Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1914-01-09
PIONEER OF WIRELESS
A REMARKABLE CAREER
John Walker Wilkins The First
Railway Telegraphist Passes
Away.
WAS AN lNvENTlvE GENIUS.
Visited His Daughter in Annapolis 10
1908 Memoirs Of Remarkable
Old Man.

Persons who metsM Mr. John Walker
wilkins, and those who saw the dis
tinguisbed looking old gentleman, ~
tall of stature, slender of build, with
white hair, remember the venerable
man from across the waters who Wis
tied his daughter, Mrs. +. G. CAN'T,
here in about 1908 at her home on
Conduit street
Mr.. Wilkins was an interesting
character, an inventive genius. He
recently passed out of this life 10 tbs
life beyond. His memoirs have bee n
published in several English papers,
for he died in Kingston, England, and
among some of the papers paying trib-
ute TO his genious were the London
Times, the Daily Telegraph, The
Mail and Express, Daily News and
Globe, of London. A copy of the
South Wales Argus, of Monday, De-
cemmber %, received at this office,
contains the following:
Fer persons, beyond his immediate
acquaintance, are aware that there
passed away at Kingston-on.T Thames,
on the 18th inst, at the great age of
sc, the last surviving pioneer of this
country's, and therefore, of the
worlds, telegraphs. Mr. John Walk
er wilkins, whom this memoir con.
Germs, was bern at Hampstead ON the
26th of March, 1927, and was there
fore, in his s7th year.
While yet at school he assisted
his father, a contractor, in his spare
time, and at the early age of l3
was an accomplished draughtsman. He
subsequently went through a course
of training at Cubitt's, the eminent
builders at Pimlico, and later quail
fed for the profession of civil enSi-
neer. He was engaged for a time
assisting Mr.. Payne, G.. e., of Duk
street, Westminster, on Parliamen-
tary railway schemes. A remarkable
prediction for electricity, however,
exhibited in almost prec icious man
ner at school, and fostered by nat
ural capacity for experimental re-
search. soon brought the studious
youth into prominent notice in an
other direction, with the result that
while still in his teens he became
associated with Mr.. William Fother-
gill Cooke (of Cooke aud Whe atstone
famt) in the erection of railway tel
graphs.
la very short time he was APP
pointed resident superintendent OF
the Northampton and Peterborough
telegraphs-th first appointment of
the kind on any railway in the coun-
try. This was in July, 1916, so that
Mr.. Wilkins was then only Is years
of age. A few months later he be-
came general superintendent of all the
lines that had been erected from
Hull to Fleetwood and from Rugby to
Newcastle, as we'll as of the extern
sion that was being rapidly pushed
on towards Berwick-on-Twe On
completion of the line from Rugby to
London in 1886 connecting the Me-
tropolis with the rest of England, he
took entire charge of this line also,
and of the temporary terminus in Sey-
mour street, Euston square. In that
year the Queens speech on the OPEN
ing OF Parliament was for the first
time telegrsphed to about a dozen
towns in the Midlands and north of
England for publication in the local
evening papers. For this purpose the
speech had to be conveyed by special
enigne from Euston to Rugby, there
being no telegraphs south of that
town at the time. From Rugby il
was wired to Derby, thence repeated
TO Normanton, despatched by train
again TO York, to be again telegraph
ed to Newcastle and beyond.
George Hudson, the then Lord
Mayor of York, and Railway King,
was present with several other nobiI-
ties at York to witness the accom-
plishment of what, at that time, was
considered to be little less than a
miracle. The arrangements for carry
ing out this suspicious event for the
northern lines were in the hands OF
NJ. Wilkins, who was then lust 10
years old. At dinner given at the
Holborn Restaurant on the 18th of
November. 1895, to celebrate Mr.. w.
G. Ansell's 1.-THE traffic superinten-
dent of the Eastern Telegraph Com
pany) jubilee in the t. legraph SER
vice, that gentleman, in the course
Of bis speech, said there was one
old friend of his present who was
biz senior in telegraphy, although he
had left the career since 1850; he re-
ferred TO Mr.. Wilkins, who erected
the first telegraph line in the world.
It was to that gentleman and his prin-
ciples that they were indebted for
the first steps which were taken in
what bad subsequt ntly been and still
was the most important and the
greatest boon to the world that the
18th OF any century had seen.
1T is, however, in the region of
wireless telegrsphy that Mr.. Will
kins' early work has paramount in
terest. An account of his researches
and experiments in that direction
when only 10 years Of age in 1855
was published in the Mining Journal
so long ago as the 3Jst of March.
I849. This sccouat has been referred
to at considerable length in Mr.. ]