Just been watching Secrets of WW2 on telly. Today's episode was on magnetic sea mines and the efforts against them by the Allies. One name that kept coming up was Charles Goodeve. The following link outlines the impreesive contribution he made to all sorts of aspects of naval warfare: Sir Charles Goodeve
Though he came up with some brilliant solutions, latter as Director of the Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development, his group was responsible for some daftness - including the Panjandrum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and the Hajile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. I suppose even geniuses have off days