science

Worshipful Company of Clockmakers

Worshipful Company of Clockmakers is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Worshipful Company of Clockmakers rather than just read about it. In short: The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers is a London professional association first established under a Royal Charter granted by King Charles I in 1631. It ranks sixty-first among the livery companies of the City of London, and comes under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council.

Key takeaways

Worshipful Company of Clockmakers belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Worshipful Company of Clockmakers to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Worshipful Company of Clockmakers from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers is a London professional association first established under a Royal Charter granted by King Charles I in 1631. It ranks sixty-first among the livery companies of the City of London, and comes under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council. The company established a library and its museum in 1813, which is the oldest specific collection of clocks and watches worldwide. This is administered by the company's affiliated charity, the Clockmakers' Charity, and is presently housed on the second floor of London's Science Museum. The modern aims of the company and its museum are charitable and educational, in particular to promote and preserve clockmaking and watchmaking, which as of 2019 were added to the HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts. The Clockmakers' Museum, comprising a collection of clocks, watches, portraits and ephemera is housed in a new gallery provided by the Science Museum, officially opened by Princess Anne on 22 October 2015. The museum was first established in 1813, and was housed at London's Guildhall from 1874 to 2014. It claims to be the oldest collection specifically of watches and clocks in the world. Though the collection is now housed in the Clockmakers' Museum in South Kensington, the company's archive and library are however still kept at Guildhall Library. The museum collection includes John Harrison's sea watch H5, once personally tested by King George III.

Motto The company's motto, Tempus Rerum Imperator, can be translated as ‘Time, the Ruler of All Things’. It appears as an epitaph on the tombstone of former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, a liveryman of the company.

History Prior to the seventeenth century, clockmaking by native English craftsmen was mostly confined to the production of turret clocks. Domestic clocks and watches were mostly imported or the work of immigrants from the European continent. Because turret clock making involved working in ferrous metal, clockmakers within the City of London tended to be freemen of the Blacksmiths’ Company, though some were members of other livery companies, notably the Clothworkers. After the loss of many London clock and watchmakers in the plagues of 1598 and 1603, the trade consolidated and began to grow. The continued influx of newcomers led to resentment from those who had become established in London towards outsiders who came to set up in or near the City and who threatened their market. From 1620 onwards, groups of clockmakers attempted to set up their own guild. The Blacksmiths initially succeeded in opposing these moves. Eventually, however, with the king issuing charters as a means of raising much needed finance at a time when he had prorogued Parliament, the clockmakers succeeded in securing a royal charter, on 22 August 1631, to the distress of the Blacksmiths, who could naturally expect to lose members, and therefore income. The charter gave regulatory authority to the Clockmakers to control the horological trade in the City of London and for a radius of ten miles around. It incorporated a controlling body which should have ‘continuance for ever under the style and name of The Master, Wardens and Fellowship of the Art and Mystery of Clockmaking’. It provided that the fellowship should be governed by a master, three wardens and ten or more assistants who would form the Court. The first master was David Ramsay, a Scot, who had been appointed watchmaker to James VI of Scotland, later James I of England. The noted clockmaker Edward East also formed part of the first court. The original charter is still in the company's possession and is housed with the rest of its library and archive in the Guildhall Library. The company obtained a grant of arms from the College of Arms in January 1672. In 1766, the Court of Aldermen granted the company its livery. The number of liverymen was originally limited at sixty but has been increased in number over the years by approval of the City of London Corporation and currently stands at a maximum of three hundred.

Horological Training and Awards for Excellence The company bestows three awards for excellence: the Tompion Medal for outstanding achievements in horology, the Harrison Medal for the propagation of horological knowledge and its appreciation, and the Derek Pratt Prize for innovation, ingenuity, elegance, and the highest standards of workmanship and precision performance in the craft and science of time and timekeeping. The company also closely co-operates with the trustees of the George Daniels Educational Trust in supporting education in horology.

Affiliations The Clockmakers Company is formally affiliated with the Antiquarian Horological Society, the UCL Observatory, HMS Protector, the Royal Navy's Ice Patrol Ship, HMS Archer, a P264 Class University Royal Naval Unit based in Edinburgh, and XIII Squadron RAF.

Masters

Those who have been Master of the company include the following:

Company Chaplains and Church Father Tim Handley St James Garlickhythe

Gallery

See also Antiquarian Horological Society British Horological Institute Clockmakers' Museum Dingwall Beloe Lecture Series Charles Gretton

References

External links The Clockmakers' Company

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Worshipful Company of Clockmakers

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Worshipful Company of Clockmakers claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Worshipful Company of Clockmakers before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Worshipful Company of Clockmakers ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Worshipful Company of Clockmakers

In research: Worshipful Company of Clockmakers appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Worshipful Company of Clockmakers is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1631 establishments in England, British clockmakers, Charities based in London, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Worshipful Company of Clockmakers outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Worshipful Company of Clockmakers means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Worshipful Company of Clockmakers out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in simple terms?

Why does Worshipful Company of Clockmakers matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Worshipful Company of Clockmakers?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Worshipful Company of Clockmakers.