Eric Waterworth

Eric Newham Waterworth (1905–90), practical engineer, invented an Automatic Record Changer at the age of twenty, and sold the patent in London. In the 1930s he began designing and making equipment for Leicester McAulay, Physics Professor at the University of Tasmania. Responding to a request from the Australian Government after the outbreak of the Second World War, the two of them agreed to try to produce optical components for gunsights. While McAulay was the man of ideas, it was Waterworth's equipment which allowed the 200 employees at the Waterworth Annexe to make high-quality prisms with only a fortnight's training. They later also produced photographic lenses. After the war Waterworth continued in the business of optical design and manufacture, and the Waterworth slide projector sold widely around Australia.

Further reading: QVMAG, Eric Waterworth, Launceston, 1990.

Jill Cassidy