James Walker, 1844 - 1934

by Brian Stevenson
last updated April, 2023

James Walker, of Brooklyn, New York, was very involved in the amateur American microscopical community. He was a member and officer of the New York Microscopical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New York Mineralogical Club, and the Departments of Microscopy, Mineralogy, and Botany of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.

Walker is especially known for his high-quality slides of thin-sectioned minerals (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1. Preparation of serpentine from Tilly Foster, New York, by James Walker. The Tilly Foster mine was located in Putnam County, NY, near the village of Brewster. This slide may date from the time of a conference that Walker hosted in 1902 on “Serpentine and its Varieties”.

Figure 2. Views of serpentine from Tilly Foster, prepared by James Walker (see Figure 1). Imaged with crossed polarizing filters, 3.4x objective lens, and C-mounted digital SLR camera on a Leitz Ortholux II microscope.

James Walker was born in Ireland in 1844, son of Edward and Mary Walker. They, and younger son Alexander, emigrated to the USA in 1852, arriving in New York on January 2, 1852. US immigration records reported that father Edward’s occupation had been “weaver”. Later census records declare him as a “laborer”. The family settled in Manhattan, New York City.

James became a naturalized US citizen on October 6, 1868.

The 1870 US census listed all four of the Walker family as living together in Manhattan, with both James and brother Alexander working as “clock makers”.

By the time of the 1880 census, James and Alexander had moved in with a cousin, Jeremiah Lennon (occupation: “cartman”), in Brooklyn. James and Alexander were still “clock makers”.

James Walker neve married. He shared a home with Alexander for most of his life.

James appears to have worked his way up in the Seth Thomas Clock company. In 1884, he was listed as a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and gave his address as “Seth Thomas Clock Co., 49 Maiden Lane, New York, N.Y.”. Listing his employer as a professional contact address implies a position of importance. Membership in the AAAS also indicates that James had disposable income and a good bit of free time.

The 1885 Naturalists’ Directory noted that Walker was then interested in “minerals”, “lithology”, and “microscopy”.

The 1889 list of members of the Brooklyn Institute gave James Walker’s address as “20 Murray St., N.Y.”, which was also a location of the Seth Thomas Clock Company.

At the June 7, 1895 meeting of the New York Microscopical Society, “Mr. James Walker addressed the Society on ‘A New Method of Mounting Minerals for the Microscope, and a New Mineral Holder’. Mr. Walker said, in effect, that for twelve years he had experimented with different forms of boxes suitable for this purpose. Finally he found one company which manufactured a shallow circular brass box, with a close fitting brass cover, about one inch in diameter. This box he found more satisfactory than any other used. On the lathe he cut out nearly all the horizontal metal of the cover, leaving a narrow flat rim, on the under side of which he cemented an ordinary circular cover glass. A blackened cork foundation was cemented in the bottom of the box, and the mineral specimen was cemented on this cork, or, in certain instances embedded in balsam on the under surface of the above-mentioned cover glass. The cement employed for this purpose being composed of shellac and Venice turpentine dissolved in alcohol. Mr. Walker also exhibited and explained a holder, of his own contrivance, for manipulating such boxes and covers containing specimens upon the stage of the microscope - a brass plate with a circular opening, containing a flanged ring as a seat for the box or its cover, two concentric milled head shafts communicating two motions to the ring - a rotating motion and a tilting motion. Mr. Walker also exhibited his trays for storing the boxes: shallow trays with lids, each tray containing twelve boxes, lateral movement of the boxes being prevented by strips glued to the bottom of the tray.”

Walker was interested in more than minerals. In 1897, he wrote on “A strange and undetermined form of pond-life from Brooklyn, N.Y.” for The Journal of the New York Microscopical Society. He was also a member of the Brooklyn Institute's Department of Botany.

On April 15, 1902, the Brooklyn Institute Mineralogical Department held a conference on “Serpentine and its Varieties”. Society minutes note that “Mr. James Walker, Chairman, and other members exhibited and described collections of serpentine”.

As far as I can tell, James Walker remained with the Seth Thomas Clock Company through the end of his life. In 1909, he was granted a patent for an alarm clock, as an employee of Seth Thomas (Figure 3). However, he was also likely to have been associated with the Phinney-Walker Keyless Clock Company, which formed in 1910 (Figure 4). Records of that company’s executives do not list Walker, but his name, and the evidently close association with Seth Thomas, suggest that he may have been a silent partner.

Walker was probably involved with his various scientific societies through the end of his life. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Brooklyn Institute’s Department of Mineralogy in 1917. The 1919 Naturalists’ Directory indicated that he was still an active microscopist.

James Walker died on July 28, 1934, of “myocardial insufficiency, chronic infectious arthritis”.

Figure 3. Illustration from a 1909 patent that was awarded to James Walker, “assignor to Seth Thomas Clock Company”.

Figure 4. A 1910 advertisement from the Phinney-Walker Keyless Clock Company. Note the use of a Seth Thomas movement.

Resources

The American Monthly Microscopical Journal (1892) “New York Microscopical Society. The following officers were elected for the year 1892: President, J.D. Hyatt; Vice-President, Charles S. Shultz; Treasurer, James Walker; Recording Secretary, George E. Ashby; Corresponding Secretary, J.L. Zabriskie”, Vol. 13, page 76

The Automobile Trade Directory (1910) Advertisement for Phinney-Walker keyless Clock Company, Vol. 8, page 551

Bulletin of the New York Mineralogical Club (1907) Members, “Walker, James, 731 Lexington Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y.”

Immigration record of James Walker and family (1852) Manifest of the “Lady Russell”, accessed through ancestry.com

Journal of the New York Microscopical Society (1888) pages 150-151

Journal of the New York Microscopical Society (1895) Minutes of the meeting of May 3, 1895, “Objects exhibited, … Carchesium on Melicerta ringens, living: by James Walker, … Conochilus volvox, living, containing unusually large spiny revolving eggs: by James Walker”, page 111

Journal of the New York Microscopical Society (1895) Minutes of the meeting of June 7, 1895, pages 114-115

The Microscope (1895) “List of exhibits at the Eighth Annual Exhibition, Department of Microscopy of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, … James Walker: Six rock sections from the drift of Brooklyn, shown with automatic revolving stage and polarized light. Cacoxenite on limonite, from Lancaster Co,, Pa., a hydrous basic phosphate of iron”, page 45

Naturalists’ Directory (1885) “Walker, James, 49 Maiden Lane, New York, N.Y. Min, Lith. Mic. C.”, Cassino, Boston, page 206

Naturalists’ Directory (1924) “Walker, James, 731 Lexington Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. Mic.”, Cassino, Boston, page 173

New York Court of Appeals, Records and Briefs (1891) pages 8-9

Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office (1909) 919892, Alarm Clock, Vol. 141, pages 1074-1075

Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1884) members, “Walker, James, Seth Thomas Clock Co., 49 Maiden Lane, New York, N.Y.”, page lxvii

Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1899) members, “Walker, James, Seth Thomas Clock Co., 49 Maiden Lane, New York, N.Y.”, page lvi

Trow (formerly Wilson's) Copartnership and Corporation Directory (1914) Phinney-Walker Co. / Phinney-Walker Keyless Clock Co., page 764

US census and other records, accessed through ancestry.com

Walker, James (1897) A strange and undetermined form of pond-life from Brooklyn, N.Y., Journal of the New York Microscopical Society, Vol. 13, pages 75-76

Yearbook of the Brooklyn Institute (1889) “James Walker, 20 Murray St., N.Y.”, page 29

Yearbook of the Brooklyn Institute (1902) April 15, Annual Meeting, page 144

Yearbook of the Brooklyn Institute (1905) Departments of Botany, Microscopy, and Mineralogy, pages 153, 192-193, 195-198

Yearbook of the Brooklyn Institute (1917) Department of Mineralogy, page 104