"Rubber" Ramkin

First name as yet unknown, this was an uncle of Sybil Ramkin who had a monomaniac fascination with rubber and all its uses. He is said to have designed a prototypical fixed-wing flying machine, and all went well with its maden voyage right up until the moment the rubber band snapped. He is also responsible, in sa rare moment of interest in materials other than rubber, for the master bathroom at Crundells and all its interesting features.

Annotation

to Sir George Cayley (1773-1857) who demonstrated a practical working glider - in recognisibly modern aircraft proportions and configuration - as early as 1804. In 1853, the first manned glider, a Cayley design, flew successfully.

Among the many things that he developed are self-righting lifeboats, tension-spoke wheels, the "Universal Railway" (his term for caterpillar tractors), automatic signals for railway crossings, seat belts, small scale helicopters, and a kind of prototypical internal combustion engine fuelled by gunpowder. He also contributed in the fields of prosthetics, air engines, electricity, theatre architecture, ballistics, optics and land reclamation, and held the belief that these advancements should be freely available. Definitely a more successful Bloody Stupid Johnson crossed with Leonard of Quirm.