— Bob-a-job-alog-a-roonie

Probably the most interesting and intelligent guy you have never heard of. Any visionary film director would be itching to make this story, and it has an Academy Award for the actor. Joaquin Phoenix?

Pyke became famous for volunteering to be a spy in World War 1, who got caught, but escaped the POW camp, from noticing when the glare of the sun affected the guards.

Pyke was the first Englishman to get into Germany and out again

He took up commodity trading and at one stage controlled 1/3 of the world’s tin supply. Then he became bankrupt.

He cared so much about the education of his son that he started his own school, with ideas that would sound progressive even today.

For instance: a lathe, simulative poser of many arithmetical and geometrical questions — apparatus showing the expansion of materials under heat where nothing visible may happen except with patience — a garden with plants (which may without taboo be dug up every day to see how they are getting on, leading mainly to the discovery that that is a temptation best resisted if growth is desired) — animals which breed — weighing machines graded from a see-saw with weights, through kitchen scales, to a laboratory balance — typewriters to bridge the gap between writing and reading — double-handed saws which compel co-operation — and clay for modelling, where phantasy pays toll to skill and effort

Before WW2 he organised a poll of German people to see if they actually agreed with Hitler (they did).

Despite all that, his greatest claim to fame was the idea of an unsinkable aircraft carrier made from ice. It nearly happened.

Other ideas were quite mad, like a pipeline for shipping humans. He considered that they would need to forego toilets on their journey. Yep.

In his later years he would often stay in bed to have more time to come up with his crazy ideas – getting out of bed would literally be a waste of time. This is the same rationale Mark Zuckerberg uses for wearing the same t-shirt every day.

At the age of 54 he shaved off his beard and killed himself with sleeping pills.