AN EIGHT-DAY ROYAL GREENWICH OBSERVATORY MARINE CHRONOMETER

Details
AN EIGHT-DAY ROYAL GREENWICH OBSERVATORY MARINE CHRONOMETER
Jno. R. Arnold, No. 562

the silvered dial signed and numbered J.R. Arnold, London, 562, Roman hour numerals, subsidiary seconds and up-and-down dials, blued steel hands, main frame assembly inscribed JNo. R. ARNOLD Invet et Fecit, LONDON, 562, carrying barrel, and (reversed) fusee, sub-frame assembly carrying centre wheel back pivot and remainder of train and Earnshaw escapement, cut bimetallic balance, circular heat compensation weights, steel pallets to impulse and discharging rollers, oversprung blued steel helical balance spring, spring foot detent (repaired) with jewelled locking stone, brass bowl with convex glass, gimballed in plain three-tier mahogany box with external brass drop handles
122mm. dial diam, 202mm. sq. box

Lot Essay

PROVENANCE:
1822: H.M.S. JUPITER; issued 15 March 1822 to Captain George A. Westphal R.N. This ship onveyed Lord Amherst, The Governor General of India, to Bengal.
1824: H.M.S. JUPITER; at Halifax and Cape of Good Hope Stations, issued 1824 to Captain Sir David Dunn R. N., transferred to Captain William Saltonstall Wiseman R.N. Bart 1 December 1824.
1825: H.M.S. ROSE; on the North American Station, issued to Captain Eaton Stannard Travers R.N. 28 September 1825, returned 7 August 1832. In the earlier part of this period Rose visited Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope. Later she operated in the Bay of Fundy, Canada, and using Arnold No. 562 ascertained the longitude of different headlands in the locality bounded by New Bruswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
1832: No. 562 is recorded 30 August 1832 at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth and is at this time classified as "Unfit" for service.
1834: H.M.S. RAINBOW; on the North American and West Indies Station, issued 3 April 1834 to Captain Thomas Bennet R.N. Rainbow operated from Jamaica and was also engaged in fishery protection off Newfoundland.
1844: H.M.S. ESPIEGLE; on the Channel Station and later the East Indies, issued 3 April 1844 to Captain Thomas Pickering Thompson R.N.
1854: H.M. Surveying Ship LIGHTNING; issued 14 March 1854 to Captain Bartholomew James Sulivan R.N. When the Crimean War broke out in 1854 Lightning was seconded for surveying duties to the Commander-in-Chief Baltic, Vice Admiral Napier. She was instrumental in leading a squadron of Royal Naval vessels, under the command of Rear Admiral Henry Chads, through the Ango Channel to successfully attack Bomarsund 28 July 1854.

1857: in a letter from Frederick Dent, 61 Strand WC2 dated 21 January 1857, addressed to the Astronomer Royal, he writes "Arnold 276 and 562 - 8 Day. Will require new escapements, new balances, new balance springs & other repairs which will cost 15 Guineas each chronometer". He continues by offering to supply new replacement chronometers at ¨30 each, and allowing ¨12 each for old ones. His offer was accepted by Their Lordships and in his letter to Dent dated 23 June 1857 the Astronomer Royal selected Dent No. 2632 as a replacement. Accordingly Arnold No. 562 was taken off the Royal Obersvatory books.

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