BRACE yourselves for the York Dream Machine, which is set to rock babies and the business world at the same time.

A production line is being set up in Hungary for the Dream Machine - a contraption fitted to pushchairs and prams, which gently rocks their occupants to sleep.

With the boost of a planned television campaign and a website, it is expected to yield £400 million in world sales over the next three years - double that, if the prototype of a new version adapted to gently jiggle baby's cots gets safety clearance in time.

This was the dream that proved too good for the three directors of the Wigginton-based company to share.

The device attracted huge attention at last year's Venturefest Yorkshire at York Racecourse, where new entrepreneurial ideas are brought into contact with investors.

The mains-powered machine is equipped with a 15-minute timer with a push button to toggle between low and high speeds, recreating a gentle womb-like motion.

Among those impressed were producers of the BBC2 series Dragon's Den, in which business ideas are pitched to a team of sceptical investors. Director Graham Whitby, of Wigginton, and its inventor and major shareholder, Barry Haigh, were both invited to make a presentation for Dream Machine on January 6.

All five of the multi-millionaire business "angels" praised the device and wanted a piece of the action, offering them £150,000 for 15 per cent of the business. Graham and Barry were prepared to offer ten per cent but when the panel refused this, they pulled out.

Graham, a former managing director of GSPK Design Ltd of Knaresborough, said: "We wouldn't move. We had all worked too hard on the project to give away such a large slice for the sake of money which would have served merely to quicken the pace of marketing and production. We were prepared to be patient and now the time has come."

Two marketing companies have assessed that the Hungarian production line can produce about five million units per year to meet global demand with an extra demand for up to 300,000 Dream Machines in the UK, each priced at £130.

Mr Haigh, 55, a retired builder from Bridlington, invented and patented the Dream Machine after the birth of his grandson, Quinn. The idea had formed after his son, Ian, was born 31 years ago but his attempts to create an oscillating motion for his push chair failed.

Years later, at a gym, he noticed an old-style bike track rolling road on two rollers, decided that he could offset one of the rollers to get the effect he was looking for and a working prototype emerged from his workshop.

Updated: 11:03 Thursday, January 20, 2005