for Bernard's Publishing,
Practical transistor receivers Book 1, which appeared in January 1959. It was re-printed late that year and nine times subsequently. His practical stereo handbook was published in June 1959 and reprinted seven times over 14 years. The last book Sinclair wrote as an employee of Bernard's was
Modern Transistor Circuits for Beginners, published in May 1962. At
Bernard BabaniBernard Babani was a publisher, who started publishing technical books in 1942 from which Bernard Babani Ltd was formed, which is now run by his son, Michael Babani BSc from offices in London....
he produced 13 constructors' books.
In 1961 Sinclair registered Sinclair Radionics Ltd. His original choice,
Sinclair Electronics, was taken;
Sinclair Radio was available but didn't sound right. Sinclair Radionics was formed on 25 July 1961.
Sinclair made two attempts to raise
startup capitalVenture capital is a type of private equity capital typically provided for early-stage, high-potential, growth companies in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event such as an IPO or trade sale of the company...
to advertise his inventions and buy components. He designed
PCBA printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, or traces, etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board or etched wiring board...
kits and licensed some technology. Then he took his design for a miniature
transistor pocket radioA transistor radio is a small transistor-based radio receiver.-History:Bell Laboratories demonstrated the first transistor on December 23, 1947. After obtaining patent protection, the company held a news conference on June 30, 1948, at which a prototype transistor radio was demonstrated...
and sought a backer for its production in kit form. Eventually he found someone who agreed to buy 55% of his company for £3,000 but the deal didn't go through.
Sinclair, unable to find capital, joined United Trade Press (UTP) at 9 Gough Square, just off
Fleet StreetFleet Street is a street in London, England named after the River Fleet. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s. Even though the last major British news office, Reuters, left in 2005, the street's name continues to be used as a metonym for the British national press.-History and...
, as technical editor of
Instrument Practice. Sinclair appeared in the publication as an assistant editor in March 1962. Sinclair described making
silicon planar transistorThe planar process is a manufacturing process used in the semiconductor industry to build individual components of a transistor, and in turn, connect those transistors together. It is the primary process by which modern integrated circuits are built...
s, their properties and applications and hoped they might be available by the end of 1962. Sinclair's obsession with miniaturisation became more obvious as his career progressed. Sinclair undertook a survey for
Instrument Practice of
semiconductorA semiconductor is a material that has an electrical resistivity between that of a conductor and an insulator, that is, generally in the range 10
3 Siemens/cm to 10
−8 S/cm. Devices made from semiconductor materials are the foundation of modern electronics, including radio,...
devices, which appeared in four sections between September 1962 and January 1963.
His last appearance as assistant editor was in April 1969. Through UTP, Sinclair had access to thousands of devices from 36 manufacturers. He contacted Semiconductors Ltd and ordered rejects to repair. He produced a design for a miniature radio powered by a couple of
hearing aid cellAn electrical battery is a combination of one or more electrochemical cells, used to convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first Voltaic pile in 1800 by Alessandro Volta, the battery has become a common power source for many household and industrial...
s and made a deal with Semiconductors to buy its micro-alloy transistors at 6d (2½p) each in boxes of 10,000. He then carried out his own
quality controlIn engineering and manufacturing, quality control and quality engineering are used in developing systems to ensure products or services are designed and produced to meet or exceed customer requirements....
tests, and marketed his renamed MAT 100 and 120 at 7s 9d (38¾p) and 101 and 121 at 8s 6d (42½p).
Sinclair Radionics lasted until 1979, with various products and company spin-offs. Beginning with a mini-amplifier, the company earned a name for design, quality and pioneering. The vision was to produce in bulk and sell cheaply. This risky but potentially profitable approach made fortunes before but carries the risk of bankruptcy. In the early days one strategy essential to this policy for Sinclair Radionics was production in kit form.
Science of Cambridge
Sinclair had formed another company, initially called Ablesdeal Ltd., in 1973. This changed name several times, eventually becoming Science of Cambridge Ltd. in July 1977.
In June 1978 Science of Cambridge launched a
microcomputerA microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit. Another general characteristic of these computers is that they occupy physically small amounts of space when compared to mainframe and minicomputers...
kit, the
MK14The Microcomputer Kit 14, or MK14 was a computer kit sold by Science of Cambridge of the United Kingdom, first introduced in 1977 for UK£39.95. The MK14 eventually sold over 50,000 units. It used a National Semiconductor SC/MP CPU , 256 bytes of random access memory which was directly expandable...
, based on the National SC/MP chip. By July 1978, a personal computer project was underway. When Sinclair learnt the
NewBrainThe Grundy NewBrain was a microcomputer sold in the early 1980s by Grundy Business Systems Ltd of Teddington and Cambridge, England.- Beginnings :...
could not be sold at below £100 as he envisaged, he turned to a simpler computer. In May 1979
Jim WestwoodJim Westwood was the chief engineer at Sinclair Research Ltd in the 1980s, starting at the company in 1963. Westwood was the technical mastermind behind many of Sinclair's products and worked there for more than twenty years...
started the ZX80 project at Science of Cambridge; it was launched in February 1980 at £79.95 in kit form and £99.95 ready-built. In November, Science of Cambridge was renamed Sinclair Computers Ltd.
Sinclair Research
In March 1981, Sinclair Computers was renamed again as Sinclair Research Ltd and the
Sinclair ZX81The Sinclair ZX81 was a home computer released in 1981 by Sinclair Research. It was the follow-up to the Sinclair ZX80.The machine's distinctive appearance was the work of industrial designer Rick Dickinson. Video output, as in the ZX80, was to a television set, and saving and loading programs was...
was launched at £49.95 in kit form and £69.95 ready-built, by mail order. In February 1982
TimexThe term Timex can refer to:* Timex Corporation, a large manufacturer of watches* Timex , a Unix utility tool used to measure the duration of shell processes* Timex Sinclair, a series of microcomputers...
obtained a license to manufacture and market Sinclair's computers in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
under the name
Timex SinclairTimex Sinclair was a joint venture between the British company Sinclair Research and Timex Corporation in an effort to gain an entry into the rapidly-growing early-1980s home computer market in the United States...
. In April the
ZX SpectrumThe ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. Referred to during development as the ZX81 Colour and ZX82, the machine was launched as the ZX Spectrum by Sinclair to highlight the machine's colour display, compared with the...
was launched at £125 for the 16 kB RAM version and £175 for the 48 kB version. In March 1982 the company made an £8.55m profit on turnover of £27.17m, including £383,000 government grants for the
TV80The Sinclair TV80, also known as the Flat Screen Pocket TV or FTV1, was a pocket television launched by Sinclair Research in 1984. Unlike Sinclair's earlier attempts at a portable television, the TV80 used a flat CRT with a side-mounted electron gun instead of a conventional CRT; it was made to...
flat-screen portable television.
In 1982 Sinclair converted the Barker & Wadsworth mineral water bottling factory at 25 Willis Road, Cambridge, into the company's headquarters. (This was sold to Cambridgeshire County Council in December 1985 owing to Sinclair's financial troubles.) The following year, he received his
knighthoodThe rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
and formed
Sinclair Vehicles Ltd.Sinclair Vehicles Ltd was a company formed in March 1983 by Sir Clive Sinclair as a focus for his work in the field of electric vehicles. The initial investment was £8.6m, which came from the proceeds of the sale of some of Sir Clive's shares in Sinclair Research...
to develop electric vehicles. This resulted in the 1985
Sinclair C5The Sinclair C5 was a battery electric vehicle invented by Sir Clive Sinclair and launched in the United Kingdom on 10 January 1985. It was a battery-assisted tricycle steered by handles on each side of the driver's seat. Powered operation was possible making it unnecessary for the driver to pedal....
.
In 1984, Sinclair launched the
Sinclair QLThe Sinclair QL , was a personal computer launched by Sinclair Research in 1984, as the successor to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum...
computer, intended for professional users. Development of the ZX Spectrum continued with the enhanced ZX Spectrum 128 in 1985.
In April 1986, Sinclair Research sold the Sinclair trademark and computer business to
AmstradAmstrad is a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Baron Sugar of Clapton. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstrad had a substantial share of the PC market in the UK. As of 2006,...
for £5 million.
Sinclair Research Ltd. was reduced to an R&D business and
holding companyA holding company is a company that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself, rather its only purpose is owning shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow the...
, with shareholdings in several spin-off companies, formed to exploit technologies developed by the company. These included Anamartic Ltd. (
wafer-scale integrationWafer-scale integration, WSI for short, is a yet-unused system of building very-large integrated circuit networks that use an entire silicon wafer to produce a single "super-chip". Through a combination of large size and reduced packaging, WSI could lead to dramatically reduced costs for some...
), Shaye Communications Ltd. (
CT2CT2 is a cordless telephony standard that was used in the early nineties to provide short-range proto-mobile phone service in some countries in Europe. It is considered the precursor to the popular DECT system...
mobile telephony) and Cambridge Computer Ltd. (
Z88The Cambridge Computer Z88 is an A4-size, lightweight, portable Z80-based computer with a built-in combined word processing/spreadsheet/database application called PipeDream, along with several other applications and utilities, such as a Z80-version of the BBC BASIC programming language.The Z88...
portable computer and satellite TV receivers).
By 1990, Sinclair Research consisted of Clive Sinclair and two other employees, and its activities have since concentrated on personal transport, the Zike electric bicycle, Zeta bicycle motor and, most recently, the
A-bikeThe A-bike is a type of folding bicycle invented by Sir Clive Sinclair in the United Kingdom and released on 12 July 2006. It weighs and folds to 67×30×16 cm, small enough to fit in a rucksack....
folding bicycle.
Personal life
Sinclair married Ann Trevor-Briscoe in 1962. There are three children: Belinda, Crispin and Bartholomew. Clive and Ann divorced in 1985.
Despite his involvement in computing, he does not use the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
Mensa
Sinclair is a member of British
MensaMensa is the largest, oldest and best known high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98
th percentile or higher on a standardized, supervised intelligence test...
, and was chairman of directors for 17 years from 1980 to 1997.
See also
- Sinclair Radionics
- Sinclair Research
- Sinclair Vehicles
Sinclair Vehicles Ltd was a company formed in March 1983 by Sir Clive Sinclair as a focus for his work in the field of electric vehicles. The initial investment was £8.6m, which came from the proceeds of the sale of some of Sir Clive's shares in Sinclair Research...
- Micro Men
Micro Men is a one-off BBC comedy-drama television show set in the 1980s, about the rise of the British home computer market, particularly the rivalry between Sir Clive Sinclair who developed the ZX Spectrum, and Chris Curry - the man behind the BBC Micro.; played by Alexander Armstrong and Martin...
, a one-off TV drama about Sinclair and Chris CurryChristopher Curry is the co-founder of Acorn Computers, with Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper.-Early life:...
.
External links