C. F. Varley

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Cromwell Fleetwood Varley
FRSA
Born6 April 1828
Died2 September 1883 (1883-09-03) (aged 55)
Occupation(s)Engineer, parapsychologist
Known forVarley loop test
Kelvin–Varley divider
ParentCornelius Varley
AwardsFRS (1871)
"Cromwell Varley" redirects here. For his son of the same name, see Perdicaris affair.

Cromwell Fleetwood Varley,

electric telegraph and the transatlantic telegraph cable. He also took interest in the claims of parapsychology and spiritualism.[1]

Family

Born in

Sandemanians, part of the same congregation as Michael Faraday, but Varley did not continue his association with the sect into adult life. A first cousin was the microscopist Andrew Pritchard.[3]

Telegraph engineer

Varley joined the newly founded Electric Telegraph Company 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 patented 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 Trade and the Atlantic Telegraph Company.[3]

The committee reported in 1861 and resulted in a second cable in 1865, Varley replacing

the 1st Baron Kelvin and Fleeming Jenkin to exploit their respective telegraphic inventions yielded large profits for the three men.[3]

Spiritualism

He was sympathetic to the claims of

Spiritualism and carried out investigations with fellow physicist William Crookes using a galvanometer to make measurements of the supposed phenomena.[3]

Cathode rays

In 1871, he authored a

scientific paper suggesting that cathode rays were streams of particles of electricity.[3] Varley believed 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. [citation needed
]

Scandal

Varley had two sons and two daughters with his first wife, Ellen Cayley (née Rouse) (1837-1920), whom he married on 4 October 1855. The children's names were Hebe, Ada aka Nard Almayne (1856-1928), Cromwell Oliver (1857-1934), and Fleetwood E. Varley. Upon returning from a trip abroad, he discovered that his wife had gone off with

Ion Perdicaris, a wealthy Greek-American. After the divorce was granted in 1873, she and the children settled with Perdicaris at Tangiers, Morocco. In 1904, Varley's elder son, also named Cromwell, was kidnapped along with Perdicaris by Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni, precipitating an international incident
before both men were released unharmed.

On 11 January 1877, Varley married Heleanor Jessie Smith, daughter of Capt. Charles Smith of Forres, Scotland.[3]

Death

C.F. Varley died at Cromwell House, Bexleyheath, Kent, in 1883, aged 55, from undisclosed causes.

Honours

See also

References

  1. ^ Noakes, Richard. (2007). Cromwell Varley FRS, Electrical Discharge and Victorian Spiritualism. The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science. 61: 5–21.
  2. ^ "History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - Cromwell F. Varley".
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hunt (2004)

Bibliography

  • Obituaries:
    • The Times, 5 September 1883
    • The Electrician, 11, pp. 397–98
    • "Electrical Review, 13, pp. 203–04
    • Engineering, 7 September 1883, p. 222

External links

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