WHAT is the most dangerous combination tool? Trevor Bayliss (pictured), inventor of the wind-up radio, says it's an accountant and a lawyer working together, he told the audience at ELWa's latest People in Business Club meeting.

Mr Bayliss exhibited the normal paranoia of inventors about people trying to rip-off their ideas and according to him he has good reason.

"The world is full of crooks, spivs and vulture capitalists. And when the money rolls in the inventor is rolled out."

He has been working with the Office of Fair Trading to curtail the activities of a company which invites inventors to contact them with their ideas via a freephone number.

"They are then persuaded to part with around £5,000 for this company to sort everything out for them, as 'this is only a spit in the bucket' compared to the money they are going to earn!

"Thousands of people have been scammed out of their money like this and I cannot describe what I think of people who are doing it."

Mr Bayliss attributes people's vulnerability to our school curriculum. "Why don't we teach intellectual property and copyright law in school?

"We've got bachelors in art and science degrees; why can't we have bachelors in invention?"

He said people were led to believe that inventors were freaks, with long wild hair, broken glasses and Viennese accents.

"This is ridiculous, if you can solve a problem you are on your way to becoming an inventor."

Mr Bayliss said his life had been based on following his heart and curiosity rather than a particular job. "Don't sacrifice a real life on the altar of a career."

He was born in London in 1937, and, as he put it, "We had fireworks every night when I was kid."

He said that while he could barely write his name and failed his 11+, he was very good with a Meccano set.

He was also a very good swimmer and by 15 he was competing for Britain.

He found a job in soil mechanics and took an ONC and HNC in mechanical engineering. But at the same time he pursued opportunities as a stunt man in the film industry and in large circuses.

"In 1970 I did an underwater escape act at a circus in Berlin. I was being paid £350 a day for two shows, which was a fortune back then.

"I used the money to buy a plot of land on an island in the Thames at Twickenham and built my own house on it.

"It was the best thing I ever did and I'm still living there."

He used his house on the island as a mental buttress when men in suits and their officious secretaries were dismissing him as "this silly man with his inventions".

"You need an ego the size of a truck as an inventor just to be able to keep going."

For his clockwork radio, Mr Bayliss read out one of his rejection letters which said that after consultation with experts, it was found that the winding mechanism and dynamo would have to weigh around 40 pounds.

"He suggested I would get more electricity from putting electrodes on the warmest part of the body such as the groin area. "In other words, stick your radio up you're a***."

The inspiration for the radio came from a report on the BBC World Service which talked about the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa and how educators could not reach people to tell them how to combat the danger.

"Many areas have no electricity and batteries, if available, are very expensive."

He thought about wind-up gramophones, and in his shed he rigged up a DC motor (which if you reverse the motion turns into a dynamo) connected to a hand brace.

Mr Bayliss did make money out of the radio, "but not as much as was projected.

"What it did was provide me with a platform where I could go around the country talking to people and bringing attention to the plight of our inventors."

His activities with the Trevor Bayliss Foundation can be followed on-line at www.thetbf.org

He wants to see the formation of a fighting fund to enable inventors to fight large companies in the courts to defend and enforce their patents. "After all, why bother with a patent system if you can't enforce it."

ELWa's People in Business Club is sponsored by Business Argus. If you're interested in joining call Rhydian Harry on 01443 663 663.