WALKER’S SIGNAL CODE, 1841

Walker (Bethune James), A Code of Signals for the Use of the Mercantile Navy, first part only [but complete in itself]. 1st edition, William H. Allen & Co., 1841, xxxii + 491pp., three double-page wood-engraved plates including frontispiece (one hand-coloured), one further plate (‘The Homograph, a Substitute for the Semaphore’), wood-engravings in the text, 4 pp. of advertisements to rear, presentation inscription Presented by the author to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, May 10th 184[5?], related library plate and ink-stamp to front pastedown, original cloth, rebacked retaining part of original spine, corners worn, large 8vo

A very rare proposal for a new Signal Code for the Merchant Marine in which the author, a former Royal Navy officer who had served during the Napoleonic Wars, proposed the adoption of a homograph method of signalling as a cheaper alternative to semaphore. A homograph was a hand-held device resembling an over-large cricket bat.