Sir Charles Todd
TODD, Charles, KCMG MA FRS FRAS FBMS FIEE (1826-1910)
Sir Charles Todd exemplifies the creative, optimistic and far-sighted engineering leadership that built Australia. Together with McGowan of Victoria he visualised a national telecommunications system, based on Samuel Morse’s telegraphic system, connected to India and Europe. The cornerstone of this scheme became the Overland Telegraph line from Pt Augusta to Darwin; an epic construction project of some 2900 kilometres (1800 miles) completed in 1872 and connecting land and sea cable to England. Todd’s communications vision for South Australia, formed after his arrival in the colony in 1855, also included telegraph lines crossing Australia from Adelaide to Melbourne, Sydney and Perth and to many large country towns in the state.
Todd - astronomer, meteorologist and electrical engineer - used his wide knowledge to establish a network of meteorological observation stations throughout South Australia connected by telegraph. As Postmaster-General and Government Astronomer and Meteorologist, he supervised the collection and dispatch of weather information, and prepared weather maps and bulletins. His meteorological system spread to all colonies and New Zealand. By the 1880s Todd had organised a time service, constant astronomical observations and a standard point for geodetic surveys.
Todd was a holder of an honorary MA degree from the University of Cambridge as well as being a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the Royal Meteorological Society and a Member of the Society of Telegraphic (later Electrical) Engineers.
He was added to the Engineers Australia South Australian Hall of Fame in 2008.
