Harry Bickerton (13 June 1921–23 March 1994) was a British
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
in the fields of aerospace engineering, engine design (aircraft), and bicycle design.
Background
In 1938, Bickerton left school to take up an apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce
in Derby. He was transferred to Glasgow and was seconded to RAE Farnborough to work for
Tilly Shilling, where he worked on water methanol injection and exhaust pipe tuning, among other things, for the Rolls-Royce 'Merlin' engine of the Spitfire fighter plane.
After World War II, Bickerton, now a seasoned aircraft engineer, moved on to de Havilland
where he was Chief Engineer and worked primarily on internal combustion engines (Gypsy Major) but also became involved in the investigation of the
De Havilland Comet
The de Havilland DH.106 Comet is the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It features an aerodynamically clean design with four ...
after a series of failures. He later re-designed the Gypsy Major engine for Britain's first helicopter (the Skeeter), and headed the development of extreme cold weather equipment for an Antarctic expedition by air. He also filed a patent for a rotary engine design while at De Havilland. Bickerton eventually left the industry in the late 1950s to become a free-lance engineer and inventor.
The Bickerton Bicycle
He became a household name in the UK in the early 1980s after a successful TV campaign advertising the
Bickerton (bicycle)
The Bickerton, also called the Bickerton Portable, was a portable aluminium folding bicycle designed by Harry Bickerton and manufactured in the UK and Australia between 1971 and 1989. Bickerton, an accomplished engineer, suffered a three-year ...
, a
folding bicycle
A folding bicycle is designed to be compacted into a smaller, more manageable size or shape, making it easier to store or carry . When folded, the bikes can be more easily carried into buildings, on public transportation (facilitating mixed-mo ...
he originally designed in the 1970s and perfected over time. In the mid-1970s, The British Central Office of Information released a film, presenting the Bickerton Portable as a symbol of the British lifestyle while simultaneously extolling its technological advantages ("The smallest bike in the world"). These were its lightness, often below 7.5 kg, and foldability.
Harry Bickerton's bicycle design became equally seminal as
Alex Moulton
Alexander Eric Moulton (9 April 1920 – 9 December 2012) was an English engineer and inventor, specialising in Suspension (vehicle), suspension design.
Early life and education
Moulton's father, John Coney Moulton, was a naturalist working in ...
's, and eventually inspired
Andrew Ritchie to create the
Brompton bicycle
Brompton Bicycle Limited, trading as Brompton, is a British manufacturer of folding bicycles based in Greenford, London.
The Brompton folding bicycle and accessories are the company's core product, noted for its self-supporting compact size w ...
.
Other inventions
Some of his other projects were a self-adjustable posture bed, which was adopted for use by the National Health Service, and an economical centrifuge (called a Hermatocit) for separating red and white blood cells, designed for use with a car battery in remote locations like Africa.
Harry Bickerton's engineering principles, expressed in ten "Performance specification
for a new portable human-powered personal transport device" (1971) are still valid today.
References
External links
Part 2 of "The Bickerton Story" by David Henshaw.Film by British Central Office of Information, ca. 1975
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bickerton, Harry
1921 births
20th-century English businesspeople
20th-century British inventors
1990s deaths
British cycle designers