Roald Dahl

The Inventor

When Roald Dahl wanted something that didn’t exist he never let that stop him - he tried to invent it. When Theo was 4 months old he was involved in an accident in America. His skull was crushed in lots of places he had operations but still got hydrocephalus, or water on the brain. The doctors in America said he would die!

Dahl took Theo to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London for special treatment. Where he got together Kenneth Till, a neuro- surgeon and Stanley Wade, an engineer and for months they all worked to invent a valve, the Wade-Dahl-Till (WDT). A gadget to plant in the brain to drain away fluid.

Theo recovered slowly and still lives today. The WDT treated up to 3000 children with the same problem. As adults some still have them now.

He also created garden gadgets and his ambition was to invent a silent cigarette lighter so he could smoke at night without waking his wife. Luckily for his lungs, he never did!