Celebrated inventor Sir Clive Sinclair, credited with bringing home computers to a mass audience for the first time, has died at the age of 81.
Belinda Sinclair, his daughter, revealed on Thursday that the much-loved pioneer - who also invented the pocket calculator - had died after fighting cancer for over a decade.
She said that despite his illness, Sir Clive had been working on his latest inventions as recently as last week.
Who was Clive Sinclair?
Sir Clive Sinclair was an inventor and entrepreneur.
Born near Richmond in 1940, Sir Clive began inventing at a young age, designing a submarine as a 14-year-old.
Instead of going off to university at the age of 18, Sinclair set up his own business selling miniature electronic kits by mail order.
Elon Musk was among the many figures to pay tribute to Sir Clive after his death was announced.
What did Clive Sinclair invent?
Sir Clive Sinclair is best known as the man behind the first pocket calculator as well as the ZX Spectrum - an early microcomputer - and the Sinclair C5, an electric vehicle.
In 1961, he set up Sinclair Radionics. The company would go on to develop the first pocket calculator - the Sinclair Executive - the Black Watch, an early digital wristwatch, the first portable television and hi-fi equipment.
After leaving Sinclair Radionics in 1979, he built up a new business - Sinclair Research. It was this business that developed computers including the ZX80, the Spectrum, and the less successful Sinclair QL.
What was the ZX Spectrum?
The ZX Spectrum, released in 1982, became Britain’s top-selling microcomputer. Its rivals included the Commodore 64, BBC Micro and Amstrad CPC.
Between 1982 and 1987, seven different models of the Spectrum were released. Altogether, they sold more than five million units around the world.
The Spectrum was best-known for its games, some of which - including Jet Set Willy, Skool Daze, Renegade and Head Over Heels - went on to become some of the most iconic titles of early gaming.
As well as its games, however, the ZX Spectrum also offered tools which are now basic staples of our everyday lives, including word processing, databases and spreadsheets.
What was the Sinclair C5?
The Sinclair C5 was an early electric vehicle. Though widely referred to as an electric car, it wasn’t - to be exact, it was an “electrically assisted pedal vehicle”, or an electric tricycle.
Launched in a blaze of publicity at London’s Alexandra Palace in January 1985, the vehicle’s flaws soon became apparent - in quite brutal fashion.
Journalists found that a number of display vehicles at the launch event didn’t function. Formula 1 legend Stirling Moss tested the C5 on the roads around the venue, only for the battery to rapidly go flat.
Sales of the C5 were, perhaps inevitably, disappointing; only 5,000 of the 14,000 made were sold before Sinclair Vehicles, its manufacturer, collapsed.
However, the C5 did enjoy a new lease of life in later years, when enthusiasts adopted it.
The vehicle is now a firm cult favourite, with modified C5s doing things Sinclair had never envisaged: one beefed-up C5 even ran at 150mph - ten times its original top speed of 15mph.
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