Adam Walker was an English inventor, writer, and popular science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

 lecturer

Lecturer

Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...

 connected with York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

.

Life

He was the son of a woollen manufacturer in Patterdale

Patterdale

Patterdale is a small village and civil parish in the eastern part of the English Lake District in the Eden District of Cumbria, and the long valley in which they are found, also called the Ullswater Valley....

, Westmorland

Westmorland

Westmorland is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974, after which the entirety of the county was absorbed into the new county of Cumbria.-Early history:...

, England

England

England 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, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Mainly self-taught, he attended fashionable lectures on experimental philosophy in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 and established his own school there in 1762. In 1766 he purchased the “philosophical apparatus” of an itinerant lecturer, William Griffith. For publicity he inserted advertisements in local papers and wrote a book entitled Syllabus of a Course on Natural Philosophy (Kendal, 1766). His syllabus covered ‘Astronomy, the use of Globes

Globes

Globes is a Hebrew language daily evening financial newspaper, published in Israel. According to TGI 2009 media survey Globes' market share rose 15% over the year to 4.4%. Its main competitors in printed media are TheMarker of Haaretz group and Calcalist published by Yedioth Ahronoth Group...

, Pneumatics

Pneumatics

Pneumatics is a branch of technology, which deals with the study and application of use of pressurized gas to effect mechanical motion.Pneumatic systems are extensively used in industry, where factories are commonly plumbed with compressed air or compressed inert gases...

, Electricity, Magnetism, Chemistry, Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, Engineering, Fortifications, and Optics’. As a lecturer he travelled the north of England, using Manchester as a base. His "philosophic apparatus" is shown in an advertisement in the York Courant in 1772.

He settled in London after many years as a travelling science lecturer. He was responsible for the introduction of the transparent orrery and an improved type of harpsichord

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

. In London he shared a room in George Street, Hanover Square

Hanover Square

Hanover Square may refer to:* Hanover Square, London, England* Hanover Square, Manhattan, New York City, USA** Hanover Square , elevated station* Hanover Square, Syracuse, USA-See also:* Hanover Square Rooms, London...

 with Henry Moyes

Henry Moyes

Henry Moyes was a lecturer on natural philosophy. As an itinerant public speaker he helped raise 18th century popular interest in the new field of chemistry. He mixed with the greatest engineers and scientists of the day and attended the Lunar Society...

 where lectures where given to small groups of Gentry.

He also had an interest in astronomy. His numerous popular works on science included An Epitome of Astronomy. Two of his sons became astronomers. He was a friend of Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...

 and of other members of the Lunar Society

Lunar Society

The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham, England. At first called the Lunar Circle,...

.

His portrait was painted by Samuel Drummond

Samuel Drummond

Samuel Drummond was a British painter, especially prolific in portraying and marine genre. His works are displayed particularly in the National Portrait Gallery, National Maritime Museum and the Walker Art Gallery.-Life:Drummond was born to Jane Bicknell and James Drummond, a London baker...

 (1765–1844) and (with his family) by George Romney

George Romney (painter)

George Romney was an English portrait painter. He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures - including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson....

. In the latter portrait (of six sitters), three of them are examining a geometric diagram which shows some theorem relating to the squares on secants of an ellipse. The sitters are

• Eliza Gibson (née Walker) (d.1856), daughter of Adam Walker
• Adam Walker
• Adam John Walker (1769 or 1770–1839), Divine; AW's second son
• Deane Franklin Walker (1778Mar24-1865May10), Astronomer; AW's youngest son, who was born in York "where his parents were then residing"
• Eleanor Walker (fl.
  Floruit
  Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
  
   1764-circa 1801), AW's wife
• William Walker (1766?-1816), Astronomer; AW's eldest son.

The portrait was gift from the artist to his friend Adam Walker, who described it to William Blake

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...

 as 'the last performance of Romney'. The portrait was bequeathed to Beningbrough Hall

Beningbrough Hall

Beningbrough Hall is a large Georgian mansion near the village of Beningbrough, North Yorkshire, England overlooking the River Ouse. It boasts one of Britain's finest baroque interiors and an attractive walled garden, as well as being home to over 100 portraits on loan from the National Portrait...

, where it now hangs, by Walker's granddaughter, Miss Ellen Gibson in 1897..

External links