Based on a plan to set up The Falmouth Polytechnic Society originated by Anna Maria Fox at the age of seventeen, Charles was one of the projectors and founders of what became the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society at Falmouth in 1835, following being granted a Royal warrant by King William the IV and, in conjunction with Sir Charles Lemon, led the way to a movement which resulted in the offer of a premium of £100.
This machine was a great success, and its invention has been the means of saving much unnecessary labour to the tin and copper miners in ascending and descending the mine shafts.
He interested himself particularly in such discoveries, philological and antiquarian, as tended to throw light on Bible history, and with this object in view he visited Palestine, Egypt, and Algiers.
In all branches of natural history he was deeply read, making collections and examining with the microscope the specimens illustrative of each department.
Extracts from the Spiritual Diary of John Rutty, M.D., was edited by Fox in 1840, and in 1870 he wrote a small work, On the Ministry of Women.
His generation and the next of the Fox family were active in the Religious Society of Friends, regularly attending Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Meetings.
[4] The Committee arranged for the disownment of David Duncan, the outspoken leader of the Manchester dissidents and published a "Declaration of some fundamental principles of Christian Truth", which was, however, rejected by Yearly Meeting 1872.