Stockton, about 1818. He was a tolerable chemist, and was especially interested in searching for a means of obtaining fire easily. Several chemical mixtures were known which would ignite by a sudden explosion, but it had not been found possible to transmit the flame to a slow-burning substance like wood. While Walker was preparing a lighting mixture on one occasion, a match which had been dipped in it took fire by an accidental friction upon the hearth. He at once appreciated the practical value of the discovery, and commenced making friction matches. They consisted of wooden splints or sticks of cardboard coated with sulphur and tipped with a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash, and gum, the sulphur serving to communicate the flame to the wood. The price of a box containing fifty was one shilling. With each box was supplied a piece of sandpaper, folded double, through which the match had to be drawn to ignite it. Two and a half years after Walker's invention was made public Isaac Holden arrived, independently, at the same idea of coating wooden splinters with sulphur. The exact date of his discovery, according to his own statement, was October 1829. Previously to this date Walker's sales-book contains an account of no fewer than two hundred and fifty sales of friction matches, the first entry bearing the date 7 April 1827. He refused to patent his invention, considering it too trivial. Notwithstanding, he made a sufficient fortune from it to enable him to retire from business. He died at Stockton on 1 May 1859.
[Gent. Mag. 1859, i. 655; Encyclopædia Brit. 9th ed. xv. 625; Heavisides's Annals of Stockton, 1865, p. 105; Andrews's Bygone England, 1892, pp. 212–15; Northern Echo, 6 May 1871; Daily Chronicle, 19 Aug. 1897; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. ix. 201.]
WALKER, JOSEPH COOPER (1761–1810), Irish antiquary, was born probably in Dublin in 1761, and was educated under Thomas Ball of that city. He suffered all his life from acute asthma, and in his earlier years travelled a great deal in the hope of improving his health. For many years he lived in Italy. Of a studious disposition, he utilised his leisure in making researches into Italian literature and Irish antiquities, his two favourite studies. After his return to Ireland he settled down in a beautiful house called St. Valerie, Bray, co. Wicklow, where he stored his various art treasures and his valuable library. Here the rest of his life was passed, and here he wrote the works by which he is best known. He died on 12 April 1810, and was buried on 14 April in St. Mary's Churchyard, Dublin. He was one of the original members of the Royal Irish Academy, in whose welfare he took the warmest interest, and contributed various papers to its ‘Transactions.’ Francis Hardy [q. v.], biographer of the Earl of Charlemont, undertook a biography of Walker, which, however, when finished in 1812, showed such signs of the failure of Hardy's mental power that the family prudently withheld it. On Hardy's death the materials were handed to Edward Berwick [q. v.], who does not seem to have finished his task. Many of Walker's letters are printed in Nichols's ‘Literary Illustrations’ (vii. 696–758).
The following is a list of his works: 1. ‘Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards,’ London, 1786, 4to; new edit. 1818, 8vo. 2. ‘Historical Essay on the Dress of the Ancient and Modern Irish, to which is subjoined a Memoir on the Armour and Weapons of the Irish,’ Dublin, 1788, 4to; new edit. London, 1818, 8vo. 3. ‘Historical Memoir on Italian Tragedy,’ 1799. 5. ‘Historical and Critical Essay on the Revival of the Drama in Italy,’ Edinburgh, 1805, 8vo. Also ‘Anecdotes on Chess in Ireland,’ a paper contributed to Charles Vallancey's ‘Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis’ [see Vallancey, Charles]. His ‘Memoirs of Alessandro Tassoni’ were published posthumously in 1815, with a lengthy preface by his brother, Samuel Walker. It contains also poems to Walker's memory by Eyles Irwin [q. v.], Henry Boyd [q. v.], William Hayley [q. v.], and Robert Anderson (1770–1833) [q. v.] Walker left behind him several works in manuscript, including a journal of his travels and materials for ‘Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers of Ireland.’
[Gent. Mag. 1787 i. 34, 1788 ii. 998, 1810 i. 487; Wills's Irish Nation, iv. 655; Brit. Mus. Cat.; preface to Memoirs of Alessandro Tassoni, ed. Samuel Walker.]
WALKER, OBADIAH (1616–1699), master of University College, Oxford, was the son of William Walker of Worsborodale, Yorkshire. He was born at Darfield, near Barnsley (Hearne, Collect. ed. Doble, i. 81), and was baptised on 17 Sept. 1616. He matriculated at Oxford, 5 April 1633, at the age of sixteen, and entered University College, where he passed under the care of Abraham Woodhead [q. v.] as tutor. He became fellow of his college in August following, graduated B.A. 4 July 1635, and M.A. 23 April 1638. He soon became a tutor of note in his college and a man of mark in
