Paul Eisler

Inventor of the printed circuit board, Eisler forfeited rights to his invention when he neglected to read the contract before signing it. In 1941 Paul was able to engage Henderson and Spalding, a lithography company in Camberwell run by Harold Vezey-Strong, to invest in his printed circuit idea via a specially created subsidiary of Henderson and Spalding called Technograph. It was a pretty standard employment contract in that he agreed to submit any patent right during his employment for a nominal fee (one pound sterling), but it also gave him 16.5 percent ownership of Technograph.

It drew no interest until the United States incorporated the technology into work on the proximity fuze, which was vital to counter the German V-1 flying bomb. However, Eisler did manage to obtain his first three printed circuit patents for a wide range of applications.