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Very clever puzzle. Thank you Ifor. Fortunately (like others) a childhood interest helped with the theme. For anyone still struggling, Cypherhouse's post at 43 includes what I imagine at the time if posting was an unintended hint.

I am struggling with this one, not helped by the fact that I am separated from my copy of the BRB this week.

I am interpreting the wordplay for the inventor as 5 5 4 2 11 6 4.

The first 4 words lead to 8 of the 12 letters meaning I need to find a 4-letter 6 4. Unfortunately this is proving difficult without the aforementioned BRB.

Assuming I am right, are both forename and surname quite obscure? I’m struggling to make sense of the other 8 letters.

Kitsune -
I think you have a '5' missing between the '2' and the '11'.
The first 5 words do not lead to 8 letters.
The forename is common. The surname isn't a usual one, quite rare, but still LOOKS like a surname when you get the answer.

I'd advise against that assumption.

The forename is a common one.

jbird, you are quite right about the missing 5.

Noted that they don’t lead to 8 letters. Continuing to ponder…

As you're without Chambers perhaps 'Big' as an alternative to the penultimate 6 letter word will get you there (if it does, you'll see that two thirds of it provides an ending for a number of fairly common first names of 6 letters).
But perhaps only 'boomers' (hint hint) will get the hint.

Get your eraser ready, Norah...

Thank you, drxx. That finally got me over the line. I have a likely individual and will now research their history.

Couldn't resist coming back to this; I would at least like to complete the grid.

Re the Down clue starting 'Interim...' I should appreciate confirmation that the answer is an 8-letter word, and if so help with parsing the first 5 letters would also be helpful.

Thanks

Dim, it is 8 letters. An anagram indicated by "lost". Def. is the last 4 words.

Having now sorted out all elements or this puzzle (thanks, drxx) I don’t believe that finding the inventor or theme was necessary. I had a completed puzzle on Sunday morning including correct block moved and correct shading. It was nice to resolve the missing parts but the preamble was sufficiently generous that it wasn’t required. That slightly took the shine off for me. Nevertheless a fine puzzle and thank you Ifor.