A Students View of the Competition

Abstract

I must admit, when at school I always presumed the bell system to be fully automated. Not once did it occur to me that, as was the case, the secretary had to abandon whatever she was doing every forty minutes to relieve us of our toils.

Better informed, however, were three Worcester schoolboys, upon whom, as bell monitors, this arduous task actually fell. ";BRAT";, a bell ringing automatic timer, assembled in the sitting room of one of the boys' homes during their spare time, is now a full operational and reliable part of the Blessed Edward Old orne RC Secondary School secretary's office.

The timer was also a prizewinner in the 14-16 year old section of the National Schools Design Prize competition.

Indeed, my overwhelming impression was of the simplicity and practicality of the ideas behind all the winning designs. Take, for example, Richard Thompson's automatic fish-feeder, designed to overcome the problem of getting a 'fish-minder' whenever he went on holidays, or Bob Worrall's 'Rucktent', a one-man tent that packs up into a standard rucksack.