Edward Thomas Loseby

Edward Thomas Loseby (1817–1890)

Edward Thomas Loseby (born September 11, 1817 in Leicester , † December 24, 1890 Leicester) was a British chronometer maker who worked from 1830 to 1855 in the London borough of Islington .

Life and horological achievement

Loseby learned the watchmaking trade at Rotherham in Coventry . After his apprenticeship, he first worked in his father's shop, the watchmaker Edward Loseby in Leicester, before moving to London to manufacture marine chronometers.

Loseby invented an effective balance wheel with mercury compensation for marine chronometers , which should compensate for the secondary temperature error. In 1834 he presented his design to the Admiralty for the first time, followed by an improved chronometer balance in 1843. From 1846 onwards, some of his chronometers were successfully tested at the Royal Greenwich Observatory , a year later one was purchased by the Board of the Admiralty and put into service.

Due to the excellent results of the tests, the "HMS Assistance" led the Arctic expedition under Capt. Sir Edward Belcher using three Loseby marine chronometers in 1852. After the expedition got stuck in the ice in 1854 and the ships had to be abandoned, the marine chronometers were removed and taken away. After returning at the end of 1854, the chronometers showed only a very small deviation when checked despite the considerable load. In the years that followed, Loseby marine chronometers were repeatedly used on various polar routes. In total, the Admiralty bought 13 marine chronometers from Loseby.

After an unsuccessful application to become a court clockmaker and ultimately due to a lack of financial support from the Admiralty, from which Loseby expected recognition in the form of a price for his compensation balance, he moved back to Leicester around 1855 and worked there with precision clocks and tower clocks.

literature

• Wolfgang Lympius: ET Loseby, his chronometer and the mean temperature error . In: watch journal for collectors Classic timepiece. Callwey Verlag, 6/1992, ISSN  0343-7140 .

Web links

• Loseby Two Day Marine Chronometer No 109. National Museum of Australia, Canberra (picture of a marine chronometer, English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ GH Baillie: Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World. Third edition. NAG Press Ltd., London 1966.
2. ↑ Wolfgang Lympius: ET Loseby, his chronometer and the mean temperature error . In: watch journal for collectors Classic timepiece. Callwey Verlag, 6/1992, ISSN  0343-7140 .