Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué

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Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué
Astronomical clock in Strasbourg Cathedral (detail)

Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué (* December 18, 1776 in Strasbourg ; † December 5, 1856 there ) was a French clockmaker and the restorer and also partially rebuild the movement of the astronomical clock in the Strasbourg cathedral .

The construction of the clock had begun between 1547 and 1548 under the direction of Chrétien Herlin , astronomer and mathematics professor at the later Strasbourg Academy and his mathematically gifted colleagues, the doctor Michel Herr and the theologian Nicolas Prugner. After an interruption, Herlin's pupil Konrad Dasypodius (1531–1601) and the Breslauer David Wolkenstein (1534–1592) took up the work together with the brothers Isaak Habrecht (1544–1620) and Josias Habrecht (1552–1575 ) in the years 1571 and 1574 ), Clockmaker from Schaffhausen , and the Strasbourg-based painter Tobias Stimmer (1539–1584) from Schaffhausen .

As a boy, Schwilgué was fascinated by the clock, which had stood still since 1788, and acquired the knowledge and skills that were required to build a new clockwork during his life as a self-taught student. In old age he was commissioned with the repairs, which he carried out between 1838 and 1843; the clock was completed on July 24, 1843, but was inaugurated on December 31, 1842. His wish to build a completely new watch with a glass case to allow the viewer to admire the movement was not granted for reasons of cost.

There are still many Schwilgué tower clocks, but most of them are rather unspectacular. Several are still preserved in Strasbourg itself, for example on the venerable Aurelia Church (1845). Schwilgué's most beautiful tower clock can be seen in the Freiburg Minster (1851).

Schwilgué also dealt with the construction of mechanical calculating machines. He and his son applied for a patent for their additionneur mécanique on December 24, 1844 , which was granted to them on March 1, 1845. His surviving arithmetic units are considered to be the oldest key adding machines.

literature

  • Charles Schwilgué: Description of the abrégée de l'horloge de la cathédrale de Strasbourg . Strasbourg 1843.
  • Charles Schwilgué: Brief description of the astronomical clock of the Strasburg Minster . LeRoux, Strasbourg 1843.
  • J. Diener .:  Schwilgué, Johann Baptist . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 33, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, p. 447 f.
  • Henri Bach, Jean-Pierre Rieb, Robert Wilhelm: The three astronomical clocks of the Strasbourg cathedral . Editions Ronald Hirlé, Strasbourg 1992, ISBN 3-7946-0297-8
  • Roger Lehni, Susanna Prause: The Astronomical Clock of the Strasbourg Minster . Paris, Editions La Goélette 1997. ISBN 2-906880-18-3

Web links

Commons : Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Strasbourg astronomical clock. In: Stars and Space (4/1985).
    Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg. In: France.fr. Retrieved February 9, 2019 . Sabine Mohr: Louis-Napoléon Panel, The case of the astronomical clock in the Strasbourg Cathedral: history and restorations. In: Blog des Amis de la Cathédrale de Strasbourg. May 31, 2018, accessed February 9, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Denis Roegel: An Early (1844) Key-Driven Adding Machine. In: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Volume 30, No. 1, pages 59-65, January – March 2008. Addendum to Volume 30, No. 3, p. 3, July – September 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Schwilgué, Jean-Baptiste
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French watchmaker
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1776
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg , France
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 1856
Place of death Strasbourg