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Biography John Arnold
John Arnold (born 1736 in Bodmin, Cornwall; died 1799 in London) was a
watchmaker who developed and patented escapement and balance spring
designs. He is known to have lived for a period at Well Hall House in
Eltham, which was then a civil parish of Kent. In 1764, Arnold constructed
what was then the smallest repeating watch, which was set in a ring and
given to George III.
He then turned his attention to the production of ever more precise
chronometers. One of these travelled with the explorer James Cook during
his second voyage to the southern Pacific Ocean in 1772–1775. Arnold
and his rival Thomas Earnshaw were the first to produce chronometers in
significant quantities. Arnold is known for refinement of the chronometer
escapement and balance spring. In 1776 he obtained a patent on the helical
balance spring, though he was not in fact the first to use that shape; it
was use by Robert Hooke in 1664.
