Editing George Graham (clockmaker)

{{short description|English clockmaker}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
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[[File:Graham portrait.jpg|thumb|George Graham]]

'''George Graham,''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] (7 July 1673, maybe 1675<ref name="Buick2013">{{cite book|author=Tony Buick|title=Orrery: A Story of Mechanical Solar Systems, Clocks, and English Nobility|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lU24AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA53|date=26 October 2013|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4614-7043-4|pages=53}}</ref> – 16 November 1751) was an English [[horology|clockmaker]], inventor, and [[geophysicist]], and a Fellow of the [[Royal Society]].

He was born in [[Kirklinton]], Cumberland.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqSearch=%28Surname=%27graham%27%29&dsqPos=4 |title=DServe Archive Persons Show |publisher=.royalsociety.org |date= |accessdate=15 January 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130113065703/http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqSearch=(Surname='graham')&dsqPos=4 |archive-date=13 January 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A [[Society of Friends|Friend]] (Quaker) like his mentor [[Thomas Tompion]], Graham left Cumberland in 1688 for London to work with Tompion. He later married Tompion's niece, Elizabeth Tompion.

==Career==
[[File:T Tompion and G Graham.JPG|thumb|left|Plaque in [[Fleet Street]], London, commemorating [[Thomas Tompion]] and George Graham]]
Graham was partner to the influential English clockmaker [[Thomas Tompion]] during the last few years of Tompion's life.  Graham is credited with inventing several design improvements to the [[pendulum clock]], inventing the mercury [[pendulum]] and also the [[orrery]]. He was made Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in 1722.<ref>[http://watch-wiki.de/index.php?title=Graham%2C_George Watch-Wiki: George Graham]</ref>

Between 1730 and 1738, Graham had as an apprentice [[Thomas Mudge (horologist)|Thomas Mudge]], who went on to be an eminent watchmaker in his own right, and invented the [[lever escapement]], an important development for pocket watches.<ref name=bagust>Harold Bagust, "The Greater Genius?", 2006, Ian Allan Publishing, {{ISBN|0-7110-3175-4}} (page 15)</ref>

He was widely acquainted with practical astronomy, invented many valuable astronomical instruments, and improved others. Graham made for [[Edmond Halley]] the great [[mural quadrant]] at [[Greenwich Observatory]], and also the fine [[transit instrument]] and the [[zenith sector]] used by [[James Bradley]] in his discoveries. He supplied the French Academy with the apparatus used for the measurement of a degree of the meridian, and constructed the most complete planetarium known at that time, in which the motions of the celestial bodies were demonstrated with great accuracy. This was made in cabinet form, at the desire of [[Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery]].

Graham was introduced to [[John Harrison]] on the latter's arrival in London, and became a longtime advisor and supporter of Harrison's work on a marine chronometer. Graham and Harrison spent many hours discussing clockwork when first introduced, and Graham gave Harrison an unsecured and interest-free loan to continue his work at this first meeting. Graham later presented Harrison to the [[Board of Longitude]], speaking on his behalf and securing additional funding from the Board.<ref name="horrins">{{cite wikisource |last=Horrins |first=Joahn |plaintitle=Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III. of these United Kingdoms |chapter=Appendix 6 |year=1835 |location=London}}</ref>

==Deadbeat escapement==
The [[Anchor escapement#Deadbeat escapement|deadbeat escapement]] is often erroneously credited to George Graham who introduced it around 1715 in his precision regulator clocks.<ref>Milham 1945, p.185</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/watchandclockma00glasgoog/page/n283 <!-- pg=297 --> Glasgow 1885, p.297]</ref><ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Clock |volume= 06 |last1= Beckett |first1= Edmund |last2= Cunynghame |first2= Henry Hardinge | pages = 536&ndash;553; see page 541, last few lines |quote= Dead escapements...To get rid of this defect the dead escapement......was invented by G. Graham. }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia
  | title = Deadbeat escapement
  | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Clocks and Watches
  | publisher = Old and Sold Antiques Marketplace
  | url = http://www.oldandsold.com/articles02/clocks-d.shtml
  | accessdate = 8 June 2008| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20080520161531/http://www.oldandsold.com/articles02/clocks-d.shtml| archivedate= 20 May 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref> However it was actually invented around 1675 by astronomer [[Richard Towneley]], and first used by Graham's mentor [[Thomas Tompion]] in a clock built for Sir [[Jonas Moore]], and in the two precision regulators he made for the new [[Greenwich Observatory]] in 1676,<ref>Betts, Jonathan [https://books.google.com/books?id=1AsFdUxOwu8C&pg=PA121&sig=EBT7fm5nXdATFL3PhJ0Of6BMCE8 Regulators] in {{cite book
  | last = Bud
  | first = Robert
  | authorlink =
  | author2 = Warner, Debra Jean
  | title = Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia
  | publisher = Taylor & Francis
  | year = 1998
  | location =
  | pages =
  | url =
  | doi =
  | isbn = 978-0-8153-1561-2}} p.121</ref> mentioned in correspondence between Astronomer Royal [[John Flamsteed]] and Towneley<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Flamsteed
  | first = John
  | authorlink =
  | author2 = Forbes, Eric |author3=Murdin, Lesley
  | title = The Correspondence of John Flamsteed, First Astronomer Royal, Vol.1
  | publisher = CRC Press
  | year = 1995
  | location =
  | pages =
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Hrm9aCi48CYC&pg=PA376
  | doi =
  | isbn =978-0-7503-0147-3 }} Letter 229 Flamsteed to Towneley (22 September 1675), p.374, and Annotation 11 p.375</ref><ref>Andrewes, W.J.H. [https://books.google.com/books?id=F7wNQk219KMC&pg=PA126&sig=v3OGcBZ9yAuEx-hfdTfUWnBfiFQ ''Clocks and Watches: The leap to precision''] in {{cite book
  | first = Samuel
  | last = Macey
  | authorlink =
  | title = Encyclopedia of Time
  | pages =
  | publisher = Taylor & Francis
  | year = 1994
  | location =
  | url =
  | doi =
  | isbn = 978-0-8153-0615-3}} p.126, this cites a letter of 11 December, but he may have meant the 22 September letter mentioned above.</ref>

===Achievements===
His major contribution to geophysics was the discovery of the diurnal variation of the terrestrial magnetic field in 1722/23.<ref>Graham, George (1724): An Account of Observations Made of the Variation of the Horizontal Needle at London, in the Latter Part of the Year 1722, and Beginning of 1723. [http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/33/381-391/96.full.pdf Phil. Trans. 33, 96–107, doi:10.1098/rstl.1724.0020]</ref><ref>Graham, George (1724): Observations of the Dipping Needle, Made at London, in the Beginning of the Year 1723. [http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/33/381-391/332.full.pdf Phil. Trans. 33, 332–339, doi:10.1098/rstl.1724.0062]</ref> He was also one of the first to notice long-term secular change in the direction of the compass needle.<ref>Graham, George (1748): Some Observations, Made during the Last Three Years, of the Quantity of the Variation of the Magnetic Horizontal Needle to the Westward. [http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/45/485-490/279.full.pdf Phil. Trans. 45, 279–280, doi:10.1098/rstl.1748.0030]</ref> The compass needles he produced as an instrument-maker were used by many contemporary magneticians. Around 1730, George loaned approximately £200 to [[John Harrison]] so that he could start work on his marine timekeeper known later as H1. George was commonly known in the trade as 'Honest George Graham'.

==Examples of his work==
* A 28-day duration longcase regulator with deadbeat escapement c. 1745 [http://www.moyseshall.org Moyse's Hall Museum] [[Bury St Edmunds]] UK

==Death==
He died at his home in Fleet Street, London<ref>'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A.R. p31: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966</ref> and was buried in the same tomb as his friend and mentor [[Thomas Tompion]] in [[Westminster Abbey]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Britten|first=Frederick J.|title=Former Clock and Watchmakers and their Work|year=1894|publisher=E. & F.N. Spon|location=London|url=https://archive.org/details/formerclockwatc00britgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/formerclockwatc00britgoog/page/n404 89]}} p.89-97</ref>

== In popular culture ==
Actor [[Peter Vaughan]] was cast as George Graham in the TV series, ''[[Longitude (TV serial)|Longitude]]'' in 2000.<ref>{{cite web |title=Longitude © (1999) |url=http://movie-dude.com/[Film]%20Longitude%20(1999).htm |access-date=22 June 2021}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Dynamometer]]

==References==
{{DNB poster|Graham, George (1675-1751)}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, George}}
[[Category:1670s births]]
[[Category:1751 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Cumberland]]
[[Category:English geophysicists]]
[[Category:English inventors]]
[[Category:English Quakers]]
[[Category:English watchmakers (people)]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey]]
[[Category:English clockmakers]]
[[Category:English scientific instrument makers]]