A born tinkerer and devotee of all things spring and coil, George Carwardine was an established engineer busy making suspension systems for vehicles. (Perhaps if you’d told him he’d become well-known for creating a task lamp, he would have scoffed, but we’ll get to that). He moved up the ranks at Horstmann Car Company as a Chief Designer. In 1924 he left to start his own business, Cardine Accessories, but eventually went back to work for the Horstmann car company before they went bankrupt. Suddenly out of a job, he went back to tinkering and began working on designs for work lights. His first design for the Anglepoise, a 4-spring lamp that could shine light in all directions, free in its movement and perfect balance due to its patented constant spring mechanism. As soon as the design was established, demand was too great for George and his small workshop in Bath. It was outsourced to world-class spring maker, Herbert Terry & Sons where it then went into mass production. George’s icon task lamp has seem many iterations and has shone a light on everything from hospital tables to navigator tables in military aircraft and everything in between.