Owen Finlay Maclaren

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Owen Finlay Maclaren MBE (1907 – April 1978) was the inventor of the collapsible lightweight baby buggy.

The former test pilot and designer of the Supermarine Spitfire undercarriage was inspired when his daughter visited from the United States with his first grandchild. After watching the parents struggle with the clumsy conventional pushchair, he used his knowledge of lightweight, collapsible structures to create a new generation of infant transport and inspire the design of future collapsible objects such as the Strida bicycle.^[1]

He designed his first buggy in 1965, which was built in his medieval farmhouse stables in Barby, Northamptonshire in England. He also designed the 'Gadabout folding chair', and was commissioned by the Ministry of health to design a larger folding buggy for larger children with disabilities called the 'Buggy Major' this buggy was designed on square tubes instead of the usual round tubes like the 'Baby Buggy' this was around 1970. Today the modern version of the 'Baby Buggy' are sold in over 50 countries under the Maclaren brand.

In 1978 Queen Elizabeth II awarded him with an MBE.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• R. Roy. (2004). Creativity and Concept Design. (p. 63). Open University Worldwide Ltd. ISBN 0749259086.
• Rosalind Sharpe. (23 September 1995). Mother of invention. The Independent. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
• Annabel Freyberg. (2008). Design notebook: Baby buggy. The Telegraph.
• Per Mollerup. (2001). Collapsible: The Genius of Space-saving Design. (p. 114). Chronicle Books. ISBN 0811832368.
• John Gapper. (19 September 2003). Wheels of fortune. FT.com. Retrieved 2008-04-01.

[edit] External links

• Presentation on Owen Finlay Maclaren and the history of the Maclaren company.