83. Auktion - Auktionen Dr. Crott

Edward Thomas Loseby (1817-1890)
An English chronometer maker who worked in the London Borough of
Islington from 1830 until 1855.
Loseby trained as a clockmaker with the company Rotherham in Coventry.
His father Edward Loseby was also a clockmaker, so after his apprenticeship
Edward Thomas worked in his father’s business in Leicester for a
while before moving to London to make marine chronometers.
Loseby developed a balance with a mercury compensation for the middle
temperature error for marine chronometers. He first presented his design
to the admiralty in 1834, in 1843 he presented an improved chronometer
balance. From 1846 on some of his chronometers were successfully tested
at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and a year later one of them was
bought by the admiralty and put into service.
Due to the excellent results of the tests, the “HMS Assistance” carried
three of Loseby’s chronometers on board for the arctic expedition
under Capt. Sir Edward Belcher in 1852: nos. 102, 111 and 113. After
the expedition was locked in the ice in 1854 and the ships had to be
abandoned, the chronometers were dismantled and taken home. After
their return at the end of the year the chronometers were tested and
despite the heavy stress they had been under they showed only a minimal
deviation. In the following years a number of Loseby’s marine chronometers
were used for different polar expeditions. The admiralty bought
13 of Loseby’s marine chronometers in all.
After an unsuccessful bid for the position of maker to the court and
ultimately because of lacking financial support from the admiralty - of
which he had been expecting to be awarded a prize for his compensation
balance - Loseby returned to Leicester around 1855 to work on precision
and turret clocks.
Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thomas_Loseby, as of
04/02/2011
32018 G/C: 2 Z/D: 2 W/M: 2, 41, 51
10.000 - 20.000 EUR 14.100 - 28.200 USD 100.000 - 200.000 HKD