BAPTIST minister David Parsons has invented a high-tech lamp which switches on automatically in a power cut.

The Rev Parsons was minister of Stratton Green Baptist Church in Swindon Road, Stratton, before taking up a new ministry in Dartford, Kent, last September.

But now he is on the brink of a new and possibly very lucrative chapter in his life, as he waits for his Multi Light to be produced, marketed and displayed on shop shelves throughout the world.

The father-of-three, who is also the only man of the cloth in Britain to have notched up some 100 hours airtime flying hang gliders, said the invention was born from a minor crisis.

"We went on a family holiday to Woolacombe in a caravan," said the Rev Parsons, 59, who is married to Linda, 53.

"One night at 11pm all the lights went out when my middle son Keith overfilled the kettle and tripped the electricity.

"We were in complete darkness, right when the mother-in-law was doing what mother-in-laws do in the bathroom. It was quite a panic, but quite a funny situation to be in.

"When we got the trips restored it just occurred to me that places such as caravans could do with emergency lights. What I thought of was a table lamp with a rechargeable battery you plug it in as normal and the battery charges, but when the electricity supply is cut it switches on and you are not left in darkness.

"Initially I thought just about holiday caravans, but then I thought this is just the sort of thing every home could do with."

Backed by eight investors, Rev Parsons, who was head of electronics at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, before his call to God, spent some £4,000 producing a prototype light.

With the guidance of Inventions, an organisation handling patenting and marketing of new products, he has come up with a cordless version of the lamp, which can be carried around inside or outside the home as well as a lamp which is illuminated with a sensor, similar to a security light.

All he needs now is a manufacturer to produce the lamp.

"There is, potentially, a very lucrative possibility but my call is from God and God comes first," he said.

"It will be nice to have a little extra, though, and the plan if that happens is two-fold. I would like to make things better for the family by buying a house as well as support Christian work in whatever way I can."

Laura Dickens, of Inventions, said: "As the market continues to expand this functional, innovative and flexible lighting solution seems certain to achieve great success."