TIMEPIECES
See
Also: DAYLIGHT SAVING; GUNS; ITALIANS Clerkenwell;
RUNNING Eighteenth-Century Professionalism; WEATHER Barometers; WESTMINSTER
ABBEY Memorials and Graves of Notables, Timepiece-makers
During the 16thC Protestant
refugees from Flanders, the southern Netherlands, and France brought their
horological skills to London. They
tended to settle in the districts of Austin Friars and Blackfriars. These districts were outside the City walls
and therefore the newcomers were free to practice their craft.
In 1631 a charter was granted to the
Worshipful Company of Clockmakers.
In 18thC Clerkenwell developed
into an area where timepiece components were made.
Website: www.clockmakers.org
Atomic
Clock
In 1955 the physicist Louis Essen built the
first atomic clock at the National Physical Laboratory. It used caesium atoms. Microwave frequency had the same natural
frequency. Oscillates about nine billion
times a second. It provided the standard
for defining the length of a second.
Location: The National Physical
Laboratory, Hampton Road, TW11 0LW
The Science Museum, Exhibition Road, SW7 2DD
(red, turquoise)
Website: www.npl.co.uk/time-frequency/optical-atomic-clocks
https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co855/caesium-atomic-clock-1955-atomic-clocks
The
Belvilles
The Belville family owned a 'chronometer'
that was accurate to within a tenth of a second. From 1836 until 1940 successive members of
the family earned a living by visiting Greenwich Observatory each week and
having the device set against Greenwich Time.
They would then travel about London and charge their clients to check
their clocks and watches against it. The
device was named Arnold after the maker.
Ruth Belville (1854-1943) left him to the Clockmakers' Guild. It is now in their museum.
Location: Flamsteed House, The Royal
Observatory, Blackheath Avenue, Greenwich Park, SE10 8XJ
155 Goswell Road, EC1V 7AN (blue, orange)
Website: www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=1245
https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2008/ruth-belville
www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/womens-history-month-ruth-belville
The
Clockmakers' Museum
In 1814 the Clockmakers' Company started to
collect horological items. Sixty years
later the collection was opened to the public.
It includes marine timekeepers that had been made by John Harrison (1693-1776). The Clockmakers' Museum was maintained by
The Guildhall Library.
Location: The Second Floor, The
Science Museum, Exhibition Road, SW7 2DD
See Also: ASCERTAINING THE VERTICAL;
CITY LIVERY COMPANIES
Website: www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/clockmakers-museum
www.clockmakers.org
Clocks
The first mechanical clock was built in
Milan in 1335. Fifteen years later King
Edward III commissioned three Italians to build him three clocks. These were installed in the royal palaces of
Westminster, Windsor, and King's Langley
Location: The Palace of Westminster,
Parliament Square, SW1A 0AA (purple,
blue)
Horse Guards Clock
The Whitehall facing clock front on Horse
Guards has a black mark over the two o clock numeral. This is because that was the time of day when
King Charles I (1600-1649) was executed on a scaffold on the other side of Whitehall
in front of the Banqueting House.
Location: Whitehall, SW1A 2AX
(orange, yellow)
See Also: THE ARMY Horse Guards; EXECUTIONS
The Executed, King Charles I
George
Daniels
George Daniels worked as a watch repairer in
the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Electronics were coming in. This
stimulated him to build a succession of watches, each of which was
technologically more advanced that the previous one. He made 25 in total. Thinking about John Arnold's work prompted
him to create the coaxial escapement, which he unveiled in 1975. It greatly reduced the friction between the
teeth of the escape wheel and the pallet stones. It was able to function without lubrication
which meant that it furnished greater accuracy and reduced the overall need for
servicing. It was the biggest advance in
watchmaking since Thomas Mudge had invented the lever escapement in 1754.
Dents
In 1814 John Dent established a horological
business. The Duke of Wellington was
given to stopping outside's Dent's shop in order to reset his watch. In 1841 the firm started supplying the royal
household with watches and clocks, and continued to do so until. In 1831 Dent timepieces were taken on H.M.S.
Beagle's five-year-long voyage. In
the 1850s Dent constructed the Great Clock in the Houses of Parliament; the
clock started to run in 1863. In 1865 Dr
Livingston had a Dent pocket chronometer.
Dent manufactured components both for
submarines and for torpedoes.
Location: 4 Hanway Place, W1T 1HD. The site of a Dent works. (purple, yellow)
82 Strand, WC2R 0DU. The site of a Dent shop. (blue, pink)
Website: www.dentlondon.com
Gillett
& Johnston Clocks
Gillett & Johnston Clocks was founded in
1844.
In 1957 the foundry in Croydon was closed.
It is now principally a restoration and
maintenance business.
About three-fifths of the business relates
to church clocks.
Location: 232 Selsdon Road, South
Croydon, CR2 6PL. The company has
relocated to Kent.
Website: www.gillettjohnston.co.uk
Greenwich
Mean Time
In 1767 Nevil Maskelyne (1732-1811)
published his Nautical Almanac.
The charts in this used the Greenwich meridian as its base point. British charts were widely used. As a result, in 1884 an international
conference that was held in Washington D.C. that the Airey transit circle
should serve as zero degrees longitude (the prime meridian).
The
Standardisation of Time
Charles Shepherd (1830-1905)
The astronomer royal George Biddell Airy
(1801-1892) saw a Shepherd Gate electronic clock at the Great Exhibition of
1851. It issued electronic impulses that
could cause a number of slave clocks to keep the same time as it did. He bought one for the Royal Observatory. A telegraph line was erected that linked the
Observatory to Lewisham Railway Station which was connected to the national
telegraph system. Thereby, Greenwich s
Shepherd master clock was able to standardise the nation's time.
Railway timepieces were co-ordinated by
being taken from the Shepherd master clock at Greenwich.
In 1924 the B.B.C. transmitted the radio
time pips for the first time. They had
been communicated by telephone from Greenwich.
In 1958 Greenwich started to use an atomic
clock.
Location: Flamsteed House, The Royal
Observatory, Blackheath Avenue, Greenwich Park, SE10 8XJ
Lewisham Railway Station, Loampit Vale, SE13
7RY
The
Time-Ball
In 1833 the Time-Ball was added to Greenwich
Observatory's Flamsteed House (1676). At
12:58 p.m. each afternoon the ball rises to the top of the poll around which it
is mounted. At exactly 13:00 p.m. it
falls. This enabled ships crews on the
Thames to set their timepieces with a high degree of accuracy.
Location: Flamsteed House, The Royal
Observatory, Blackheath Avenue, Greenwich Park, SE10 8XJ
See Also: NAUTICAL; ROYAL PARKS Greenwich
Park
Website: www.rmg.co.uk/royal-observatory/attractions/greenwich-time-ball
Watches
25 to 30 trades were involved in the making
of a mechanical watch. The quartz watch
undermined the traditional watchmaking trade.
The Swiss makers hung in and reaped the benefit when an interest in
watches as fashion items developed. By
then the British industry had largely atrophied away.
Rolex
Hans Wilsdorf (1881-1960) was a Bavarian
orphan. In 1905, with financial backing
from his brother-in-law Alfred Davis, he established a watchmaking business in
London. While passing St Paul s
Cathedral on a bus, Wilsdorf coined the word Rolex as a brand name. This was short enough to be reproduced upon a
watch face while remaining clear. It
could also be easily pronounced in any European language. In 1908 the name was registered in
Geneva. During the First World War taxes
were placed upon on luxury goods. In
1919 Wilsdorf moved Rolex from London to Switzerland.
Website: www.rolex.com
Wrist Watches
The first wrist watch was made for Queen
Elizabeth I in 1572. They were regarded
as a female item. They only started to
be made widely in the late 19thC.
Men only started wearing wrist watches during the First World War when
there was a need to coordinate troops going over the trenches.
David Backhouse 2024