Charles Vincent Walker
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Charles Vincent Walker FRS (20 March 1812 – 24 December 1882) was an English electrical engineer and publisher, a major influence on the development of railway telecommunications, he was also the first person to send a submarine telegraph signal.
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[edit] Life
Born Marylebone, Middlesex son to Vincent and Ann née Blake, Walker's elementary education and engineering training are uncertain. However, by 1838 he had acquired some knowledge of electricity and had helped to found the London Electrical Society. Walker was secretary and treasurer of the Society in its early days and edited its Proceedings from 1841 to 1843. He also founded the Electrical Magazine though only two volumes appeares in 1841–3.[1]
Also in 1841, Walker worked on the Manual of Electricity, Magnetism and Meteorology which formed part of Dionysius Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia. Walker also published his own book on Electrotype Manipulation, followed by his Electric Telegraph Manipulation (1850), and many other other scientific works.[1]
[edit] Railway electrician
In 1845 he became electrician to the South Eastern Railway, a post in which he was to serve for the rest of his life.[1] His achievements included:
- The first person to insulate telegraph wires with gutta-percha;[1]
- Invention of a device to protect telegraph equipment from atmospheric electricity;[1]
- Improvement of graphite batteries;[1]
- Time signals transmitted to the railway's stations from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, introduced following Walker's collaboration with Astronomer Royal George Biddell Airy (1849);[1][2]
- A device to enable passengers to communicate with the guard; patented in 1866;
- A train describer; patented in 1876.[1]
[edit] Submarine telegraph
His work with gutta-percha led him to see the opportunity for a submarine communications cable and sent the first submarine telegraph message in 13 October 1848 over a 2 mile (3.2 km) cable from Folkestone to a ship and back.[1]
[edit] Death and personal life
Walker died of heart failure in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Though he appears to have died a widower, nothing is known of his wife.[1]
[edit] Offices and honours
- British Meteorological Society
- Fellow of the Royal Society, (1855);[1]
- Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, (1858);[1]
- President of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians, (1876).[1]
[edit] Notes
[edit] Bibliography
- McConnell, A. (2004) "Walker, Charles Vincent (1812–1882)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 7 Aug 2007 (subscription required)
- Morus, I. R. (2000). "'The nervous system of Britain': space, time and the electric telegraph in the Victorian age". British Journal for the History of Science 33(4): 455–475. doi:.
