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John Harrison was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea.
Horology is the study of the measurement of time. Clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, hourglasses, clepsydras, timers, time recorders, marine chronometers, and atomic clocks are all examples of instruments used to measure time. In current usage, horology refers mainly to the study of mechanical time-keeping devices, while chronometry more broadly includes electronic devices that have largely supplanted mechanical clocks for the best accuracy and precision in time-keeping.
The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers was established under a Royal Charter granted by King Charles I in 1631. It ranks sixty-first among the livery companies of the City of London, and comes under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council. The company established a library and its Museum in 1813, which is the oldest specific collection of clocks and watches worldwide. This is administered by the company's affiliated charity, the Clockmakers’ Charity, and is presently housed on the second floor of London's Science Museum. The modern aims of the company and its Museum are charitable and educational, in particular to promote and preserve clockmaking and watchmaking, which as of 2019 were added to the HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts.
The grasshopper escapement is a low-friction escapement for pendulum clocks invented by British clockmaker John Harrison around 1722. An escapement, part of every mechanical clock, is the mechanism that gives the clock's pendulum periodic pushes to keep it swinging, and each swing releases the clock's gears to move forward by a fixed amount, thus moving the hands forward at a steady rate. The grasshopper escapement was used in a few regulator clocks built during Harrison's time, and a few others over the years, but has never seen wide use. The term "grasshopper" in this connection, apparently from the kicking action of the pallets, first appears in the Horological Journal in the late 19th century.
Ferdinand Berthoud, was a scientist and watchmaker. He became master watchmaker in Paris in 1753. Berthoud, who held the position of Horologist-Mechanic by appointment to the King and the Navy, left behind him an exceptionally broad body of work, in particular in the field of sea chronometers.
John Arnold was an English watchmaker and inventor.
The Clockmakers’ Museum in London, England, is believed to be the oldest collection specifically of clocks and watches in the world. The collection belongs to and is administered by the Clockmakers’ Charity, affiliated to the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, founded in 1631 by Royal Charter. Since 2015 it has been housed in a gallery provided by the Science Museum in South Kensington, having formerly been located in the Guildhall complex in the City of London since 1874, where it first opened to the public. Admission is free.
Charles Frodsham was a distinguished English horologist, establishing the firm of Charles Frodsham & Co, which remains in existence as the longest continuously trading firm of chronometer manufacturers in the world. In January 2018, the firm launched a new chronometer wristwatch, after sixteen years in development. It is the first watch to use the George Daniels double-impulse escapement.
The American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute (AWCI) is a not-for-profit trade association based in the United States that is dedicated to the advancement of the modern watch industry, from which it receives a significant portion of its funding. While the AWCI is an American organization, it also has members throughout the world.
Rupert Thomas Gould was a lieutenant-commander in the British Royal Navy noted for his contributions to horology. He was also an author and radio personality.
The British Horological Institute (BHI) is the representative body of the horological industry in the United Kingdom. It was founded by a group of clockmakers in 1858, and has its current premises at Upton Hall in Nottinghamshire, which includes a museum of clock history.
The Antiquarian Horological Society, abbreviated to AHS, is the UK-based learned society for scholars and enthusiasts of horology. Its administrative office is at 4 Lovat Lane, a listed building close to the Monument, in the City of London. In early 2016, the Society appointed Dr Patricia Fara of Clare College, Cambridge as its new president, following the untimely death of its previous president Professor Lisa Jardine. The Chairman is Dr James Nye.
The Museum of Timekeeping and Mechanical Musical Instruments is a museum in the village of Oberhofen am Thunersee, Switzerland, in the Bernese Oberland. It is dedicated to both horology and mechanical music.
Philip Mayne Woodward was a British mathematician, radar engineer and horologist. He achieved notable success in all three fields. Before retiring, he was a Deputy Chief Scientific Officer at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE) of the British Ministry of Defence in Malvern, Worcestershire.
Edward Martin Burgess FSA FBHI, known as Martin Burgess, is an English horologist and master clockmaker.
The Uhrenmuseum Beyer is located in the heart of the city of Zürich, Switzerland and is one of the world's leading private museums dedicated to horology.
Jeremy Thacker was an 18th-century writer and watchmaker, who for a long time was believed to be the first to have coined the word "chronometer" for precise clocks designed to find longitude at sea, though an earlier reference by William Derham has now been found. Thacker is credited with writing The Longitudes Examin'd, published in London in 1714, in which the term 'chronometer' appears. In the work, the claim is made that Thacker created and extensively tested a marine chronometer positioned on gimbals and within a vacuum, and that sea trials would take place. It has been concluded by others that such tests must have resulted in failure. The idea of a vacuum for a marine clock had already been proposed by the Italian clockmaker Antimo Tempera in 1668. Slightly later, John Harrison would successfully build marine timekeepers from 1730.
Donald Jay Saff is an artist, art historian, educator, and lecturer, specializing in the fields of contemporary art in addition to American and English horology.
Ludwig Oechslin is a Swiss watchmaker, designer and inventor.
The Dingwall Beloe Lecture Series is the result of bequests by Dr Eric Dingwall, formerly an Assistant Keeper of Printed Books in the British Museum, and to the Clockmakers Company by Reginald Beloe TD, the noted horological collector and Master of the Company in 1977.
References
- Betts (2006): "Time Restored", Oxford University Press, Authors Preface.
- Jonathan Betts. National Maritime Museum.
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