Page 3 - Newsletter_October_2025

I guess many of us were introduced to the myriads of gadgets that appeared almost weekly from the Clive
Sinclaire stable. Ivor Ruddle, our first President was such a devotee, I think he was on the payroll. There
were watches, calculators and latterly home computers and Ivor got most of them.

I bought the original Sinclaire programmable calculator which served me well for a few years. It was
unique in that it sported a fluorescent display instead o the more common red led. It also worked using Re-
verse Polish Notation which did not use an equal sign. Pretty odd, but okay once you got your head round
the process. Programmes were mainly mathematical formula which had to be keyed into the calculator.
Nothing as sophisticated as the later scientific calculators but pretty good in its day.

Onto Dereks presentation.

“Today, I’d like to introduce you to one of the great pioneers of modern technology: Sir Clive Sinclair. He
was a British inventor and entrepreneur who believed technology should be accessible to everyone — not
just the wealthy or the elite. He’s best remembered for making affordable home computers, which inspired
a whole generation of people to get into computing. Over the next 25 minutes, we’ll walk through his story,
his successes, his failures, and his legacy.”

“Clive Sinclair was born on July 30th, 1940, in Richmond, England. Even as a child, he was fascinated by
electronics. Imagine being a teenager and already designing circuits while still at school! Before starting his
own company, he worked as a technical journalist, which meant he was always surrounded by the latest
gadgets and ideas. From the very beginning, his philosophy was simple: technology should be stripped
down, simplified, and made available to the masses. That principle shaped everything he went on to do.”