Autograph letter signed to Charles Vincent Walker

Quetelet, Lambert Adolphe Jacques (1796-1874). A.L.s. to Charles Vincent Walker (1812-82). Brussels, July 14, 1850. 2pp. 207 x 132 mm. Pin-holes in upper margin, small inkstain in lower corner. Provenance: Latimer Clark.

Discusses the construction of telegraph lines in Belgium, and some packages of books on electricity and other subjects that Quetelet was sending to Wheatstone and Faraday. Quetelet, an astronomer at the Brussels Royal Observatory, published several memoirs on atmospheric electricity, terrestrial magnetism, meteorology, and related subjects; however, he is best known as one of the founders of social science. His correspondent, Charles V. Walker, had been involved in telegraphy since the 1840s; in 1848 he sent the first submarine telegraph message from a ship connected by two miles of cable to London Bridge, and in 1876 he served as president of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians. Origins of Cyberspace 182.