Edward Craven Walker

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Edward Craven Walker (born July 4, 1918 in Singapore , † August 15, 2000 in London ) was the inventor of the "Astro Lava Lamp " and the founder of the British company Mathmos .

War effort

Craven was a pilot during World War II. He flew De Havilland DH.98 Mosquitos in missions over Germany and took photos from reconnaissance planes. He met his wife Marjorie Bevan Jones at an air base, where she was volunteering for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). After the war, Craven continued to work as a pilot.

Astro lamp

The creation of the lava lamp

In the post-war period, Craven worked on an idea he had come up with in a pub in the New Forest, southern England. The pub had a fixture made by one of the regulars. It was a unique device made up of an egg timer and a light bulb. Although the device was very simple, Craven saw the potential in it and set about perfecting it. He set up a small laboratory in his garden shed where he mixed ingredients in bottles of various shapes and sizes. So he found that the best container was a bottle of Tree Top orange juice, which gave the astrolamp its shape.

Manufacture of the astrolamp

Craven started a company called Crestworth to make the lamps. From a small building on an industrial park in Poole - Dorset, Crestworth supplied lava lamps to the world for 40 years. Craven once said, "If you buy this lamp you don't need drugs ... I think it will always be popular. It's like a circle of life. It grows, it collapses, it falls and then it starts all over again."

In the late 1970s the trend was over and lava lamps were no longer fashionable. Craven Walker continued production in much smaller quantities through the 1980s.

Late years

In the early 1990s, a young couple began successfully manufacturing and marketing the Astro lava lamp. Cressida Granger and David Mulley initially partnered with Edward and Christine Craven Walker and the company was called Crestworth Trading Ltd. Over the next few years, Granger and Mulley took over the company and the production rights from Craven, changed the company name to Mathmos in 1992 and started production at the same location and with almost identical ingredients. Edward Craven Walker remained a consultant at Mathmos until his death.

Nudism

Walker was a nudist and opened his own campsite near Matchams in Hampshire, which over time became one of the largest in Great Britain . This passion caused unrest in his life and was one of the causes of the divorce from Marjorie, with whom he had three children. Craven was married a total of four times. He tried to keep overweight people out of his camping spot on the grounds that obesity contradicted the ideals of a physically and mentally healthy life.

Film work

Craven combined film and nudism. In the 1950s and 1960s, nudity was a taboo subject in films. He circumvented the censorship by avoiding showing pubic hair. This is how he became a pioneer in this field. Under the pseudonym Michael Keatering, Craven directed the film Traveling Light (1959). It was the first nudist film released in the UK. Described as underwater ballet, the recordings took place in 1960 in Corsica . He later produced the films Sunswept (1961) and Eves on Skis (1963).

death

Craven developed cancer in the late 1990s. He died in London on August 15, 2000 at the age of 82 and was buried in a small cemetery in the New Forest.

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personal data
SURNAME Walker, Edward Craven
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Keatering, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English scientist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Singapore
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 2000
Place of death London , England