One of the more colourful inhabitants of Brighton was the Victorian inventor, Magnus Volk. Volk was an enthusiastic pioneer of new electrical technology. He wired up his own home, and also brought the first ever telephone service to Brighton. He is most famous, however, for his railway.
In 1883 Volk built the first electric-powered railway in Britain, this being a time when steam power dominated rail transport. That would have been an amazing achievement, were it not for the fact that, with typical Victorian eccentricity, he chose to build it along the beach. Yes, on the beach. Now leaving aside any questions of the unfortunate affinity of electricity for sea water, there was the thorny little problem of the weather. Every time there was a particularly severe storm, parts of the track would get washed away. However, Volk persevered and believe it or not part of the railway is still there today. I attach photographs to prove it.
Volk's talent for electrification made him a celebrity in Brighton and he won commissions to wire up both the Royal Pavilion and the Dome, the horses having long since been evicted and the building converted into a concert hall. He went on to run an electric launch service along the Thames, and once built an electric car for the Sultan of Turkey.
The other Brighton monument with a connection to Volk is the Clock Tower. This stands smack in the middle of the town centre at the corner of North Street and West Street. It was built to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Victoria and for the most part is typical Victorian preposterous grandeur. The famous architectural critic, Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, described it as "worthless".
However, if you look at the photograph you will see that the tower is toped by a tall pole, at the base of which is a metal sphere. This was part of the clock. Volk had it connected by telephone line to Greenwich Observatory to make sure it kept correct time. And he designed an hydraulic mechanism that would raise and lower the sphere on the pole once an hour.
Sadly the local people soon found the mechanism too noisy and demanded that the council disable it. Plans are now afoot to have the mechanism restored. Hopefully the new version will be less of a nuisance.