{{Short description|English inventor and film director (1918–2000)}} {{EngvarB|date=December 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox person | name = Edward Craven Walker | image = Portrait_of_Edward_Craven_Walker.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1918|7|4|df=yes}} | birth_place = Singapore | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2000|8|15|1918|7|4}} | death_place = Ringwood, Hampshire, England | occupation = Inventor<br />Founder of Mathmos | spouse = {{plainlist| * Marjorie Bevan Jones * Elizabeth Elcoate Gilbert * Christine Baehr }} }}
'''Edward Craven Walker''' (4 July 1918 – 15 August 2000) was a British inventor,<ref>{{cite book|title=Nudist Camp Follies|date=25 March 2019|publisher=Wolfbait Books|isbn=9781999744199}}</ref> who invented the psychedelic Astro lamp, also known as the lava lamp.<ref name="Telegraph"/><ref name="Smithsonian"/><ref name="NYT"/>
==War record== Craven was a pilot in World War II, flying a photo reconnaissance DeHavilland Mosquito over Germany to take photographs.<ref name="Telegraph"/> He met his first wife, Marjorie Bevan Jones, at an air base where she was with the WAAF.
==The Astro lamp== ===Genesis=== After the war, Craven developed an idea he saw in a country pub in Dorset.<ref name="Telegraph"/> The pub had a contraption made by a regular, Donald Dunnett, a one-off device which used two immiscible fluids as an egg timer. While it was rudimentary, Craven saw potential and set about perfecting it and turning it into a lamp. In his shed he mixed ingredients in bottles of different shapes and sizes. He discovered one of the best containers was a Tree Top orange squash bottle, and its shape subsequently defined the Astro Baby Lamp or Astro Mini as it was then called.
===Industry=== Craven with his wife Christine set up a company, Crestworth and then Mathmos, to produce the lamps, operating from small buildings on an industrial estate in Poole, Dorset. Walker said of his lamp, "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 late 1970s, the popularity of the hippie style abated somewhat, and lava lamps fell out of fashion. The Walkers kept their company going throughout the 1980s but scaled back operations.
Original Mathmos lamps are still made by the same company in the UK, including updated versions of their classic designs.
===Later years=== In the early 1990s, a young couple began manufacturing and selling them successfully. Cressida Granger and David Mulley approached Craven and took over running the company and renamed it Mathmos in 1992.<ref name=Rickey/> Initially they were in partnership with Edward and Christine Craven Walker and the company was called Crestworth Trading Ltd. Over a period of years, they bought out the Walkers bit by bit.{{cn|date=January 2024}}
They had the rights to produce Astro Lamps and continued to manufacture in the same location, using almost the same staff, machinery and even some of the 1960s components. Craven Walker remained a consultant at Mathmos until his death in 2000, helping particularly to improve the formula of the lamps.<ref name="Mathmos History"/>
Astro lamp has been in continuous production for 60 years and has been handmade in Britain since 1963,<ref name="Mathmos History"/> and is still made today by Mathmos in Poole. The Mathmos lava lamp formula developed initially by Craven Walker in the 1960s and then improved with his help in the 1990s is still used. Mathmos celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013.<ref name="bbc._Lava"/><ref name="WIRED"/>
==Naturism== Walker was a member of Spielplatz naturist camp in the 1950s. It was routinely described as Naturism's Ambassador.<ref>{{cite web|title=Elizabeth Walker: Naturism's Ambassador|url=https://pamela-green.com/elizabeth-walker/ |website=Pamela Green: Never Knowingly Overdressed|date=15 May 2019 }}</ref> He set up his own naturist resort at Matchams, near Ringwood, known as the Bournemouth and District Outdoor Club (BDOC). The camp closed in 2000 after Craven's death.<ref name="dorsetecho"/>
==Film work== Craven combined film with naturism. In the 1950s/60s, nudity in film was taboo, but he evaded censors by not showing pubic hair. As a result, he became a pioneer in this genre. Under the pseudonym Michael Keatering, Craven directed the naturist film ''Travelling Light'' (1959). This was the first naturist film to receive public release in the UK. Described as an underwater ballet, it was shot off Corsica and released in 1960. He later produced ''Sunswept'' (1961) and ''Eves on Skis'' (1963).<ref name="Telegraph"/> He lost a lot of his film archive when a tree fell on the garage in which it was stored while he was away at his apartment in Costa Natura, a naturist resort in Estepona, Spain.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}
==Death== Toward the end of the 1990s, Craven suffered from cancer. He died in Hampshire in 2000, aged 82, and was buried in a small cemetery in the New Forest.<ref name="Telegraph"/>
==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name="Telegraph">{{cite news|title=Craven Walker|date=19 August 2000|publisher=Telegraph Media Group Limited|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1353253/Craven-Walker.html|work=The Telegraph|location=London|access-date=2 September 2013}}</ref>
<ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite web|title=The History of the Lava Lamp|first=Abigail|last=Tucker|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/The-History-of-the-Lava-Lamp-191900581.html|publisher=Smithsonian magazine|date=March 2013|access-date=28 February 2013|archive-date=3 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103042259/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/The-History-of-the-Lava-Lamp-191900581.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name="NYT">{{Cite web|title=Edward C. Walker, Lava Lamp Designer and a Naturist, Is Dead at 82|last=Iovine|first=Julie V.|work=The New York Times|date=27 August 2000|access-date=2 March 2016|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/27/nyregion/edward-c-walker-lava-lamp-designer-and-a-naturist-is-dead-at-82.html}}</ref>
<ref name=Rickey>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/the-material-world--light-of-our-lives-1326109.html|work=The Independent|first=Melanie|last=Rickey|date=27 January 1996|title= The material world/Light of our lives}}</ref>
<ref name="Mathmos History">[http://www.mathmos.com/Our-story.html Mathmos History], mathmos.com; accessed 8 February 2016.</ref>
<ref name="bbc._Lava">{{Cite web|title=Lava lamps: Still bubbling at 50|last=Kleinman|first=Zoe|work=BBC News|date=30 August 2013|access-date=2 March 2016|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-23754303}}</ref>
<ref name="WIRED">{{Cite magazine|title=Lava Lamp's 50 Years of Gooey Light|last=Baldwin|first=Roberto|magazine=WIRED|date=3 September 2013|access-date=2 March 2016|url=https://www.wired.com/2013/09/lava-lamp-50}}</ref>
<!-- <ref name="DorsetMag">{{cite news|newspaper=Dorset Magazine|url=http://www.dancingledge.com/words/features/lava-lamps.pdf|title=Lava Lamps|date=December 2013|p=23}}</ref>-->
<ref name="dorsetecho">{{Cite web|title = Popular naturist centre is shut down|work = Dorset Echo|date = 29 November 2000|access-date = 2017-11-09|url = http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/5406832.display/ }}</ref>
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==External links==
* [https://www.madeinbritain.org/news/lava-lamps-in-spotlight-mathmos-enduring-power-british-heritage-manufacturing-jan-26 Lava lamps in the spotlight: Mathmos and the enduring power of British heritage manufacturing, Made in Britain, January 2026] * [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/25/lava-lamps-shopping-trends-mathmos-retail Nostalgic and Calming: lava lamps are groovy again as sales flow, The Guardian, December 2025] * [https://www.wallpaper.com/design-interiors/lighting/lava-lamp-sabine-marcelis-new-models The first-ever lava lamp has been reissued, alongside a new giant version. October 2025] * [https://www.dezeen.com/2025/10/24/sabine-marcelis-lava-lamp-three-metre-tall/ Sabine Marcelis designs "milky" three-metre-tall lava lamp, October 2025] * [https://mathmos.com/mathmos-press-new-york-times/ Everybody Has a Lava Lamp Story, New York Times, November 2024] * [https://www.ft.com/content/051d05fd-68ef-46f3-85ac-e8a4d8632992 Is there something I should glow? Duran Duran unveil a lava lamp, Financial Times, October 2023] * [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/oct/15/ingrained-in-the-fabric-of-british-society-the-iconic-lava-lamp-turns-60 ‘Ingrained in the fabric of British society’: the iconic lava lamp turns 60, The Observer] * [https://www.ft.com/content/051d05fd-68ef-46f3-85ac-e8a4d8632992 Is there something I should glow? Duran Duran unveil a lava lamp, Financial Times, October 2023] * [https://d5mag.com/from-retro-vibes-to-contemporary-cool-mathmos-celebrates-60th-anniversary/ From Retro Vibes to Contemporary Cool – Mathmos Celebrates 60th Anniversary, Design Magazine, 2023] * [https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/23823102.poole-company-mathmos-releases-limited-edition-lava-lamps/ Poole company Mathmos releases limited-edition lava lamps, Bournemouth Daily Echo, October 2023] * [https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/lava-lamp-mathmos-product-design-080823 Creators of Lava Lamp to celebrate its 60th anniversary with collaborations with Camille Walala and more, It's Nice That] * [https://www.luxuriousmagazine.com/60-years-of-the-mathmos-lava-lamp/ Mathmos Celebrates the Lava Lamp's 60th Anniversary with Exciting Collaborations, Luxurious Magazine, August 2023] * [http://www.cravenwalker.com Official website]{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071125094118/http://oozinggoo.com/themyth.html History of Lava Lamps] Background story on the history of Craven Walker's invention at Oozing Goo. * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A641224 BBC.co.uk - The Mystique of the Lava Lamp] * [http://www.mathmos.com Mathmos] *{{IMDb name|0444072}} * [http://www.flowoflava.com/ FlowOfLava - A short Biography of an amazing inventor] *[http://www.imovatedesign.co.uk/astro/patents.html Edward Craven Walker & Crestworth Ltd Patents]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Edward Craven}} Category:1918 births Category:2000 deaths Category:English film directors Category:20th-century English inventors Category:British naturists Category:Deaths from cancer in England Category:Social nudity advocates Category:British people in British Malaya