John Taylor (inventor)
|
John C. Taylor OBE FREng |
|
|---|---|
| Born | 25 November 1936 |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | British |
| Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | British inventor, entrepreneur, horologist and philanthropist |
| Known for | Development of thermostatic controls Construction of the Corpus Clock |
| Website | www.johnctaylor.com |
John Crawshaw TaylorOBE FREng (born 25 November 1936) is a British inventor, entrepreneur, horologist and philanthropist best known for his extensive research into electric kettles.
John Taylor was educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man and studied Natural Sciences at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1956 to 1959. After graduating in 1959 Taylor had planned to continue his studies further, however at the last moment the funding was pulled and reluctantly he joined his father Eric Taylor's company Otter Controls as a Graduate Trainee. It is said that he "soon revealed himself to have inherited his father's inventive genius".
When Eric Taylor died in 1971, his son took over as Chairman of Otter Controls. He focused on the business of Castletown Thermostats, a subsidiary of Otter Controls, and in 1979 he split Castletown Thermostats and Otter Controls into two independent companies, with John Taylor becoming Chairman of Castletown. Two years later, Castletown Thermostats changed its name to Strix Ltd, and in 1984, Eddie Davies was appointed as Chief Executive, with Taylor remaining Chairman.
Castletown Thermostats had started by making bimetallic thermostats for use in various industries. In the 1960s, the market for electric kettles was growing, and Castletown extended its manufacturing plant to produce and test a new device for controlling kettles. During the 20 years from 1979 until 1999 in which Taylor and Davies led Strix, the company developed several successful product series, expanded worldwide, sold over 200 million thermostat controls for electric kettles, and received several Queen's Awards and other awards.
In 2001 Taylor received an Honorary Doctorate at UMIST and was made Visiting Professor of Innovation in recognition of over 150 patents in his own name. He was also elected Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
...
Wikipedia