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Nom
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Breguet, Abraham Louis
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Date de naissance
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10. 01. 1747
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Date de mort
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17. 09. 1823
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Lieu de mort
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Paris
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Couverture temporelle
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1775-1823
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Biographie
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The noted, almost legendary, clock- and watch-maker, requires an entry here as a small number of instruments issued from his workshops. Born in Neufchâtel, (Sw), his father died when he was ten and his mother re-married with a clock-maker. A somewhat rebellious child, in 1762 he was apprenticed to a clock-maker in Versailles. After the early death of most of his family Breguet supported his only remaining sister. After renting premises on the Quai des Morfondus he eventually purchased them for 5000 livres. A politically engaged Jacobin 1790-91, a member of the 2nd battalion of the Sans-culottes, he was nonetheless obliged to take refuge in Switzerland 1793- 95. Following his return to Paris and the reestablishment of his workshops, he prospered during the Empire when patronage from Napoleon and members of his entourage led to him becoming the most fashionable watch-maker of his day. Perhaps with help from Prony he developed a metallic thermometer probably in or slightly before 1817 which was shown at the 1819 Exhibition of the products of National Industry (1). He also developed counters for timing music, military marches, and for astronomical purposes, and built the mechanisms for Chappe's optical telegraph. A hand-operated equation dial for finding the difference between mean time and true solar time is known although this could derive from a later period and its relation with some similar devices by de la Combe, Hubert Sarton, and one of the Lepaute family of horologists has yet to be established. With the reconstruction of the French navy from 1815, Breguet was appointed Horloger de la Marine, and produced a small number of chronometers. A member of the Bureau des Longitudes (2), and of the Institut, he was awarded the Légion d'Honneur and was a member of the Conseil Royal des Arts et Métiers (3).
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Notes biographiques
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1 Costaz 363, who dilates on the sensitivity of the instrument which renders it 'très précieux pour certaines expériences de physique'. the following year the instrument was described by Fanny Edgeworth in a letter to Harriet Beaufort, 10 July 1820. see Christina Colvin, Maria Edgeworth, Oxford 1979. The fullest description however is that by Prony himself, Instruction sur le thermomètre métallique de MM Breguet père et fils… et sur les moyens d'établir sa correspondence avec d'autres instrumens thermométriques, n. p. n.d. [Paris 1821]. See also Middleton (Therm) 171.
2 For documents concerning his nomination in 1814 see AN F17/13569.
3 The extensive literature on Breguet is mainly concerned with his horology. the three most useful works that have been used here are Ferret, Breguet (C), and Breguet (E).
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Bibliographie
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Essai sur la force animale et sur le priincipe de mouvement volontaire, Paris 1811
(reviewed in Courrier de l'Europe…,, 1510 & 1534, 8 August & 5 September 1811). 1
Horloge marine à Tourbillon…et montre à longitudes exécutées par M. Breguet pour M. de Sommariva, Paris n.d. [1813
Instructions sur l'usage des montres marines exécutées par Mr Breguet, Brest, 1817.
Exposition de 1819. Produits de la maison Breguet en vingt-un objets nouveaux ou perfectionnés, Paris, 1819
Compteur de secondes, des dixièmes de seconde, et des centièmes par approximation, adaptés aux lunettes astronomiques, Paris, n.d. [c. 1819]
Horlogerie pour l'usage civil, chronomètres portatifs, horloges marines et astronomiques et autres instruments d'observation de Breguet et fils, Horloger de la Marine royale de France, Paris, n.d. [c. 1822]
1 Athough the work has also been attributed to the physicist Gauteron, the existence of Breguet's autograph mauscript (PC), attests hto his authorship.
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Adresse ; enseigne ; période ; source
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51, Quai des Morfondus Paris
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79, Quai de l'Horloge Paris
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Exposition année ; ville ; type ; récompense
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1819 Paris National Hors concours (Member of the Jury)
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Identifiant
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234
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ark:/18469/1q64n
