Utdrag från en artikel i New Scientist 4/2004

David Gordon Wilson

David Gordon Wilson, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, designs gas turbines and developed the modern recumbent bicycle. He is 76 years old

What inspired you to invent a recumbent bicycle?

When I came to the US from the UK in 1955, there were few adult cyclists. I was one of them, and I was an object of scorn. A frightening number of cyclists were being killed or seriously injured every year: there were a lot of people getting a raincoat or a bag caught in the front wheel. I thought it would be better if people cycled feet forward. It turns out that the recumbent design has been around for 100 years or more, but I had no idea. I ended up repeating a lot of it. I feel silly now. Then again, inventions rarely spring fully formed. We all make small improvements.

What was the reaction to your bicycle?

It amazed me. I was at MIT and it was 10 pm and I thought, the heck, I'll ride it home. And people started cheering as I rode it through Harvard Square. So I began riding it regularly because I liked the approval.

Did you invent things as a child?

I was fairly inventive, though I didn't get much approval from my father. I remember making a wheelbarrow when I was 9, and he laughed himself sick. That hurt me because we didn't have a wheelbarrow and in the end he used it a lot. When I was 11 or 12, I built a Wimshurst electrostatic machine, which makes sparks. I was rather proud of that. I got it to make huge lightning flashes, but it gave me headaches and I had to stop.

My father made me and my brothers become electrical engineers. I got into turbines that way. But I've always been nuts about cycling and the two have somehow gone hand in hand.

Can anyone become an inventor?

It's very easy. Just look around and see all the things you can improve. The number of patents you get depends on funding as much as anything else. But you must do it because you enjoy it. I have 23 patents and I haven't made money on any of them.

How do you come up with new ideas?

When I was leaving home, my father bought me a book about research and innovation, which taught me that ideas will hit you when you least expect. Your brain is like a computer: it tries various sequences until it finds a solution. Sometimes it's strong enough to wake you up in the night. A couple of weeks ago, for instance, a colleague said he had a strange new phenomenon that he wanted me to design a turbine for. I woke up in the night thinking about it. I hadn't done that for years. What amazed me was that this problem wasn't that important to me, it was just intriguing. So keep a notebook by you. I wish I could find one of my old notebooks — there's an idea in it that I want to incorporate into a new turbine.

Do you need a certain kind of mind?

Most people have the capability. I remember a chap in design class at university who I didn't regard as particularly brainy. We had to design a hydraulic press, and he suggested designing something in which the piston stayed still while the cylinder moved. I said: "You can't do that, it's not what we're supposed to do." I often think about that, because at that time I wasn't very receptive to doing things differently. Part of it is about confidence — the confidence I didn't have when I reprimanded my buddy. I was too constrained. Once you are not constrained, the ideas flow in.