{"id":28,"date":"2009-12-09T15:40:48","date_gmt":"2009-12-09T14:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www2.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/?p=28"},"modified":"2021-12-30T10:14:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T09:14:44","slug":"eric-laithwaite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/eric-laithwaite\/","title":{"rendered":"Research and Innovation: Eric Laithwaite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For this second blog we\u2019re going to look at an inventor, innovator and communicator of science on TV and in the classroom. Eric Laithwaite (1921-1997) came to Imperial College in 1964 as Professor of Heavy Electrical Engineering.\u00a0 His specialist work was on Linear Induction Motors. Prior to his arrival at Imperial, he had appeared on TV many times, so he was no novice to the whole process of making both TV programmes and, as was the case with ICI\u2019s Millbank Films, science learning materials for schools. He made a whole series of films for ICI such as \u201cMotors Big and Small<\/a>\u201d; \u201cShaping things to come<\/a>\u201d and \u201cThe Circle of Magnetism<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was also the first person to present\u00a0 an entire Royal Institution Christmas Lecture series on TV, that was on BBC2 in 1966. Since that time every RI Christmas lecture has been televised. Once again though he made history by being the only person to present a Christmas lecture a second time and that happened in 1974. It was, however, not simply a repeat of the one in 1966!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Colin Grimshaw circled at the RI 1966<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How do I know all this you may ask? Well, I\u2019m biased because for a short period of time I worked with him and was present during the recordings of the 1966 Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution. If anyone still has his book from the series \u201cThe Engineer in Wonderland\u201d you\u2019ll see me in a photo on page 155.<\/p>\n

By the time of the 1974 series \u201cEngineer through the looking-glass\u201d I had moved on to do video production. So I was surprised to receive a visit from Eric Laithwaite in the early summer of 1974. He wanted to chat about ideas for talking backwards. Programme number 3 was to be \u201cJam yesterday and jam tomorrow\u201d and he wanted to see what we could come up with for the reversing of time and speech.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
At the Christmas Lectures 1974\/75<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I must have come up with a good idea because when he heard what I\u2019d done with \u201cMerry Christmas and a Happy New Year\u201d (backwards of course) he said \u201cRight I’d like you to present that during the lecture\u201d.\u00a0 My credit in his book of the series says \u201c\u2026Colin appeared \u2018officially\u2019 in the second lecture taking over part of the lecture in effect\u201d.\u00a0 Because of media interest in the advanced publicity for the 1974 series both myself and Eric Laithwaite were interviewed on BBC Radio about the speaking backwards idea. It was only recently that I had the opportunity to get hold of a DVD copy of the original videotape still held in the BBC archives. The quality is still amazingly good too.<\/p>\n