Edward Barlow, alias Booth (1639–1719), was an English priest and

mechanician A mechanician is an engineer or a scientist working in the field of mechanics, or in a related or sub-field: engineering or computational mechanics, applied mechanics, geomechanics, biomechanics, and mechanics of materials. Names other than mechan ...

Life

Barlow was the son of Edward Booth, of

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

, in Lancashire, where he was baptised 15 December 1639. He took the name of Barlow from his uncle, Father

Ambrose Barlow Ambrose Edward Barlow, O.S.B. (1585 – 10 September 1641) was an English Benedictine monk who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. He is one of a group of saints canonized by Pope Paul VI who became known as the Forty Martyrs of En ...

, the Benedictine monk, who suffered martyrdom on account of his priestly character. At the age of twenty he entered the English College at Lisbon (1659), and after being ordained a priest he was sent on the English mission. He first resided with Lord Langdale in Yorkshire, and afterwards removed to Parkhall, in Lancashire, a seat belonging to Mr. Houghton, but his chief employment was attending the poor in the neighbourhood, "to whom he conformed himself both in dress and diet." He died in 1719 at the age of eighty. Dodd, the church historian, who was personally acquainted with Barlow, observes that:

he was master of the Latin and Greek languages, and had a competent knowledge of the Hebrew before he went abroad, and 'tis thought the age he lived in could not show a person better qualified by nature for the mathematical sciences; tho' he read not many books of that kind, the whole system of natural causes seeming to be lodged within him from his first use of reason. He has often told me that at his first perusing of Euclid, that author was as easy to him as a newspaper. His name and fame are perpetuated for being the inventor of the pendulum watches; but according to the usual fate of most projectors, while others were great gainers by his ingenuity, Mr. Barlow had never been considered on that occasion, had not Mr.
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(accidentally made acquainted with the inventor's name) made him a present of 200l. �200

Inventions

During the 20th century there was a common misconception that Barlow invented the ''

rack and snail A striking clock is a clock that sounds the hours audibly on a bell or gong. In 12-hour striking, used most commonly in striking clocks today, the clock strikes once at 1:00 am, twice at 2:00 am, continuing in this way up to twelve time ...

'' striking mechanism for

striking clock A striking clock is a clock that sounds the hours audibly on a bell or gong. In 12-hour striking, used most commonly in striking clocks today, the clock strikes once at 1:00 am, twice at 2:00 am, continuing in this way up to twelve time ...

s in about 1675-6. In fact, his invention was connected with a repeating mechanism employing the rack and snailHorological Journal, September 2011, pages 408-412. allowing

repeater In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction. Some ...

clocks to be built which, at the pull of a string, would strike the number of hours. In this age before widespread artificial illumination, these were used to tell the time after dark. This invention was afterwards applied to

pocket watch A pocket watch (or pocketwatch) is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a watch, wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wr ...

es. Barlow and London watchmaker

Daniel Quare Daniel Quare (1648 or 1649 – 21 March 1724) was an English clockmaker and instrument maker who invented a repeating watch movement in 1680 and a portable barometer in 1695. Early life Daniel Quare's origins are obscure. He was possibly a nati ...

disputed the patent rights to the repeating watch. In 1687,

King James II James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...

decided the question by having each watchmaker submit a quarter repeater watch for the examination of the king and his council. The king, upon trying each of them, gave preference to Quare's, of which notice was given soon after in ''

The London Gazette ''The London Gazette'' is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are ...

''. The difference between these two inventions was that Barlow's was made to repeat by pushing in two pieces on each side of the watch-box, one of which repeated the hour, the other the quarter-hour. Quare's was made to repeat by a pin that stuck out near the pendant; which being pressed repeated both the hour and quarter.

Works

He was the author of: *''Meteorological Essays concerning the Origin of Springs, Generation of Rain, and Production of Wind; with an account of the Tide'', London 1715,

8vo Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...

. *''An exact Survey of the Tide; explicating its production and propagation, variety and anomaly, in all parts of the world, especially near the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland; with a preliminary Treatise concerning the Origin of Springs, Generation of Rain, and Production of Wind. With twelve curious maps'', London 1717, 8vo; 2nd edition, 1722. *''A Treatise of the Eucharist'', 3 vols.

4to Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

, MS.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barlow, Edward 1639 births 1719 deaths 17th-century English Roman Catholic priests 18th-century English Roman Catholic priests English engineers 17th-century English engineers People from Warrington 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers 18th-century English writers 18th-century English male writers English inventors 18th-century British scientists