Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (6 April 1828 - 2 September 1883) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
engineerEngineers are concerned with developing economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics and scientific knowledge while considering technical constraints. The term is derived from the Latin root "ingenium," meaning "cleverness"...
, particularly associated with the development of the electric telegraph and the
transatlantic telegraph cableThe transatlantic telegraph cable was the first cable used for telegraph communications laid across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. It crossed from , Foilhommerum Bay, Valentia Island, in western Ireland to Heart's Content in eastern Newfoundland. The transatlantic cable bridged North America and...
.
Born
Kentish TownKentish Town is an area of north west London, England in the London Borough of Camden.-History:Kentish Town is first recorded during the reign of King John as kentisston...
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, the second of ten children of
Cornelius VarleyCornelius Varley was an English water-colour painter.A younger brother of John Varley, he was born in Hackney, London. He was educated by his uncle, a scientific instrument maker, and under him acquired a knowledge of the natural sciences. Around 1800, he joined his brother in a tour through...
and the brother of S.A. Varley. His family believed themselves the descendants of
Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
and General
Charles FleetwoodCharles Fleetwood , was an English Parliamentary soldier and politician, Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652-55, where he enforced the Cromwellian Settlement. At the Restoration he was included in the Act of Indemnity as among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital, and was finally...
, hence his
given nameA given name is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
s. The family were Sandemanians, part of the same congregation as
Michael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
but Varley did not continue his association with the sect into adult life.
Varley joined the newly-founded
Electric Telegraph CompanyElectric Telegraph Company was the world's first public telegraph company founded in the United Kingdom in 1846 by Sir William Fothergill Cooke and John Lewis Ricardo, MP for Stoke-on-Trent. C.F...
in 1846, becoming chief engineer for the London area by 1852 and for the entire company by 1861.
Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (6 April 1828 - 2 September 1883) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
engineerEngineers are concerned with developing economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics and scientific knowledge while considering technical constraints. The term is derived from the Latin root "ingenium," meaning "cleverness"...
, particularly associated with the development of the electric telegraph and the
transatlantic telegraph cableThe transatlantic telegraph cable was the first cable used for telegraph communications laid across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. It crossed from , Foilhommerum Bay, Valentia Island, in western Ireland to Heart's Content in eastern Newfoundland. The transatlantic cable bridged North America and...
.
Family
Born
Kentish TownKentish Town is an area of north west London, England in the London Borough of Camden.-History:Kentish Town is first recorded during the reign of King John as kentisston...
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, the second of ten children of
Cornelius VarleyCornelius Varley was an English water-colour painter.A younger brother of John Varley, he was born in Hackney, London. He was educated by his uncle, a scientific instrument maker, and under him acquired a knowledge of the natural sciences. Around 1800, he joined his brother in a tour through...
and the brother of S.A. Varley. His family believed themselves the descendants of
Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
and General
Charles FleetwoodCharles Fleetwood , was an English Parliamentary soldier and politician, Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652-55, where he enforced the Cromwellian Settlement. At the Restoration he was included in the Act of Indemnity as among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital, and was finally...
, hence his
given nameA given name is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
s. The family were Sandemanians, part of the same congregation as
Michael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
but Varley did not continue his association with the sect into adult life.
Telegraph engineer
Varley joined the newly-founded
Electric Telegraph CompanyElectric Telegraph Company was the world's first public telegraph company founded in the United Kingdom in 1846 by Sir William Fothergill Cooke and John Lewis Ricardo, MP for Stoke-on-Trent. C.F...
in 1846, becoming chief engineer for the London area by 1852 and for the entire company by 1861. He devised many techniques and instruments for fault-finding and for improving the performance of the telegraph. In 1870, he
patentA patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for a public disclosure of an invention....
ed the
cymaphen, a kind of telegraph that could transmit speech.
The first transatlantic telegraph cable failed in 1858 and Varley was appointed to an investigative committee, set up jointly by the first Atlantic cable in 1858, he was appointed to a joint investigative committee established by the
Board of TradeThe Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
and the
Atlantic Telegraph CompanyThe Atlantic Telegraph Company was a company formed in 1856 to undertake and exploit a commercial telegraph cable across the Atlantic ocean, the first such telecommunications link....
.
The committee reported in 1861 and resulted in a second cable in 1865, Varley replacing
Wildman WhitehouseEdward Orange Wildman Whitehouse was an English surgeon, better-known for his ultimately unsuccessful endeavours as chief electrician of the transatlantic telegraph cable for the Atlantic Telegraph Company.-Life:...
as chief electrician. Despite the difficulties of the second cable, it was an ultimate success and Varley developed many improvements in
technologyTechnology is a broad concept that deals with human as well as other animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its environment...
. Varley was an astute businessman and the partnership that he formed with
William Thomson, 1st Baron KelvinWilliam Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin , OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, FRSE, was a British mathematical physicist and engineer...
and
Fleeming JenkinHenry Charles Fleeming Jenkin was Professor of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, remarkable for his versatility. Known to the world as the inventor of telpherage, he was an electrician and cable engineer, a lecturer, linguist, critic, actor, dramatist and artist...
to exploit their respective telegraphic inventions yielded large profits for the three men.
Spiritualism
He was sympathetic to the claims of Spiritualism and carried out investigations with fellow
physicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
William CrookesSir William cookies, OM, FRS was a chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, in London, and worked on spectroscopy.He was pioneer of vacuum tubes, inventing the Crookes tube.-Early years:...
using a
galvanometerA galvanometer is a type of ammeter: an instrument for detecting and measuring electric current. It is an analog electromechanical transducer that produces a rotary deflection of some type of pointer in response to electric current flowing through its coil...
to make measurements to the supposed phenomena.
X-rays
In 1871, he authored a scientific paper suggesting that
cathode rayCathode rays are streams of electrons observed in vacuum tubes, i.e. evacuated glass tubes that are equipped with at least two metal electrodes to which a voltage is applied, a cathode or negative electrode and an anode or positive electrode...
s were streams of
particleIn particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a particle not known to have substructure; that is, it is not known to be made up of smaller particles. If an elementary particle truly has no substructure, then it is one of the basic building blocks of the universe from which...
s of
electricityElectricity is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge...
. Varley believed that cathode radiation was caused by the collision of particles. His belief was based on the idea that because the rays were deflected in the presence of a magnet, these particles have to be considered carriers of an electric charge. This led him to believe that the electrically charged particles should be deflected by the presence of an electric field. He was never able to prove this.
Scandal
On returning from one of his cable-laying expeditions, Varley found that his wife, Ellen
née Rouse, had abandoned him for
Ion PerdicarisIon Perdicaris was a Greek-American playboy who was the centre of a notable kidnapping known as the Perdicaris incident, which aroused international conflict in 1904.-Family life:...
. Married since 1855, the couple were
divorceDivorce or dissolution of marriage is the final termination of a marriage, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between two persons...
d in 1873 and Ellen and Perdicaris emigrated to
TangierTangier or Tangiers [
pronounce] is a city of northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000...
where the family subsequently became embroiled in the Perdicaris incident. In 1877, Varley married Heleanor Jessie.
Honours
- Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers
Founded on 2 January 1818, the Institution of Civil Engineers is an independent professional association, based in central London, representing civil engineers. Like its early membership, the majority of its current members are British engineers, but it also has members in more than 150 countries...
, (1865);
- Fellow of the Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
, (1871);
- Founder member of the Society of Telegraph Engineers which became the Institution of Electrical Engineers
The Institution of Electrical Engineers or IEE was a British professional organisation for electronics, electrical, manufacturing and IT professionals. In 2006 it merged with the IIE to form the Institution of Engineering and Technology...
.
External links