Sinclair Radionics Ltd

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Sinclair Radionics Ltd was founded by Sir Clive Sinclair in Cambridge, England on 25 July 1961.

Radionics initially developed hi-fi equipment; it released its first product, the Sinclair Micro-amplifier, in December 1962. The assembly and distribution of this product were contracted out to Cambridge Consultants Ltd. Further hi-fi products were to follow, with the System 4000 being the last in 1974.

In 1972 Radionics launched its first electronic calculator, the Executive, which was considerably smaller than its competitors since it had been possible to use hearing-aid-sized batteries. It had been discovered that there was considerable latency in the display and memory and that, with the addition of a timer, power could be withheld from these battery-draining components for much of the time.

In 1974, Radionics launched the DM1 digital multimeter. Such scientific instruments were to form a quiet backbone of Radionics business for the rest of its existence.

Turnover Profit Loss %
1971 563,000 85,000 — 15%
1972 761,000 97,000 — 13%
1973 1,800,000  ? —  ?
1974 4,000,000 240,000 — 6%
1975 6,300,000 45,000 — 1%
1976 5,600,000 ? 355,000 N/A
1977  ?  ? 820,000 N/A
1978 6,390,000  ? 1,980,000 N/A
Financial performance of Sinclair Radionics 1971—1978

Then in November 1975 Radionics announced the Black Watch, which was available to buy in January 1976. For various reasons (largely to do with recalcitrant suppliers), Radionics was not able to fulfill the orders it had taken and the watch was also unreliable. As a result, Radionics made its first loss in the financial year April 74-April 75.

In order to be able to continue with a mini-TV project that had been underway for something like 10 years, Sinclair attempted to secure additional funding: in August 1976 the National Enterprise Board bought a 43 per cent stake in Sinclair Radionics for £650,000 and in October the National Research and Development Council agreed to provide £1m for the TV project, which was finally launched in January 1977 as the 'Microvision TV1A pocket TV'.

In July 1977 the NEB increased its stake in Radionics to 73 per cent.

By June 1978 Sinclar Radionics was working on the NewBrain project.

In May 1979 the NEB announced that it intended to sell Radionics' calculator and TV interests; they were bought by Binatone. In July Clive Sinclair resigned with a £10,000 golden handshake. In September the NEB renamed what was left of Radionics (i.e. the scientific instrument business) as Sinclair Electronics Ltd; in January 1980 this was changed to Thandar Electronics Ltd. Thandar is still in business.

[edit] Sinclair Research Ltd

Main article: Sinclair Research Ltd

When it became clear that Radionics was failing, Clive Sinclair took steps to ensure that he would be able to continue to pursue his commercial goals: in February 1975, he changed the name of Ablesdeal Ltd (an off-the-shelf company he bought in September 1973 for just such an eventuality) to Westminster Mail Order Ltd; this was changed to Sinclair Instrument Ltd in August 1975.

After the NEB became involved in Radionics, Sinclair encouraged Chris Curry (a Radionics employee since 1966) to get Sinclair Instrument up and running. This became Science of Cambridge in July 1977. Science of Cambridge ultimately became Sinclair Research Ltd.

[edit] External links

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