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Henry Bridges (clockmaker)
Henry Bridges (1697–1754) was a carpenter, showman and clockmaker of Waltham Abbey, England. He was father of James Bridges, architect and engineer. Henry is famous as the builder of the giant clock, the Microcosm. He is buried with his wife in the churchyard of Waltham Abbey, the largest monument there, which was restored several years ago by a local clockmaker. The clock was on tour from 1733 until 1775 and was seen by thousands of people in England, Ireland, Scotland, The West Indies, and North America including George Washington and Richard Edgeworth who wrote an account of it in his memoirs. All trace has been lost of it until found in the 1920s in Paris. The astronomical part is now on display in the British Museum.Mr Bridges' Enlightenment Machine: Forty Years on Tour in Georgian Britain, Barb Drummond, UK, 2018 Henry Married Sarah Trevise, whose family provided him with a large house in Waltham Abbey. In his will of 1754 he left a number of properties in and around Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clockmaker
A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and/or repairs clocks. Since almost all clocks are now factory-made, most modern clockmakers only repair clocks. Modern clockmakers may be employed by jewellers, antique shops, and places devoted strictly to repairing clocks and watches. Clockmakers must be able to read blueprints and instructions for numerous types of clocks and time pieces that vary from antique clocks to modern time pieces in order to fix and make clocks or watches. The trade requires fine motor coordination as clockmakers must frequently work on devices with small gears and fine machinery. Originally, clockmaker were master craftsmen who designed and built clocks by hand. Since modern clockmakers are required to repair antique, handmade or one-of-a-kind clocks for which parts are not available, they must have some of the design and fabrication abilities of the original craftsmen. A qualified clockmaker can typically design and make a missing piece for a clock without a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waltham Abbey (town)
Waltham Abbey is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, within the metropolitan and urban area of London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. It lies on the Greenwich Meridian, between the River Lea in the west and Epping Forest in the east, with large sections forming part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. The town borders Nazeing and Epping Upland to the north, Chingford to the south, Loughton, Theydon Bois and Buckhurst Hill to the east and south-east, and Waltham Cross, Cheshunt and Enfield to the west. Historically an ancient parish named Waltham Holy Cross in the Waltham hundred of Essex, it became a local government district in 1850, and was granted urban district status in 1894. Whilst the use of the name Waltham Abbey for the town dates back to the 16th century at the earliest, the parish itself was not renamed until 1974, when the Waltham Holy Cross Urban District was abolished and succeeded by Waltham Abbey Town Council. The town council ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The English language, the Anglican Church, and Engli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Bridges (architect)
James Bridges (born c. 1725) was an English architect and civil engineer working in Bristol between 1757 and 1763. He designed Royal Fort House (1760), rebuilt St Werburgh's Church (1758–61) and began the rebuilding of both Bristol Bridge and St Nicholas' Church. Life He was the son of Henry Bridges, an Essex carpenter and clockmaker, famous for his Microcosm. He claimed he was taught all he knew by his father, but also that he had viewed the works of the ancients, suggesting he may have done the Grand Tour. Bridges was a talented, personable and highly literate man, but when he arrived in Bristol in the mid-1750s he never claimed any previous work. He made several trips to London at his own expense to consult Robert Mylne and Sir Isaac Ware on his plans. Like his father, he seems to have been comfortably off. He or his friends and family must have put up bonds for his work: his successor on Bristol Bridge had to pay £10,000. Houses In Bristol he built The Royal Fort, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microcosm (clock)
Microcosm was a unique clock made by Henry Bridges of Waltham Abbey, England. It stood 10–12 feet high, and six across the base, it toured Great Britain, North America and possibly Europe as a visual and musical entertainment as well as demonstrating astronomical movements. It was first advertised for exhibition in 1733, but it is also claimed that Sir Isaac Newton, who died in 1727, checked the mechanism. Several prints survive of Microcosm including one of 1734 showing Newton and Bridges. When Henry Bridges died in 1754 he left the clock to his three youngest children to be sold. It is unclear when the clock left the Bridges family but it continued touring until 1775 when it vanished. Parts of the astronomical clock were found in Paris in 1929 and are now in the British Museum. When on tour, the entrance fee was 1s, which was high for the time. Souvenir pamphlets were also sold. It had 4 parts, from the top: #Three scenes which alternated: nine muses playing musical instr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in South West England. The wider Bristol Built-up Area is the eleventh most populous urban area in the United Kingdom. Iron Age hillforts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon. Around the beginning of the 11th century, the settlement was known as (Old English: 'the place at the bridge'). Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373 when it became a county corporate. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities, after London, in tax receipts. A major port, Bristol was a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497, John Cabot, a Venetia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waltham Abbey Gunpowder Works
Waltham may refer to: Business * Waltham Watch Company, American watch manufacturer, pioneer in the industrialisation of the manufacturing of watch movements * The Waltham system, industrial efficiency system Music * Waltham (band), American rock band Places Canada *Waltham, Quebec England *Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire *Great Waltham, Essex **Little Waltham, nearby * London Borough of Waltham Forest **including Walthamstow ***that includes Walthamstow Village *Waltham, Kent *Waltham, Lincolnshire **New Waltham, nearby *Waltham Abbey, Essex, the town **taking its name from Waltham Abbey (abbey) *Waltham Bury, Essex * Waltham Chase, Hampshire * Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire *Waltham Holy Cross Urban District, a former urban district in Essex *Waltham (hundred), a former hundred in Essex *Waltham on the Wolds, Leicestershire **Waltham transmitting station, nearby *Waltham St Lawrence, a small village in Berkshire *White Waltham, a village in Berkshire New Zealand *Waltham, New Zea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). The sulfur and carbon act as fuels while the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms, artillery, rocketry, and pyrotechnics, including use as a blasting agent for explosives in quarrying, mining, building pipelines and road building. Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate (i.e., burn at subsonic speeds), whereas high explosives detonate, producing a supersonic shockwave. Ignition of gunpowder packed behind a projectile generates enough pressure to force the shot from the muzzle at high speed, but usually not enough force to rupture the gun barrel. It thus makes a good propellan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Clockmakers
English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national identity, an identity and common culture ** English language in England, a variant of the English language spoken in England * English languages (other) * English studies, the study of English language and literature * ''English'', an Amish term for non-Amish, regardless of ethnicity Individuals * English (surname), a list of notable people with the surname ''English'' * People with the given name ** English McConnell (1882–1928), Irish footballer ** English Fisher (1928–2011), American boxing coach ** English Gardner (b. 1992), American track and field sprinter Places United States * English, Indiana, a town * English, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * English, Brazoria County, Texas, an unincorporated community * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1697 Births
Events January–March * January 8 – Thomas Aikenhead is hanged outside Edinburgh, becoming the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy. * January 11 – French writer Charles Perrault releases the book ''Histoires ou contes du temps passé'' (literally "Tales of Past Times", known in England as "Mother Goose tales") in Paris, a collection of popular fairy tales, including ''Cinderella'', ''Puss in Boots'', ''Red Riding Hood'', ''The Sleeping Beauty'' and ''Bluebeard''. * February 8 – The English infantry regiment of Arthur Chichester, 3rd Earl of Donegall is disbanded four years after it was first raised. * February 22 – Gerrit de Heere becomes the new Governor of Dutch Ceylon, succeeding Thomas van Rhee and administering the colony for almost six years until his death. * February 26 – Conquistador Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi and 114 soldiers arrive at Lake Petén Itzá in what is now Guatemala and begin the Spanish conquest of Guatemala with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1754 Deaths
Events January–March * January 28 – Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word ''serendipity''. * February 22 – Expecting an attack by Portuguese-speaking militias in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, the indigenous Guarani people residing in the Misiones Orientales stage an attack on a small Brazilian Portuguese settlement on the Rio Pardo in what is now the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The attack by 300 Guarani soldiers from the missions at San Luis, San Lorenzo and San Juan Bautista is repelled with a loss of 30 Guarani and is the opening of the Guarani War * February 25 – Guatemalan Sergeant Major Melchor de Mencos y Varón departs the city of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala with an infantry battalion to fight British pirates that are reportedly disembarking on the coasts of Petén (modern-day Belize), and sacking the nearby towns. * March 16 – Ten days after the death of British Prime Minister Henry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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