Henry Sully (1680–1729) was an English

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 t ...

. He was an apprentice and then journeyman for celebrated English clockmaker and watchmaker

Charles Gretton Charles Gretton was an English clock and watchmaker during the golden age of English clockmaking. Early life Gretton was baptised in Claypole, Lincolnshire, on 24 January 1647/48. He was possibly the third youngest of nine or ten children. His ...

. He lived in France for many years.Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry

Marine clock

Henry Sully clock with escapement and suspension mechanism

He invented a marine clock to determine

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

accurately, a sophisticated

pendulum clock A pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight, as its timekeeping element. The advantage of a pendulum for timekeeping is that it is an approximate harmonic oscillator: It swings back and forth in a precise time interval dep ...

. He presented a first ''Montre de la Mer'' in 1716 to the French

Académie des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

.A Chronology of Clocks
He was the first person to develop a chronometer in Paris.''Encyclopædia Britannica'' p.276
/ref> In 1718, Henry Sully established a watch factory in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

. He presented two new models in 1723. In 1726, he published ''Une Horloge inventée et executée par M. Sulli''. His chronometers performed well in calm weather, but not on the high seas. Henry Sully worked with

Julien Le Roy Julien Le Roy (; 1686-1759) was a major 18th-century Parisian clockmaker and watchmaker. He was born in Tours in 1686, the scion of four previous generations of clockmakers. By the age of 13, had already made his first clock. In 1699, he moved t ...

, a clockmaker to

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

.''Encyclopedia of time'' Samuel L. Macey p.348
/ref> In France, Henry Sully was followed in his developments by

Pierre Le Roy Pierre Le Roy (; 1717–1785) was a French clockmaker. He was the inventor of the detent escapement, the temperature-compensated balance and the isochronous balance spring. His developments are considered as the foundation of the modern precis ...

and

Ferdinand Berthoud Ferdinand Berthoud (; born 18 March 1727, in Couvet, Plancemont-sur-Couvet, Principality of Neuchâtel; died 20 June 1807, in Groslay, Val d'Oise), was a scientist and watchmaker. He became master watchmaker in Paris in 1753. Berthoud, who held ...

. Soon after the 1726 publication of ''Une Horloge inventée et executée par M. Sulli'',

John Harrison John Harrison ( – 24 March 1776) was an English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the History of longitude, problem of how to calculate longitude while at sea. Harrison's sol ...

started developing his own famous chronometer, creating a description and drawings for a proposed marine clock in 1730 and actually manufacturing the Harrison H1 in 1735.

Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice

The priest of

Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris The Church of Saint-Sulpice () is a Catholic church in Paris, France, on the east side of Place Saint-Sulpice, in the 6th arrondissement. Only slightly smaller than Notre-Dame and Saint-Eustache, it is the third largest church in the city. ...

, Languet de Gergy, wishing to establish the exact astronomical time in order to ring the bells at the most appropriate time of day, commissioned Henry Sully to build the Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice.Rougé, p.7-12 In 1737, another one of his books was published: ''Illustrations de Règle artificielle du temps, traité de la division naturelle et artificielle du temps...''.
Illustrations de Règle artificielle du temps
'

Works

Notes

References

*Rougé, Michel ''The Gnomon of the Church of Saint-Sulpice'', Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, 2009.

External links

1726 report: ''Description of a clock of a new invention for the true measure of time at sea'' in ''New memoirs of literature'' by

Michel de La Roche Michel may refer to: * Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name) * Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers) * Míchel (footballer, born 1963), ...

, p. 44

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sully, Henry English clockmakers 1680 births 1729 deaths