Notable local inventor and horologist Dr John C Taylor, whose inventions have been manufactured in factories across the UK from Buxton to St Davids, from Chester to Malmsesbury, has been awarded an OBE for invention and horology in the New Year’s Honours List. The award comes as a result of a lifetime of impressive achievements. Dr Taylor attended King William’s College on the Island, where he studied Maths, Physics and Chemistry before completing a Natural Science Tripos BA at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University. Since then he has filed almost 200 inventions leading to 396 patents listed in the European patent office, including an electric motor protector, automatic windshield wipers and, most successfully, cordless kettle controls. He headed Strix, the Manx electric kettle control company, which celebrated selling their one billionth kettle control in 2009. Through Strix, Dr Taylor holds four Queen’s Awards, one for invention and three for export. He is also a keen flyer, yachtsman, experienced mountaineer and skier and has been on numerous expeditions, including two of geological survey in the Arctic. Dr Taylor moved to the Isle of Man in 1977 and joined Castletown Thermostats Ltd, well known throughout the South of the Island as 'The Thermostats'. Within four years he led the company to independence, changing the company name to Strix. Dr Taylor immediately started designing new kettle controls, most importantly securing the contract to supply all Swan's requirements; Swan in 1981 being one of the largest manufacturers of electric kettles in the World. However, fashions were changing and copper kettle bodies were now being replaced by plastic. Dr Taylor saw the opportunity and invented a range of new kettle controls specifically for plastic bodied kettles and jugs thereby securing the most important export order from Sunbeam Australia. New cordless bases for kettles followed, giving the Strix team the unique products to capture firstly the UK market, then Europe and finally the World Market through China. Dr Taylor retired from Strix in 1999 with the Strix team supplying 2/3 of the World market. He was particularly gratified to be invited to the Strix Celebrations ten years later to commemorate the sale of One Billion kettle controls, all made under his patents. Dr Taylor is now a noted horologist and philanthropist. He supports a number of educational initiatives and programmes and has contributed over ?2.5 rmillion towards the construction of a new library for Corpus Christi College as well as the impressive Chronophage clock which has quickly become a major visitor attraction. Cambridge University has recognised him as a Benefactor and awarded him a silver medal in 2009 for his impressive financial contributions. Dr Taylor is an honorary fellow at the College, as well as a visiting professor at both the Manchester Science Enterprise Centre and the Physics Department of Durham University. He strongly believes in ‘giving back’ to the community and particularly to educational establishments as a way of saying ‘thank you’ for the education that so inspired him. Having long been a collector of antique clocks and timepieces, Dr Taylor has recently set up John C Taylor Masterworks, an Island based company that creates exclusive, high-value replicas of rare and important clocks. He famously invented, designed and built the Chronophage, a ground-breaking timepiece and piece of art that features a creature that ‘eats’ time as it passes, which now sits outside Corpus Christi’s Taylor library. This Corpus clock has become the major visitor attraction in the centre of Cambridge. When asked about the numerous inventions that earned him this honour, Dr Taylor simply commented: “Ideas are easy; it is turning them into a practical reality that is hard”. Regarding the award itself, he continued: “I am very pleased and very proud to have been recognised in this way”. The 14th Astronomer Royal and friend of Dr John C Taylor, Sir Arnold Wolfendale FRS commented: ‘Despite having been in University life for many years and having met many brilliant individuals, John C Taylor is unique in being not only a brilliant inventor but having great skills in so many other areas too. He is also a charming unaffected person. His many contributions to providing work for very many people, his stimulus to British Horology and his philanthropy make him a worthy recipient of an OBE. I am proud to be numbered amongst his many friends. I congratulate him wholeheartedly.’ The full title of the honour is ‘Officer of the Order of the British Empire’, and is the fourth most senior class of five within the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, an order of Chivalry established in 1917 by King George V. The intrepid Dr Taylor, now in his mid seventies, is currently on a scientific expedition to Antarctica. ENDS