St Ives-a new millennium - Flipbook - Page 57
St Ives-a new millennium
4/10/02
3:49 pm
Page 55
Right:
Sir Clive Sinclair and Christopher Curry re-visit the old Mill, former headquarters of Sinclair Radionics
Photo: Stuart Littlewood/Ricoh XR7
Now an apartment block, Potto Brown’s steam mill, begun in 1854, was the dominant industrial landmark in
St Ives. It also played an important part in the technology revolution of the 1970s that became known as ‘the
Cambridge Phenomenon’.
In 1970 Clive Sinclair and Christopher Curry moved with Sinclair Radionics into the mill from Cambridge, and
in the next few years produced a string of technology ‘firsts’. The world’s first pocket calculator, the
‘Executive’, appeared in 1971 and sold for £79. Then followed the first pocket TV, ‘Microvision’, and the first
low-cost digital wristwatch, the ‘Black Watch’, selling for £39. Christopher also tested the first electric
scooter around the top floor of the Mill.
In 1978 Christopher left to form Science of Cambridge and in 1980 started Acorn Computers.
Clive returned to Cambridge in 1979 to set up Sinclair Research and launch the ZX-80 computer.
The company continued at the mill under the name Thandar, specialising in test and measurement
instruments, and moved to Huntingdon in the late 1980s.
In 2000, when this picture was taken, Sir Clive was busy launching Zeta 3, which converts bicycles to
electric power, and developing radical electric drives for mobility devices such as wheelchairs. He was also
working on an ultra-lightweight pedal bike.
Christopher, for many years involved in the development of smartcards and electronic payment systems, was
focusing on the e-commerce revolution.
Left: St Ives Choral Society
Photo: Leszek Gawin/Nikon 801
Led by Dr Chris Jessop, a
local GP, the Choral Society
are photographed here in
2000 during rehearsals for a
forthcoming concert ‘Messe
Solennelle’ by Gioachino
Rossini at the Free Church.
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