Magnus Volk was born in 1851, the son of a German clock maker. For most of his life he lived in Dyke Road in Brighton and was always interested in the latest developments in science and engineering, in particular in the potential uses afforded by the, then relatively new, source of power, electricity. Indeed it would be true to say that the young Magnus was a true visionary and, by the age of 29, he had become the first person to use electricity to power the lights in a house in the south of England. Other inventions quickly followed, including an addition to the famous clock tower in the centre of Brighton that featured a large ball that was linked to the clock mechanism and hydraulically hoisted to the top of the tower and dropped (with a noisy clang!) to mark the passing of each hour.
In 1883 he came up with an idea for an electric railway to run along the seafront. He wasted no time
