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 ''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. His achievements included: *The first person to insulate telegraph wires with gutta-percha *Invention of a device to protect telegraph equipment from atmospheric electricity *Improvement of graphite batteries * 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) *A device to enable passengers to communicate with the guard; patented in 1866 *ASubmarine telegraph
His work with gutta-percha led him to see the opportunity for a submarine communications cable and sent the first submarine telegraph message on 13 October 1848 over a 2-mile (3.2 km) cable from Folkestone to a ship and back.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.Obituary Notices
Royal Astronomical Society Charles Vincent Walker died at his residence at Tunbridge Wells, on the morning of 24 December 1882, in the seventy-first year of his age. He had been Telegraph Engineer to the South Eastern Railway since 1845, and was one of the oldest telegraph engineers in the country. He was a zealous worker in the science of electricity, and 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 10 May 1849, James Glaisher, 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 23 May 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 (UK), South Eastern Railway Company gave every facility. On 16 September 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 5 August 1852; and on 9 August 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 zeal of Mr. Walker. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1855, and he was a late President of the British Meteorological Society, Meteorological Society, and of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians, Society of Telegraph Engineers. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, Society on 8 January 1858. Index of Obituary Notice for the Year 1882 WALKER (Charles Vincent),Offices and honours
*British Meteorological Society **Member, (1850); **President, (1869–70); **Editor of the ''Proceedings'', (1861–1864); *Fellow of the Royal Society, (1855); *Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, (1858); *President of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians, (1876).Notes
Bibliography
*McConnell, A. (2004)