Ron Hickman, who died on February 17 aged 78, invented the Black & Decker Workmate, the portable workbench that for nearly 40 years has encouraged millions to try their hands at do-it-yourself.
He also worked as a car designer for Lotus, and in the 1960s designed the original two-seater Lotus Elan sports car, made famous on television when Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in The Avengers drove a model in powder-blue.
Ron Hickman with the Workmate
Hickman’s inspiration for the Workmate came in 1961, when he was sawing sheets of plywood to make some new wardrobes for his bungalow. He was using a good dining-room chair as a sawhorse and accidentally nicked it with his saw, incurring the wrath of his wife .
“I always had this idea in the back of my mind for a new style of workbench,” he said, “so I built a prototype.” He rented a room above a 200-year-old wooden barn at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, and spent hundreds of hours perfecting his invention, which was light, useful and cheap. He named it the Workmate.
After a patent agent who lived in the same village assured him that his invention could be legally protected, Hickman approached several well-known manufacturers, but to no avail. Spear and Jackson, Wilkinson and Salmens were just a few of the non-takers; while the Stanley company — famous for planes and drills — loftily informed him (in a letter which he was pleased to note later was dated April 1 1968) that sales would be “measured in dozens rather than hundreds”.
To date, worldwide sales of the Workmate exceed 100 million.
At first even Black & Decker turned Hickman down. But eventually, in 1972, the firm agreed to market the invention in Europe. The early model had a cast aluminium H-frame, but later these were replaced by frames of stamped steel. The Workmate went on sale in the United States in 1975.
A South African, Ronald Price Hickman was born on October 21 1932 at Greytown, Natal, where his father was a bookkeeper. On leaving school he worked as a court clerk at Pietermaritzburg, but left South Africa in 1954 with £34 in his pocket and sailed to England, hoping to work in the motor manufacturing industry as a designer.
In London he initially stayed at the Overseas Visitors’ Club in Earls Court, where he met for the first time his future wife, Helen, a fellow South African who had also been working in Pietermaritzburg.
After spending three years as a styling modeller with Ford, Hickman moved to the Lotus company, run by Colin Chapman, and quickly became its design director. He headed the team that designed the trendsetting Elan sports car, with its fibreglass body and retractable headlights. This was followed by the Lotus Cortina, Lotus Europa and Elan Plus 2, a design of which he was especially proud.
In 1967 Hickman left to work in Hertfordshire on prototypes for the seating in the main lounges of Cunard’s new flagship, QE2.
He set up his own company, Mate Tools, remortgaging his bungalow to raise capital, and continued to refine his Workmate design. In the face of rejection from all the big manufacturers, he persuaded a DIY magazine to let him show a prototype in a corner of the magazine’s stand at the 1968 Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia.
Within a year he had sold 1,800 Workmates, and in 1970 Black & Decker relented, agreeing a royalties and copyright deal two years later.
The worldwide success of Hickman’s product inevitably led to imitations and lawsuits. In 1977 a similar product appeared in the United States, manufactured by Emerson Electric and sold by Sears, Roebuck, the world’s largest mail order company, whose in-house lawyers had advised that “the Workmate patents are paper tigers”. Hickman sued and won.
In 1982 Hickman retired an extremely wealthy man. At Villa Devereux, the house which he designed himself on Jersey, he kept a small collection of vintage cars, including a 1931 Cadillac V-16 drophead coupé built for a maharaja.
In 1994 he was appointed OBE for services to industrial innovation.
Ron Hickman married, in 1959, Helen Godbold, who survives him with their son and two daughters.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/technology-obituaries/8339197/Ron-Hickman.html
A South African, Ronald Price Hickman was born on October 21 1932 at Greytown, Natal, where his father was a bookkeeper. On leaving school he worked as a court clerk at Pietermaritzburg, but left South Africa in 1954 with £34 in his pocket and sailed to England, hoping to work in the motor manufacturing industry as a designer.
In London he initially stayed at the Overseas Visitors’ Club in Earls Court, where he met for the first time his future wife, Helen, a fellow South African who had also been working in Pietermaritzburg.
After spending three years as a styling modeller with Ford, Hickman moved to the Lotus company, run by Colin Chapman, and quickly became its design director. He headed the team that designed the trendsetting Elan sports car, with its fibreglass body and retractable headlights. This was followed by the Lotus Cortina, Lotus Europa and Elan Plus 2, a design of which he was especially proud.
In 1967 Hickman left to work in Hertfordshire on prototypes for the seating in the main lounges of Cunard’s new flagship, QE2.
He set up his own company, Mate Tools, remortgaging his bungalow to raise capital, and continued to refine his Workmate design. In the face of rejection from all the big manufacturers, he persuaded a DIY magazine to let him show a prototype in a corner of the magazine’s stand at the 1968 Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia.
Within a year he had sold 1,800 Workmates, and in 1970 Black & Decker relented, agreeing a royalties and copyright deal two years later.
The worldwide success of Hickman’s product inevitably led to imitations and lawsuits. In 1977 a similar product appeared in the United States, manufactured by Emerson Electric and sold by Sears, Roebuck, the world’s largest mail order company, whose in-house lawyers had advised that “the Workmate patents are paper tigers”. Hickman sued and won.
In 1982 Hickman retired an extremely wealthy man. At Villa Devereux, the house which he designed himself on Jersey, he kept a small collection of vintage cars, including a 1931 Cadillac V-16 drophead coupé built for a maharaja.
In 1994 he was appointed OBE for services to industrial innovation.
Ron Hickman married, in 1959, Helen Godbold, who survives him with their son and two daughters.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/technology-obituaries/8339197/Ron-Hickman.html
Very cool about people who have had an important part in our modern world. Great work.
ReplyDeleteI loved it,
Wish you peace,
Adelle