The BIG question!

Why is Clive Sinclair notable?

Have you ever used a calculator? A laptop? A car/portable television? An electric car? A smart watch? A portable radio? Well, all these ideas come from one man. Sir Clive Sinclair. 

 

When I was researching, it was helpful to use multiple sites, as it gave me a broader spectrum, all the information, to make sure nothing important slipped through my research on Mr. Sinclair. It also gave me the benefit of multiple opinions.  However I, for some reason, could not find Clive Sinclair on Encyclopedia Britannica.  

 

Clive Sinclair was born in 1940. His dad was an engineer. He had a great mind and excelled in mathematics, despite constantly having to move schools as his father was short on money.   Clive mowed lawns and worked in a café part-time for a living. Before long, he wanted more and so went on holiday jobs at electronics companies. He began to sell mini electronics kits which could what be posted to you. This was the start of his famous liking of miniaturization.  This led to him making many things accessible and portable that we still use today, such as miniature televisions, portable/home computers and even pocket calculators. 

 

A very good quality in inventors is to be prepared to fail. Many inventors may have suppressed brilliant ideas for fear the public might not appreciate them. Clive Sinclair was not like that. Some of his inventions may not have been enthusiastically taken on, like the first electric car and smartwatch (by Sinclair), but they were intelligent ideas, and would later be taken up again by other businessmen and were taken on by the public. He also made electronics for the people and not just personal gain, stating 'I have no desire to be hugely rich. I mean I am, but that was just something that happened. Now you may think this was a lie, but in the late 80s , his company crashed and lost a lot of money. What did Sinclair do? He just carried on inventing. 

 

One of Clive Sinclair's most renowned inventions were his computers. Back in the 80's, computers were new technology. You would need special discs for the internet, which you would plug into a modem, where the computer would load. Then, you would plug the modem into the phone line for internet, known as the 'dial up modem'. The computers where huge. Not as huge as the first computer, which took up a whole room, but very large compared to today's standards. Basically, it stayed in one place in the house, if the house was lucky to have a computer. Sinclair solved that. His invention was a keyboard. Not that cool, you may think. Maybe just for a keyboard, but this was no ordinary keyboard. This keyboard could be plugged into an old television to become a computer. This meant you could easily transport this special keyboard. Sinclair made many keyboards, the most famous being the ZX Spectrum. This is just one example of this man's ingenuity and resource to help our lives. 

 

I think this answers the big question quite nicely. Sir Clive Sinclair is notable, and there is no doubt about that.