Thomas Tompion

Thomas Tompion (1638-1713)

Thomas Tompion (baptized July 25, 1639 in Northill , Bedfordshire , † November 20, 1713 in London ) was an English watchmaker valued by the English royal court and respected by his colleagues .

In 1671 he became a member of the Clockmakers Company , in 1703 its master. In 1674 he started his own business in London and in the same year received an order from the Royal Greenwich Observatory to build two precision pendulum clocks . He also worked with Robert Hooke on the development of a self-oscillating time standard for portable clocks. Tompion, who very likely remained single, counted several unusually competent watchmakers in his family environment. This includes his nephew Thomas Tompion jun. (Apprenticeship as watchmaker with Charles Kemp ), son of his brother James. His sister Elizabeth married George Graham , who had entered Tompion's business and later became a partner. Tompion's niece Margaret, daughter of his sister Margaret Kent, married the watchmaker Edward Banger . They all worked at times in alternating connection with one another. Thomas Tompion was buried in Westminster Abbey .

Tompion endeavored to manufacture clocks that ran as accurately as possible and that ran for a long time; he was the first to introduce serial numbers.

Its special services include:

• The invention of the Sautrog escapement, which George Graham developed into a cylinder escapement in 1720 .
• The introduction of the hammer mechanism , invented by the London clockmaker and clergyman Edward Barlow (1636–1716) and improved by Daniel Quare , with which a hammer repeater was possible for the first time.
• Floor grandfather clocks that indicate the equation of time , so-called equation clocks (suggestion probably by Christiaan Huygens ).

See also

• Isochronism
• Pendulum clock
• Clock

literature

• Frederick J. Britten: Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers. A history of styles in clocks and watches and their mechanics . Bloomsbury Books, London 1990, ISBN 0-906223-69-5 (repr. D. From London 1932)
• Claus Bernet :  Thomas Tompion. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 31, Bautz, Nordhausen 2010, ISBN 978-3-88309-544-8 , Sp. 1391-1396.

Web links

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