Sir Clive Sinclair: Electronics Pioneer

SIR CLIVE SINCLAIR: ELECTRONICS PIONEER

Clive Marles Sinclair was born on the 30th of July, 1940. The eldest son of three children, he enjoyed a comfortable upbringing in Richmond, Surrey. From an early age, Sinclair proved himself to be mature beyond his years, preferring the company of adults to children. As a consequence, Sinclair did not fit in well at school. He much preferred to be at home, where he could benefit from his father’s and grandfather’s knowledge of engineering. He also found that there was nothing he could not teach himself and devoured anything he found to be of interest. Principle among these were maths and electronics, so when a magazine called Practical Wireless advertised for an editorial assistant, Sinclair applied for- and got- the job. Its first editor, JF Camm, had to leave because of an illness and the assistant editor could not handle the stress of running a magazine. Consequently, Clive Sinclair ended up single-handedly running Practical Wireless by the time he was seventeen.

EARLY CAREER

Sinclair changed jobs in August 1958. At that time, the Jubilee Radio Show opened in Earl’s Court and Sinclair fronted Practical Wireless’s stand. He was approached by Bernard Babani, head of a publishing company, who offered Sinclair the yearly sum of £700 to work for Bernard’s Publishing. There, he wrote a book- Practical Transistor Receivers Book 1, that was reprinted seven times.

In 1961, he registered Sinclair Radionics Ltd. Sinclair designed a pocket radio, which never got off the ground because the backer withdrew. As a result, the would-be entrepreneur was forced to take on a job as technical editor for United Trade Press. Sinclair made the best of his time there, making many contacts in manufacturing. He started up his own company again, which at first was run in a single room in London, but came to grow in size and reputation. In particular, Sinclair Radionics made a name for itself in miniaturisation. The world’s first pocket calculator was designed by Sinclair in 1962, which was followed by the first digital wristwatch in 1976 and the first pocket television the year after that.

THE ZX80

(Image from wikimedia commons)
In January 1980, Sinclair launched the ZX80, the first computer to be aimed at the average man on the street. A successful launch in America followed in September, with 30,000 units being sold. It should be pointed out, though, that this success was largely down to the ZX80 being in a market of one. Many people found that the machine had drawbacks, chief among which were its touch-sensitive keyboard (thump-sensitive might have been a more apt description) and its woeful 1K of memory. An expansion pack that increased the computer’s power to 16K was available, but a faulty connection meant that a slight breeze could cause it to disconnect, leading to the loss of a day’s work.

THE ZX81

(Image from wikimedia commons)
The next computer that Sinclair released was the imaginatively titled ZX81. It had many improvements over its predecessor, not least of which was a new chip. Designed by Sinclair and manufactured by Ferranti, this chip replaced 18 of the ZX80’s. This reduced set meant that, although the ZX81 could handle sophisticated tasks like scientific functions and came in a much more sturdy black case, at £69.95 it was £30 cheaper than the ZX80. But Sinclair decided to cut costs further, at least where schools were concerned. At that time, the government had a scheme whereby schools could purchase an approved computer for £130. Sinclair offered a ZX81, a 16K RAM pack and printer, all for £90. Not surprisingly, the ZX81 did rather well. This success was repeated for the home market. In the USA, 15,000 mail orders were taken each month.

The ZX81 was also the first computer to be available for purchase on the high street. Whereas before only mail order companies provided computers, now people could get a ZX81 from WH Smith thanks to a deal signed with Sinclair. By 1982, half a million ZX81s were produced and many cottage industries grew in the wake of its success. These provided such things as extra memory, add-on keyboards and sound generators. The demand for these was such that, when someone called Mike Johnson held a fair at Central Hall, Westminster, for the selling of products for Sinclair companies, ten thousand people turned up and the police were drafted to control the crowds.

THE ZX SPECTRUM

(Image from wikipedia)
1982 was also the year that Sinclair released what may well be its most famous computer. Not wanting to break with tradition, the original name for this machine was the ZX82. Designed by Richard Altwasser, the new computer offered colour graphics capability, an improved keyboard (rubber keys replaced the touch-sensitive pad) and its memory was either 16K or 48K. The machine actually launched in April 1982 under the name of ZX Spectrum. Sinclair was confident of success and predicted sales of 300 to 400,000 in the first year. This optimism was not shared by everyone but nonetheless Sinclair’s faith in the spectrum was well founded, and by 1983 12-15,000 Spectrums were being sold each week, making it one of the most successful computers ever. 1983 was also the year in which Sinclair received a Knighthood.

THE C5

(Image from wikipedia)
Having been successful in home electronics throughout the early 1980s, Sinclair then turned his attention to the electric vehicle market. What was to become the Sinclair C5 originally started off as a project to make an electric car akin to the Renault Twizy. But after a successful change in the law from prompting by bicycle manufacturers, the C5 was designed to be an electric tricycle with a chassis designed by Lotus Cars and whose body was made of polypropylene. The plan was that this electric vehicle would be the first in a series of ever-more ambitious vehicles (presumably culminating in proper electric cars akin to the Tesla Roadster). But all that really depended on the public embracing the C5 like it had such products as Sinclair pocket calculators and computers.

Unfortunately, the C5 was no hit. Its limitations were obvious: It lacked weatherproofing, its maximum speed was just 15 MPH and its battery run down far too quickly. Not only that, but both consumer and motoring organisations raised concerns over its safety. The Sinclair C5 was not quite a car, and not quite a bicycle, and the public stayed clear of this weird hybrid. By August 1985, only 5,000 C5s were sold out of the 14,000 that had been made and its manufacturer, Sinclair Vehicles, went into receivership.

I think it is safe to say that at the time, the C5 was widely regarded as Sinclair’s folly, the kind of wide miss one might expect to emerge from a maverick mind every now and then.

And Maverick he was. Sir Clive Sinclair belonged to the age of the hobby enthusiast, when computers did not come packaged in sleek tablet cases with computer code hidden beneath polished operating systems, and computer games were something a person could program single-handedly in their bedroom, unleashing bizarre hits like Matthew Smith’s ‘Manic Miner’. With that in mind, perhaps the final word was best summed up by Harry Fairhead, who wrote of Sinclair:

“It seems that the time of the computer innovator has come and gone. The IBM PC locked us into a single design so tightly that the idea of innovation is long gone - just a steady improvement in what we already have. There seems to be no room for the Sinclairs of this world anymore - or have they just moved to a new arena of technical creativity”.

REFERENCES: Wikipedia entry on Sir Clive Sinclair and the C5
Harry Fairhead’s article at I-programmer
Edge Magazine
The Ultimate History of Videogames by Stephen L. Kent