Edward Craven Walker

Edward Craven Walker (1918 – August 15, 2000) was the inventor of the psychedelic Astro Lamp, a.k.a. the Lava Lamp in the U.S.

War Record

Craven served as a pilot in World War II, flying a DeHavilland Mosquito over Germany to take photographs of enemy positions, each time flying into enemy territory in an unarmed plane.

He met his first wife, Marjorie Bevan Jones, during the war at an Air Force base where she was serving with the WAAF. Craven continued flying fixed-wing aircraft in his private life after the war.

Genesis of Astro Lamp

After the war Craven developed an idea he had had in a country pub. The pub had on display a contraption that fascinated Craven and he vowed to expand on the concept. It had been made by one of the pub's old regulars who had since departed and was a one-off homemade device consisting of an egg-timer and a lightbulb. While the device itself was fairly rudimentary, Craven saw its potential and set about perfecting it. He set up a lab in a small shed where he mixed together various ingredients in bottles of different shapes and sizes, looking for the ideal solution. He discovered the best container for the job was a Lucozade bottle and it is that shape that has defined the shape of Astro Lamps up until the present day.

The Astro Lamp Industry

Craven set up a new company to mass-produce the lamps, naming it Crestworth. Operating out of a handful of small buildings on an industrial estate in Poole, Dorset, Crestworth supplied the world with its infamous lamps for over 40 years.

The lamps were a massive success through the 1960's, becoming symbolic of psychedelia. Craven said of its mesmerizing motions, "If you buy my lamp, you won't need drugs... I think it will always be popular. It is like the cycle of life. It grows, breaks up, falls down and then starts all over again".

In the 70's Craven fell victim to an investigation by the BBC which claimed that some of the chemicals Craven used in the secret ingredients of the Astro Lamp were toxic and dangerous to consumers. The Astro Lamp's success was destroyed instantly and its sales went into decline. Perhaps because of this, throughout the 1980's the Astro Lamp was considered extremely unfashionable and Crestworth was all but closed down.

Later Years

In the early 1990s, a young couple once again saw the potential of the Lamps and began manufacturing and selling them successfully. Cressida Granger and David Mulley approached Craven and came to an agreement whereby they took over the running of the company and renamed it Mathmos in 1992. They had the rights to produce the 'original' Astro Lamps and Mathmos continued to manufacture the lamps in the same location, using almost the same staff that Craven had originally used although by this point in time they were all rather advanced in years.

Involvement With Naturism

Edward Craven Walker was also one of the first dedicated naturists, setting up his own camp at Matchams in Hampshire. The club thrived and became one of the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom.

However, Craven's passion for naturism created unrest in his private life and he divorced his first wife Marjorie, with whom he had had 3 children, when she refused to conform to his lifestyle. Craven consistently failed in this area of his life and was married 3 times in total.

Craven raised controversy when he attempted to ban obese individuals from his naturist resort, arguing that Naturism was based on promoting a healthy spiritual and physical life, and obesity defied both ideals.

Film Work

Craven had an interest in film which he combined with his love of naturism. In the 50's and 60's nudity in film was taboo and virtually unheard of but he managed to evade the censors by not showing any pubic hair. As a result he became a pioneer in this early genre of film. Under the pseudonym Michael Keatering, Craven directed the landmark naturist film "Travelling Light" (also known as "Traveling Light" (1959). This was the first naturist film to receive public release in the UK. Described as an underwater ballet, this film was shot off Corsica and was released in 1960. He later produced "Sunswept" (1961) and "Eves on Skis" (1963).

Death

Toward the end of the 1990s, Craven's health began to worsen. Over the next few years he battled with cancer, defeating it once only for it to reappear. He died on the 15th of August at Matchams in Ringwood, Hampshire from the cancer and was buried in a small cemetery in the New Forest. He was 82.

Further reading

* "Cinema Au Naturel: A History of Nudist Film" by Mark Storey. Published by Naturist Education Foundation (July 1, 2003)

External links

* [http://archives.cnn.com/2000/STYLE/design/08/21/lava.lamps.2/ CNN Obituary]
* [http://www.oozinggoo.com/themyth.html History of Lava Lamps] Background story on the history of Craven Walker's invention at Oozing Goo.
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A641224 BBC.co.uk - The Mystique of the Lava Lamp]
* [http://www.mathmos.com Mathmos]