Barkas was a prominent Newcastle citizen, and served on the committee of the Lit and Phil. He was a friend of Isaac Pitman of shorthand fame, and the Lit and Phil possesses an inscribed copy of Phonography or Writing by Sound, which Pitman presented on 13 July 1841. After Pitman's lecture, Barkas learned shorthand and became the pioneer of the system in the North of England, delivering scores of lectures. He spoke at the second Phonographic Festival in Nottingham in 1843. Nearly every north east reporter of the time took his first lessons from Barkas.
Barkas was also a member of the lively Newcastle Society for the Investigation of Spiritualism, which arranged test seances. It was through him that Elizabeth D'Esperance (q.v.) was introduced to the public. Not all citizens took his activities seriously however. In 'Our Celebrities Wise - and Otherwise' by 'Bumble Bee' (1888), we find:

Ye spirits of the dead and gone
Awake my muse and spur it on
To greater efforts, while I sing
Of Barkus (sic) and his Seancing;
Come ye upon the night's black wings
Tell T.P. of immortal things...