Maker Info
Edward Marmaduke Clarke
Edward Marmaduke Clarke, philosophical instrument maker and optician, was born in Ireland around 1806 and was active in setting up the Dublin Mechanics' Institution in 1826. By the early 1830s Clarke had relocated to London, where he worked for Watkins and Hill, making electromagnetic apparatus.
Soon after, he set up his own instrument making company in London. In 1837, he helped to establish the Electrical Society of London. The society's first meeting was held at Clarke's premises on the Lowther Arcade near the Strand.
By the mid-1840s, Clarke may have turned his attention away from instrument making to other projects, such as the Rodney Iron Works in Battersea (he became proprietor by 1845) and the Royal Panopticon of Science and Art in Leicester Square (which opened to the public in 1854).
