Henry Hindley (1701–1771) was an 18th-century

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 ...

, watchmaker and maker of scientific instruments. He invented a

screw-cutting lathe A screw-cutting lathe is a machine (specifically, a lathe) capable of cutting very accurate screw threads via single-point screw-cutting, which is the process of guiding the linear motion of the tool bit in a precisely known ratio to the rotatin ...

, a fusee-cutting engine and an improved wheel-cutting engine and made one of the first

dividing engine A dividing engine is a device employed to mark graduations on measuring instruments to allow for reading smaller measurements than can be allowed by directly engraving them. The well-known vernier scale and micrometer screw-gauge are classic e ...

s,''Scientific Instruments of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries and their Makers'', Portman Books, London 1989 for the construction of accurately-graduated arcs on scientific instruments. He is thought to have made the world's first equatorially-mounted

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observ ...

, which can now be seen in

Burton Constable Hall Burton Constable Hall is a large Elizabethan country house in England, with 18th- and 19th-century interiors and a fine 18th-century cabinet of curiosities. The hall, a Grade I listed building, is set in a park designed by Capability Brown ...

East Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to th ...

. Hindley was a Roman Catholic, born in Wigan (Lancs) in 1701. He was apprenticed and made clocks in Wigan from 1726 to 1730 and moved to York in 1731, where he was established first in

Petergate Petergate is a street in the city centre of York, in England. It is divided into High Petergate and Low Petergate. The well-known view of the Minster from Low Petergate is described by the City of York Council as "excellent". History Petergate ...

and then Stonegate from 1741 until his death in 1771.

John Smeaton John Smeaton (8 June 1724 – 28 October 1792) was a British civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. Smeaton was the fi ...

's cousin John Holmes was apprenticed to Hindley. He was succeeded by his son, who died in 1775. Most of his surviving clocks are high quality long-case clocks featuring long going and the use of

deadbeat escapement In horology, the anchor escapement is a type of escapement used in pendulum clocks. The escapement is a mechanism in a mechanical clock that maintains the swing of the pendulum by giving it a small push each swing, and allows the clock's wheels ...

s, six spoke wheels, high count trains and repeating, enclosed movements. A year-going clock with a bolt-and-shutter maintaining power is in the

York Castle Museum York Castle Museum is a museum located in York, North Yorkshire, England, on the site of York Castle, which was originally built by William the Conqueror in 1068. The museum itself was founded by John L. Kirk in 1938, and is housed in prison b ...

, together with four eight-day clocks. A further example, a Hindley movement of around 1740 fitted into a walnut marquetry case of ca. 1690, is at the stately home of

Temple Newsam Temple Newsam (historically Temple Newsham), () is a Tudor- Jacobean house in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown. The estate lends its name to the Temple Newsam ward of Leeds City Council, in which i ...

near

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

. Others exist in private collections. He made turret clocks such as those for

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Arch ...

(much modified over the years) and the Bar Convent in York. One of his bracket clocks may also be seen in York Minster. He made watches in some numbers:J.R.M. Setchell, in ''Transactions of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society'', 1972 examples exist in the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in ...

and the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, as well as the York Castle Museum.

References

English inventors English clockmakers People from Wigan 1701 births 1771 deaths British scientific instrument makers Engineers from Yorkshire {{UK-engineer-stub

See also

References