Elias Allen (c.1588 in Tonbridge – March 1653 in London)H. K. Higton, 'Allen, Elias (c.1588–1653)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200
accessed 6 Feb 2011
/ref> was an English maker of

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

s and scientific instruments. Allen was apprenticed to a London clockmaker in 1602 and, after his master died, established himself in a workshop beside St Clement Danes Church, the Strand. He made instruments for James I and Charles I, among others, and was associated with the mathematicians Edmund Gunter and William Oughtred. His apprentices included Ralph Greatorex. He served from 19 January 1637 until 29 July 1638 as Master of the London Clockmakers' Company. He died in March 1653 and was buried in St Clement Danes. A letter from William Oughtred to Allen, dated 20 August 1638, was recently found in the

Macclesfield Collection Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its eas ...

with a reverse print a reverse print of the earliest known Oughtred sliderule. Oughtred writes, “I have here sent you directions (as you requested me being at Twickenham) about the making of the two rulers”. He also indicates he had never actually made the rule of his designs, “would gladly see one of he two parts of the instrumentwhen it is finished: wch yet I never have done”.a reverse print

References

External links

Archival record of 1638 letter from William Oughtred to Elias Allen
(Janus Archive)
Example of clock from Allen's workshop
(Victoria and Albert Museum)
Some account of the Worshipful company of clockmakers of the city of London (1881)
(archive.org) *{http://pballew.blogspot.com/2015/08/on-this-day-in-math-august-20.html, earliest known slide rule, see Events 1638 ] (web page) {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Elias 1580s births 1653 deaths Clockmakers from the Kingdom of England People from Tonbridge

References

Further reading

External links