Charles Todd brings rich history of Greenwich, Cambridge technology advances to his South Australian role in 1855

Charles Todd and his wife Alice (later to have Alice Springs named after her) in 1855 when they arrived in South Australia. Todd had been appointed the South Australian government's astronomical and meteorological observer and head of the electric telegraph department. Todd came from the rich history of technological advance at the royal observatory at Greenwich, London, starting work as a youth in its Octagon room (see, top right, as originally designed by Christopher Wren) and at Cambridge University's observatory (bottom right).
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia and the royal observatory, Greenwich. Cambridge University observatory print image by Richard Banks Harraden (RMG collections)

Charles Todd, who arrived in 1855 in South Australia to become its government’s astronomical and meteorological observer and head of electric telegraph department, brought the latest knowledge of astronomy, meteorology and electrical engineering.

Born in 1826 at Islington, London, second son of grocer Griffith and Mary Todd, he soon moved with the family to Greenwich, where his father set up as a wine and tea merchant and where Charles would spent most of his early life. He left school at 15 in 1841 when astronomer royal George Airy had been given special funding to employ an additional four boy computers to analyse, calibrate and publish a backlog of data from observations at Greenwich from 1750 to 1830 to predict the Moon’s orbit.

Todd and about 10 other local teenage boys worked steadily in the observatory’s Octagon Room from 8am to 8pm several days a week on the Lunar Reductions project with results published in 1848. Todd showed ability in mathematics and as an astronomical observer. Meteorology (gathering data of different regions’ climate) and accurate recording of time (for ships’ navigators to calculate longitude) also were part of astronomers’ work at the royal observatory that was run by the British admiralty.

Todd persevered on the tedious Lunar Reductions work until 1847 when he was recommended by Airy for the post of junior assistant at Cambridge University observatory, where Airy had begun his own career nearly two decades earlier. Todd was promoted to assistant astronomer to professor James Challis at the Cambridge observatory in November 1847 and officially confirmed in the position the next February.

About the time Todd moved to Cambridge, George Airy arranged for Greenwich observatory to be linked the nearby telegraph line being built by South East Railways. This gave the observatories access to the electric telegraph and the railway company access to accurate time. With the electric telegraph in place, the observatory could control clocks and time balls at any place with telegraphic connection. It also enabled astronomical and other experiments.

In his early twenties, Todd took advantage of his role at Cambridge to gain valuable experience in using telegraph signals (“galvanic systems’”) to compare simultaneous observations between Greenwich and Cambridge, allowing astronomers to calculate the difference in longitude between the two observatories.

Todd used the Northumberland telescope to be among the earliest observers of the planet Neptune, discovered in 1846. He also was the first person to take daguerreotype photographs of the Moon through the telescope.

In 1854, Todd returned to Greenwich observatory as superintendent of galvanic apparatus to transmit time signals via Charles Shepherd's newly invented electric motor clock. This involved closely cooperating with the Electric Telegraph Co. and with C. V. Walker, electrical engineer to the South Eastern Railway, a pioneer experimenter with submarine cables. Todd became fascinated with telecommunications as extending the work he’d done using the electric telegraph at Cambridge.

In 1855, the South Australian government asked George Airy to select an observer and superintendent of electric telegraph for the province at a salary of £400. Airy he nominated Todd, who was appointed on February 10. It was an attractive offer with much better pay. Todd returned to Cambridge to marry his sweetheart Alice Gillam Bell before sailing to Australia and arriving in Port Adelaide on the Irene on November 4, 1855. They were accompanied by Todd's assistant, 24-year-old Edward Cracknell and his wife. Cracknell later became superintendent of telegraphs in New South Wales.