Everything about Clive Sinclair totally explained
» For the Somerset Maugham Award-winning author, see Clive Sinclair (author).
Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (born
July 30,
1940) is a well-known
British entrepreneur and
inventor of the world's first 'slim-line' electronic
pocket calculator in 1972 (
Sinclair Executive) and the
ZX80,
ZX81 and
ZX Spectrum computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, amongst many other things. The ZX80 was the UK's first mass market home computer to be sold for under £100. Sinclair has been fascinated by electronics and miniaturization since his teenage years. In 1961 he founded
Sinclair Radionics Ltd after spending several years as assistant editor for
Practical Wireless and
Instrument Practice to raise funds.
In recent years Sinclair has become a keen poker player. He appeared in the first three seasons of the
Late Night Poker television series. He won the first season final of the
Celebrity Poker Club spin-off, defeating
Keith Allen. His most recent invention is the
A-bike, a folding bicycle aimed towards commuters that weighs 5.5 kg (12 lbs) and folds to a very small size for lighter carrying on public transport.
Early life, family and education
Sinclair's father and grandfather were engineers; both had been apprentices at
Vickers the shipbuilders. His grandfather George Sinclair was an innovative
naval architect who got the
paravane, a
mine sweeping device, to work. George Sinclair's son Bill Sinclair attempted to break the family tradition of engineering by expressing a preference for going into the
church - or perhaps becoming a
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 II in 1939 he was running his own machine tools business in
London and later worked for the
Ministry of Supply.
Clive Sinclair was born in 1940 near
Richmond. He and his mother left London to stay with an aunt for safety in
Devon, where they eventually travelled to
Teignmouth. A telegram arrived shortly after 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.
Sinclair attended Box Grove preparatory school. At school, he excelled in
mathematics. By the time Clive was ten, his father Bill Sinclair had financial problems. He had branched out from machine tools and planned to import miniature
tractors from the
US; however, he eventually had to give up the business.
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 started to enquire his mentors about the possibility of electrically propelled personal vehicles. Sinclair applied for a holiday job at
Mullard and took along one of his circuit designs; he was rejected for the theoretical precociousness. While still at school he wrote the first article for
Practical Wireless.
Career
Sinclair Radionics (1958 - 1979)
Sinclair's Micro Kit was formalised in an
exercise book dated 19 June 1958 three weeks before the start of his
A-levels. In the book, Sinclair drew a radio circuit, Model Mark I, with a
components list, cost/set 9:11d (49½p) + coloured wire &
solder nuts & bolts +
celluloid chassis (drilled) = 9/- (45p). Also in the book are the advertisement
rates for
Radio Constructor (9d (3¾p)/word, minimum 6/- (30p)) and
Practical Wireless (5/6 (27½p) per line or part line).
Sinclair estimated to produce at the rate of 1,000 a month, orders placed with the companies supplying the components for 10,000 of each to be delivered at a call off rate of 1,000 per month. During the period he was employed by
Bernard Babani, he'd produced 13 constructors books.
Sinclair decided to start his own business. In 1961 he registered his company as Sinclair Radionics Ltd. His original choice,
Sinclair Electronics, was already taken;
Sinclair Radio was available but didn't sound right to Sinclair. Eventually Sinclair Radionics was formed on 25 July 1961.
Sinclair made two attempts to raise
startup capital necessary to advertise his inventions and buy components. He designed
PCB kits and licensed some technology. Then he took his design for a miniature
transistor pocket radio and spent some time seeking for a backer for its production in kit form. Eventually he found someone who agreed to buy 55% of his company for £3,000; however, the deal didn't go through.
Sinclair, unable to find capital, joined United Trade Press (UTP), based at 9 Gough Square, just off
Fleet Street, as technical editors of the journal
Instrument Practice. Sinclair's name first appeared in Instrument Practice as an assistant editor in March 1962. Sinclair described the method of making
silicon planar transistors, their properties and applications and expressed a hope that they might be available by the end of 1962. Sinclair was obsessed with miniaturization, as became more and more obvious as his career progressed. Sinclair undertook a survey for
Instrument Practice of
Semiconductor 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 that he'd repair. He produced a design for a miniature radio powered by a couple of
hearing aid cells and made a deal with Semiconductors Ltd to buy their MATs at 6d (2½p) each in boxes of 10,000. He would then carry out his own
quality control tests, and market his renamed MAT 100 and 120 at 7/9d (38¾p) and 101 and 121 at 8/6d (42½p).
Sinclair Radionics lasted until 1979, with various products and company spin-offs. Beginning with a mini-amplifier, the company quickly earned a name for design, quality and pioneering ideas. The overall vision was to produce in bulk and to sell cheaply. This risky but potentially profitable 'stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap' approach has made fortunes before, but carries with it 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 (1977 - 1980)
As part of an exit strategy from Sinclair Radionics, Sir Clive had formed another company, initially called Ablesdeal Ltd., in 1973. This changed name several times, eventually becoming Science of Cambridge Ltd. in July 1977.
Sinclair Research Ltd. was reduced to an R&D business and
holding company, with shareholdings in several new "spin-off" companies, formed to exploit technologies developed by the company. These included Anamartic Ltd. (
wafer-scale integration), Shaye Communications Ltd. (
CT2 mobile telephony) and Cambridge Computer Ltd. (
Z88 portable computer and
satellite TV receivers).
By 1990, Sinclair Research consisted of Sir Clive and two other employees,
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