FINE ANTIQUE CLOCKS.
Tel.(01732)358986. Fax.(01732)771842.
To Contact us click here.
FINE ANTIQUE CLOCKS.
Tel.(01732)358986. Fax.(01732)771842.
To Contact us click
here.
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31320C.R This regulator is quite exceptional because of its size. The case, as well as being only 5' 9" tall is also very slender and when displayed alongside a normal size regulator this then becomes more apparent. The overall effect is to make it far more elegant than the standard size clocks. The arched top case has well chosen mahogany veneers and a foliate carved apron below the dial. The silvered regulator dial is signed for the maker ‘T Cooke & Sons, 31 Southampton Street, Strand, London.’ Unusually it has a 24 hour ring with observatory markings for the seconds ring. Derek Roberts has recorded a lot about these eminent makers in his book "English Precision Pendulum Clocks" and it is set out below. The steel rod mercury pendulum has a faceted glass jar and is of the type where the steel rod runs through the centre of the jar. It incorporates a round platform on the rod to accept small weights for fine adjustment to the timekeeping and runs against a silvered beat plaque in the base of the case. The high quality movement has substantial shouldered brass plates with massive double screwed pillars. All the wheel train is of six crossings and it employs a Vulliamy type deadbeat escapement with maintaining power. The brass cased driving weight runs down the left hand side of the case and is hung from a brass pulley with six crossings. Height: 5' 9" (175 cms.) |
THOMAS COOKE OF YORK (1807 - 1869)
Thomas Cooke’s life and achievements have many similarities with those of Harrison, although his work did not have such a dramatic effect. To learn about it in full one can do no better than read Peter Wotton’s six articles on Cooke6. He was born in 1807, the son of a poor shoemaker from Allerthorpe in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Because of his parent’s impecunious state he only attended the National School for two years before joining his father doing work which he thoroughly disliked.
Possibly in part because of the similarity of their names Thomas Cooke the Shoemaker became fascinated by the voyages of James Cook, who also came from a poor background and was largely self educated, and so he decided to go to sea. To further him in this quest he acquired what books he could and studied navigation, astronomy, mathematics, geometry and optics; however when he finally decided that he was ready to set off for the sea, and arranged to go to Hull to find a boat, his mother managed to dissuade him. He thus stayed at home and continued his studies, possibly helped in some measure by the local clergy. He was so successful in this that by 1824 at the age of 17 he was employed to teach some of the sons of the local farmers and the following year he was encouraged to open a school at Bielby some three miles away; however he fairly soon afterwards decided to move to the outskirts of York, where the opportunities were far greater. He opened a school at Skirpenbeck, near Stamford Bridge and it was here that he met Hannah Milner whom he married two years later. It was also here that he made his first object glass from the bottom of a thick tumbler, hand grinding it to the correct contour. He then shaped some scrap tin, soldered it up and when the whole was finally assembled had a superbly made 2.5" telescope which he sold to a friend John Phillips the following year. Phillips was to buy two other telescopes from him in the years to come; a 6.5" refractor in 1852 and a 6" in 1860.
Cooke’s next step was to take a position teaching mathematics at the Rev. Schackley’s School at Micklegate, York, which had opened in 1827 and was expanded in 1829. He also taught in various ladies schools to increase his income.
His marriage to Hannah was to produce seven children, five of whom were boys, and two of these Charles Frederick (1836 - 98) and Thomas (1839 - 1919) subsequently joined him in the business he founded in 1836 at 50 Stonegate, close to York Minster with the assistance of a loan of £100 from his wife’s uncle.
He largely made his own tools and optical instruments and by 1840 had received an order from William Gray for a 4.5" equatorial telescope, which was to be the start of his path to fame and fortune. Gray also bought a 5.5" and a 6.5" telescope from him in 1853. He stayed at Stonegate Street until 1841, concentrating on telescopes and associated equipment such as clockwork to drive them and tell the time. During and after this period he received valuable support from two men, John Phillips and William Harcourt.
Cooke moved to 12 Coney St. next to St. Martin-le-Grand in 1841 where the business continued to prosper. This was in part because of the rapid growth of the railways at that time and the surge in surveying instruments which were required.
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By 1846 he was starting to become involved in turret clock work and his advice was sought on the clock in York Minster Cathedral which had quite recently been installed by Moore & Sons and was giving trouble. He analysed and corrected the problems so far as possible and in the process had to reduce the duration to 30 hrs.
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The upshot of this was that Cooke started his own turret clock business in 1852 and by 1855 had built the Buckingham works for their manufacture. Here he was to produce around seven to eight turret clocks a year for the next 20 - 25 years, employing the wire ropes which Newall had invented in 1850. In 1851 he was elected a member of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society whose observatory was built in 1832. It was refurbished in 1981 and may be found in the grounds of the York Museum. The telescope in it, complete with clockwork drive, was supplied by Thomas Cooke in 1850. By 1860 he had achieved an international reputation in the field of instrument manufacture, selling sextants, surveying equipment; regulators; astronomical telescopes, including the clockwork driving mechanism and even complete observatories. He ran Barnard’s Nautical Instrument shop at Hull and in 1861 opened at 31 Southampton Street, Strand. The business premises in Southampton Street were closed in 1869, the year after his death. It was at the 1862 London Exhibition that he received an order from Robert Stirling Newall for a 25" telescope, at that time the largest in the world. Sadly he underestimated the cost and it was unfinished when he died, being finally completed in 1871. The firm were never to recover from this mistake and eventually went bankrupt in 1879. Although the business was subsequently continued by his sons it was not owned by them. |
In 1916 Vickers acquired a controlling interest in T. Cooke & Sons Ltd and in 1922 bought Troughton & Sims, when the firm became Cooke, Troughton & Sims Ltd. After 1963 the name of the company was changed to Vickers Instruments Ltd. before finally closing in 1988.
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Cooke had one big advantage over other regulator makers. As a scientific instrument manufacturer he approached the design and construction of a regulator with a completely open mind and did not feel obliged to follow any of the standard horological practices. He varied his designs appreciably, using different forms of compensated pendulum, for instance employing zinc/steel compensation; gridiron and mercurial. The escapement and maintaining power also varied and he showed his individuality in many other ways, for instance in the shape of the plates and pillars. Besides his ordinary observatory regulators he also produced some with beautifully executed and very carefully calculated trains showing both mean and solar time. Undoubtedly his efforts were not in vain, his regulators proving to be some of the most accurate ever made up until that time. |
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References 1 Wood, C. Robert Molyneux’s
Astronomical Clocks and Chronometers. Antiquarian Horology. June 1972. pp.
412 - 425. 2 Wood, C. Robert Molyneux’s
Astronomical Clocks and Chronometers. Antiquarian Horology. Sept. 1975.
pp. 412 - 425. 3 Wood, C. Perfection and the pendulum
spring. Clocks. Dec 95. Vol 18, 7 pp. 26 - 30. 4 Wood, C. Robert Molyneux and his
Astronomical Regulators. Clocks. March 2000. 5 Hyde, F.E. Liverpool and the Mersey,
the development of the Port 1700 - 1900. 6 Wotton, P. Thomas Cooke of York.
Clocks Vol 22 Issue 13, Part I pp. 29 - 32; Vol 23 Issue 1, Part 2 pp. 26
- 30; Vol 23 Issue 2, Part 3 pp. 38 - 39; Vol 23 Issue 3, Part 4 pp. 31 -
34; Vol 23 Issue 4, Part 5 pp. 42 - 45; Vol 23 Issue 5, Part 6 pp. 29 -
33. |
