A General History of Horology describes instruments used for the finding and
measurement of time from Antiquity to the 21st century. In geographical scope it ranges from East Asia to the Americas. The instruments described are set in their technical and social contexts, and there is also discussion of the literature, the historiography and the collecting of the subject. The book features the use of case studies to represent larger topics that cannot be completely covered in a single book.
The international body of authors have endeavoured to offer a fully world-wide survey accessible to students, historians, collectors, and the general reader, based on a firm understanding of the technical basis of the subject. At the same time as the work offers a synthesis of current knowledge of the subject, it also incorporates the results of some fundamental, new and original research.
Introduction Horology: The word Hour Systems 1: Jérôme Bonnin: Time measurement in Antiquity 2: India and the Far East: dials, water-clocks, fire-clocks S. R. Sarma: India David Chang: China to 1900 Ron Good, Jon Ward: Modern China Katsuhiro Sasaki: Japan 3: Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages Anthony Turner: Sun-dials and water-clocks in Byzantium and Islam Mario Arnaldi: Time-reckoning in the Medieval Latin world Sebastian Whitestone: Water-clocks and the earliest escapements Anthony Turner: Sand-clocks, sand-glasses, and fire-clocks 4: Marisa Addomine: Public clocks: fourteenth to eighteenth centuries 5: The domestic clock in Europe Dietrich Matthes: From the fifteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century Wim van Klaveren: From Huygens to the end of the eighteenth century. 6: David Thompson: Watches in Europe 1600 - 1800 7: Anthony Turner: The Structures of horological manufacture and trade: sixteenth to eighteenth centuries 8: Denis Savoie: The development of the sundial fourteenth to twentieth centuries 9: Clocks as astronomical models Karsten Gaulk, Michael Korey, Samuel Gessner: Planetary clocks to the end of the eighteenth century Denis Roegel: The nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 10: Sharon Kerman: Musical and automaton clocks and watches: sound and motion in time-telling devices 11: Jonathan Betts: The quest for precision in astronomy and navigation 12: Anthony Turner: Decimal Time 13: Industrial manufacture: clock and watch-making in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries James Nye: The mixed fortunes of Britain Michael Edidin: American horology and its global reach Joëlle Mauerhan: The horological endeavour in France Johann Boilat: The challenge of the Swiss and their competitors Sibylle Gluch: Developing the German industry Françoise Collanges: A case-study in standardisation: la pendule de Paris 14: Jonathan Betts: Precision attained: chronometers and regulators in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 15: Catherine Cardinal: Responding to customer demand: the decoration of clocks and watches from the Renaissance to recent times 16: Roger Smith: Eighteenth-century clock exports from Britain to the East Indies 17: Marisa Addomine: Public clocks in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 18: David Boettcher: Wrist-watches from their origins to the twenty-first century 19: James Nye, David Rooney: Electricity, horology, and networked time 20: Joëlle Mauerhan: Women in horology 21: Jonathan Betts: The keeping of clocks and watches: maintenance, repair and restoration 22: Estelle Fallet: Accessories in horology 23: Applications of clockwork Jim Bennett, Anthony Turner: Orreries and planetaria Paolo Brenni: Timers and telescope drives Anthony Turner: Metronomes James Nye: Car clocks Jonathan Betts: Watchmans' clocks Anthony Turner: Roasting jacks 24: Christina Faraday: Horology verbalised; horology visualised 25: Bernhard Huber: The Literature of horology 26: Anthony Turner: Collecting and writing the history of horology 27: Glossary 28: Bibliography Index
Anthony Turner works primarily on the history of scientific instruments, clocks, watches and related items in their technical and social contexts during the Early Modern period. As consultant he collaborates with leading museums and auction houses and has been responsible for the organisation of several international exhibitions. James Nye studied Theology at Oxford, and later completed a PhD in Financial History at Kings College London. His thesis included case studies of early electric clock companies, reflecting a lifelong involvement in horology, especially in the electrical arena. From practical bench work on clocks as a teenager, his career progressed to researching and writing on the history of time measurement. A continuing theme in his ongoing work is the emergence of distributed accurate timekeeping from the late nineteenth century onwards. James is chair of the Antiquarian Horology Society, and founder and principal sponsor of London's Clockworks Museum. Jonathan Betts, a professional horologist all his life, was Senior Conservator and then Senior Curator of Horology at Royal Museums Greenwich for 35 years, and remains a Curator Emeritus. He is also Horological Adviser to a number of heritage bodies including the National Trust. He is Vice Chair and Honorary Librarian of the Antiquarian Horological Society.
Reviews for A General History of Horology
A 'must have' for the wide audience of collectors of horology, museum curators and the libraries of their institutions, and historians of technology and instrumentation. * Peter de Clercq, Editor Antiquarian Horology * The volume includes chapters by no less than 35 authors, each one a significant researcher in his own field. The result is a detailed history of time-keeping methods and devices from Antiquity to the present. * Giorgio Strano, Journal for the History of Astronomy 54 *
