Have you dreamed of building your own machine? Do you wish you could invent something new? Here we look at a few British inventions of recent times. Adaptable glasses Do you wear glasses? If so, can you imagine life without them? In 1985, Joshua Silver, a professor at Oxford University, asked himself, "Can I invent a pair of glasses that could be changed by the wearer?" He designed two plastic lenses that are filled with a special liquid. Using syringes you change the liquid between the lenses until you can see clearly. The glasses are not beautiful but they are easy to use and cheap to make. The wind-up radio When you switch your TV on tonight, think about all those people without electricity. Thinking about this, Trevor Baylis came up with the idea of designing a radio that could be powered by hand. In common with Joshua Silver he wanted his invention to be cheap and easy to use. He wanted even the poorest people in developing countries, who don't have electricity and cannot afford batteries, to use it. The radio has a generator   which is powered by turning a handle. In 1996 it won a BBC Design Award for Best Protect and Best Design. The Dyson cleaner In many homes around the world you can see a cleaner that looks like a spaceship. This is the Dyson vacuum   cleaner which uses something called "cyclonic separation" to separate the dirt. You do not need a bag for your cleaner and it does not get blocked so it is very practical. The idea came to Sir James Dyson after he kept having problems with his vacuum cleaner. He decided he could design a better one and in 1993 he opened his own factory. The Dyson is now one of the best-selling cleaners in the UK and Dyson is believed to have earned over a billion pounds. The Zapata fly-board Ever dreamed of zooming through the water and leaping in the air like a dolphin? Now you can thanks to a fly-board, built by water sports enthusiast Frank Zapata. With it you can dive back in the water and out again. It's possible to jump to incredible heights out of the water -- over 30 feet. The basic fly-board model comes in at PS4,200. So keep dreaming and inventing. One day you might get it right. Which invention won an award?
Adaptable glasses. The wind-up radio. The Dyson cleaner. The Zapata fly-board.