BERTHOUD (Ferdinand)

Lot 8
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1500 - 2000 EUR
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Result : 2 540EUR
BERTHOUD (Ferdinand)
Treatises on marine clocks, containing the theory, construction, manpower of these machines and how to test them. In Paris, by J.B.G. Musier, 1773, in-4, 590 pages, 27 folding plates, full period calf, spine with nerves in small iron, red title piece, red edges. (Usures) Rare first edition of this remarkable work on chronometers, the fruit of the author's long experience; a complete copy of the 27 beautiful folding plates engraved on copper by Choffard, after Goussier, representing the mechanisms of the instruments described or built by Berthoud. The treatise is a sequel to the Essai sur l'horlogerie, published ten years earlier. Ferdinand BERTHOUD (1727-1807), a watchmaker from Plancemont in Switzerland, went to Paris in 1745 at the age of 17 and became a master watchmaker there in 1754. From 1762, he specialized in the making of marine chronometers and, from 1773, he became a mechanical watchmaker for the Navy and, in 1786, a resident watchmaker for the King and Inspector General of Machinery for the Navy. Burgdorf launched a whole range of new ideas and was the author of a large number of books. He is credited with the invention of the spring trigger, with which he equipped his last marine chronometer. Although he succeeded in building highly accurate marine clocks, his clocks proved to be fragile and unsuitable for service at sea. He was one of Le Roy's main rivals.
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