John Logie Baird |
On
Tuesday 14th June 2016 it will be the 70th anniversary of
the death of Scottish inventor John Logie Baird. Baird is usually remembered
for being the first person in the world to demonstrate a working television
system
However
it is not so well known that one of his previous inventions was a thermal style
undersock, which gained him moderate success around the time of the Great War.
Devised
in around 1916, the Baird Undersock was an unbleached sock sprinkled with an
anti-fungal compound called Borax, that when worn under normal footwear, kept
the feet dry and warm.
These socks gained positive testimonials from servicemen
serving in the trenches in France and eventually they not only helped him quit
his mundane job at an electrical power company, but also move away from
Scotland to a warmer climate.
Baird
had always suffered from poor circulation. He felt cold nearly all of the time
and often wore heavy coats even in milder weather, in an attempt to try and
keep warm. His cold feet caused him major problems and over time he tried
different ways to try and keep out the chill.
He wrote in his memoirs that a
favourite method he used was to remove his socks, wrap his bare feet in
newspaper to absorb any moisture, and then put the socks back on again, over
the paper.
Taking
this idea forward, he managed to get a supply of half-hose socks from a company
in Yorkshire, sprinkled Borax on them and packaged them up with a leaflet
outlining their advantages.
They were then advertised in The People’s Friend -
a British national periodical magazine - for sale at a price of 9 old pennies a
pair, inclusive of postage. However from this original advert, he only managed one
sale causing a major re-think to his advertising and sales strategy.
Baird
then set out as a travelling salesman, placing the socks in pharmacies and
drapers in and around his native Glasgow area and soon enough the repeat orders
started to come in.
It wasn’t long before he was in a position to take on a
team of salesmen, supplying not only to Scotland, but down into England as
well.
He also employed a team of women wearing sandwich boards, who walked
around Glasgow city centre advertising the socks. This was a masterstroke as it
not only took the advertising out on to the street, but captured the attention
of the local press thereby creating even more business.
In
one advertisement he stated that “The
socks are perfectly pure and antiseptic, and, when worn under the ordinary
sock, keep the feet beautifully warm in winter. In summer the socks may be worn
alone, and worn thus keeping the feet wonderfully cool and fresh in the hottest
weather.”
This message was immediately followed by three testimonials from soldiers
serving in the British Expeditionary Forces in France.
In
the latter stages of the war the sales of the Baird Undersock started to take
off and by that time he was earning the same amount in a week as he would have
done back at the power station in a year.
But as hostilities came to an end,
the business slowed down and during a period while Baird was suffering another bout
of ill-health, it came to a grinding halt.
Because
of his aversion to the cold, he decided to relocate to a warmer climate and
with the money made from the Undersock, he went to live in Trinidad where it is
believed he secretly started to experiment with bright flashing lights!
After
suffering bouts of malaria and dysentery, it wasn’t long before he returned home
to the UK and within seven short years his Caribbean adventures resulted in what
was to ultimately become his most famous invention.