Cornwall inventor rides wave of success

A Cornwall-based tech innovator is set to take a homegrown creation from his garage to global shores.

Portreath inventor Alex Tweed has turned his Tide.lamp – a device that visually tracks tidal conditions at over 5000 coastal locations worldwide – into a market-ready product. 

Designed in 2017 for personal use, the lamp now combines handcrafted aesthetics with digital precision.

Alex said: “Tide.lamp is a beautifully crafted lamp that uses real-time oceanic data to show the position of the tide at your favourite beach. 

“Unlike a traditional tide clock it requires no manual calibration, you simply choose a beach on the app and the lamp does the rest.

“Our goal is to create something that’s not only attractive and serves a useful purpose at a glance, but also improves people’s wellbeing and helps them to feel connected to the coast.”

Backed by Plymouth University’s STRIDE (Success Through Research, Innovation and Development Excellence) programme and Cornwall’s Good Growth Fund, the lamp is being manufactured locally and supported by a crowdfunding campaign to bring it to coastal communities worldwide.

Alex added: “Within six hours of launching Tide.lamp on the Kickstarter platform we’d reached 50 per cent of our funding, and are now approaching 85 per cent with 29 days remaining. 

“The first Tide.lamp’s will go into production just as soon as it finishes and we can see how big the demand is for them. 

“It’s looking very promising.”

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