In the mid-Fifties, a former WWII pilot and post-war British accountant named Edward Craven Walker was at a local English country pub called Queen's Head along with a friend, and found himself staring at a homemade egg timer made by one of the pub's regulars.This particular object, which Walker described as a "contraption made out of a cocktail shaker, old tins and things" dated from WWII, and was filled with two immiscible liquids (liquids that do not mix together).
As the contents, "odd oily globules" were heated upon the pub's stove, the wax rose and signaled that your egg was ready.
Inspired, he purchased the egg timer/lamp and worked for a decade and a half tinkering with various liquids and containers in an attempt to create a better version. He achieved his goal in 1963.
Walker filed a patent for a "Display Device" in 1965 and but had already started merchandising his creation in September of 1963 as a company called Crestworth Ltd. using the name Astro Lamp.
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| Edward Craven Walker |
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