Inventions

Richard Pearse, although remembered for his aviation achievements, never stopped inventing. His first patent was for a new type of bicycle in Nov. 1902 (NZ Patent No.14507). It was driven by steel bands running from its two bell-crank pedals. A bicycle using reciprocating pedals was developed in the UK some 80 years later.

We will never know all of his inventions but as well as bicycles, motorised bicycles (see image at right), engines and aircraft, there was a mechanical guitar music box played with barbed wire plucking the strings and programmable, with upto 3 tunes at a time. Phonograms, cylinder and disk - one with a horn so powerful that it could be heard a quarter of a mile away.

Discovered in a shed after his death and saved for prosterity chiefly by the efforts of George Bolt, another New Zealand pioneer aviator, and on show at MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology), the Convertiplane, as it was called, (Australian Patent Spec.No.124430 - patented 1944) embodied many bold features including short take off and landing (STOL) with a variable geometry engine and propeller that could swing to a vertical position like a helicopter rotor.

Our thanks to Bob Riley's book "Kiwi Ingenuity" - a book of New Zealand Ideas and Inventions, ISBN No. 0-9583334-4-0, where the reference material above was taken from.