Thematic Auction in Geneva:The Evolut...
Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Nov 16, 2002
LOT 289
Exceptional group of 25 manuscript pages entirely in Abraham-Louis Breguet's handwriting, including 3 pages of drawings and calculations.
CHF 10,000 - 15,000
EUR 6,500 - 10,000
Sold: CHF 63,250
C. Here, under the title "Analysis of the regulator itself and of its communication with the force which commands its movement", A-L Breguet first analyzes the respective merits of a French marine chronometer by Berthoud and of an English marine chronometer by Arnold. Then follows a long development on the ideal balance as he conceives of it, and a masterful explanation of temperature compensation by means of steel and copper blades. Problems of thermal compensation, and of the differential dilaation of metals, were one of Breguet's subjects of predilection throughout his life.This document, exceptional for its intrinsic qualities and for its rarity, may be that of a speech made to a société savante or to the Académie des Sciences, which Breguet attended all of his life and of which he became a member in 1816.
