Notes

Abstract

WE greatly regret to announce the death of Mr. Charles V. Walker, F. R. S., at his residence at Tunbridge Wells, on the morning of December 24, 1882, in the seventy-first year of his age. Mr. Walker had been Telegraph Engineer to the South-Eastern Railway, since 1845. He had been a most zealous worker in the science of electricity, as the many works he leaves behind will testify. Indeed, he was one of the oldest telegraph engineers in the country, was the inventor of several useful appliances in connection with telegraphy, including the instruments by which the block system on railways is worked. His name is especially associated with the origin of the distribution of time by telegraph. On May 10, 1849, Mr. Glaisher wrote to Mr. Walker that he wished to talk with the latter about the laying down of a wire from the Observatory to the Lewisham Station, and on May 23 following, the Astronomer-Royal gave Mr. Walker a brief sketch of the use to be made of the wire referred to, his scheme, as he stated, being “the transmission of time by galvanic signal to every part of the kingdom in which there is a galvanic telegraph from London.” It was proposed to lay four wires underground from the Royal Observatory to the railway station at Lewisham, and to extend them to London Bridge. The South-Eastern Railway Company gave every facility. On September 16, 1852, an electric clock at London Bridge Station was erected, and connected by wire with an electric clock at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The first time-signal sent from the Royal Observatory was received at London Bridge Station at 4 p.m. on August 5, 1852; and on August 9, 1852, Dover received a time-signal for the first time from the Royal Observatory direct, and it was made visible at certain first-class stations between London and Dover. After that the system rapidly spread, its success depending greatly on the scientific skill and enthusiasm of Mr. Walker. For some account of the subsequent development of the system, the reader may refer to the articles in NATURE, vol. xiv. pp. 50 and 110. Mr. Walker was treasurer of the Royal Astronomical Club for several years, and at the time of his death was president of the Society of Telegraph Engineers.