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Books > Professional & Technical > Industrial chemistry & manufacturing technologies > Other manufacturing technologies > Precision instruments manufacture > Clocks & chronometers

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Time Restored - The Harrison timekeepers and R.T. Gould, the man who knew (almost) everything (Paperback) Loot Price: R1,147
Discovery Miles 11 470
Time Restored - The Harrison timekeepers and R.T. Gould, the man who knew (almost) everything (Paperback): Jonathan Betts

Time Restored - The Harrison timekeepers and R.T. Gould, the man who knew (almost) everything (Paperback)

Jonathan Betts

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Loot Price R1,147 Discovery Miles 11 470 | Repayment Terms: R107 pm x 12*

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This is the story of Rupert T. Gould (1890-1948), the polymath and horologist. A remarkable man, Lt Cmdr Gould made important contributions in an extraordinary range of subject areas throughout his relatively short and dramatically troubled life. From antique clocks to scientific mysteries, from typewriters to the first systematic study of the Loch Ness Monster, Gould studied and published on them all. With the title The Stargazer, Gould was an early broadcaster on the BBC's Children's Hour when, with his encyclopaedic knowledge, he became known as The Man Who Knew Everything. Not surprisingly, he was also part of that elite group on BBC radio who formed The Brains Trust, giving on-the-spot answers to all manner of wide ranging and difficult questions. With his wide learning and photographic memory, Gould awed a national audience, becoming one of the era's radio celebrities.
During the 1920s Gould restored the complex and highly significant marine timekeepers constructed by John Harrison (1693-1776), and wrote the unsurpassed classic, The Marine Chronometer, its History and Development. Today he is virtually unknown, his horological contributions scarcely mentioned in Dava Sobel's bestseller Longitude. The TV version of Longitude, in which Jeremy Irons played Rupert Gould, did at least introduce Gould's name to a wider public.
Gould suffered terrible bouts of depression, resulting in a number of nervous breakdowns. These, coupled with his obsessive and pedantic nature, led to a scandalously-reported separation from his wife and cost him his family, his home, his job, and his closest friends.
In this first-ever biography of Rupert Gould, Jonathan Betts, the Royal Observatory Greenwich's Senior Horologist, has given us a compelling account of a talented but flawed individual. Using hitherto unknown personal journals, the family's extensive collection of photographs, and the polymath's surviving records and notes, Betts tells the story of how Gould's early life, his naval career, and his celebrity status came together as this talented Englishman restored part of Britain's - and the world's - most important technical heritage: John Harrison's marine timekeepers.

General

Imprint: Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Release date: May 2011
First published: July 2011
Authors: Jonathan Betts
Dimensions: 215 x 146 x 24mm (L x W x T)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 480
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-960671-9
Categories: Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > History of science
Books > Science & Mathematics > Physics > General
Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Maritime history
Books > Professional & Technical > Industrial chemistry & manufacturing technologies > Other manufacturing technologies > Precision instruments manufacture > Clocks & chronometers
Books > History > History of specific subjects > Maritime history
LSN: 0-19-960671-4
Barcode: 9780199606719

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