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Lowy behold
Frank Lowy emigrated from Hungary to London in the 1920s, where he worked as a patents translator. On a family holiday to Devon, a farmer invited him to the local pub one evening, and across the smoky bar, and above the straw-covered floor, Lowy caught his first glimpse of the game of darts. Typically in the 1920s, darts were constructed from a piece of wood with a shard of lead forced into one end, and a folded piece of paper serving as the flight at the other. No two darts were identical, and they were sold individually from tea chests in markets or hardware stores.
Lowy, who had once worked as an apprentice engineer, quickly recognised that the game of darts would be improved beyond measure if the darts were more aerodynamic, durable and if they came in uniform sets of three. The concept of the modern dart was born.
Lowy experimented with different shapes and materials before patenting the Silver Comet in 1937, which was made from silver nickel. He started to manufacture the Silver Comet and sold them through sporting goods stores. Despite costing consumers at least 10 times more than the traditional darts, the demand for the Silver Comet was such that Lowy left his patents job to establish Unicorn Products during World War II.
Unicorn rapidly became the world's leading manufacturer of darts, dartboards and accessories, and the company continued to innovate, introducing plastic flights to the sport. In 1975, it was Unicorn that inaugurated the World Darts Championship.
As a naturalised Briton, Lowy became the first Briton to be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Sporting Goods Association of America, posthumously in 1982. His son Stanley was managing director of Unicorn for 42 years and still serves as non-executive chairman, with grandsons Richard and Edward now at the helm.
