A.G. RANDALL was bora in 1938 at Beaconsfield (Bucks.). Sirice toys could solely be bought during this period, children were forced to invent their own amusements using second hand toys or what they could make for themselves. This contributed to an early fascination with mechanical objects which gradually turned to mending and repair. At the age of nive, Randall was sent to boarding school at Eastbourne. In his midteens, still at school, he was repairing docks and watches on a regular basis and began to pester local jewellers for tools and materials. He was offered a part-tune job in Eastbourne, from Geoff Lee. Here he helped to repair docks - especially carriage docks requiring a great deal of liard work - receiving instruction and tools in lieu of payment. Unfortunately, at the time, career prospects at the bench in horology were not good, so Rande continued bis education at Manchester University, fin ishing in 1960 with a degree in Physics. Thereafter followed short spells in business with his father and then with the Cambridge Scientific Instrument company working largely on their Scanning Electron Microscope project. Horological pursuits continued on an amateur basis including studies to obtain a Fellowship of the British Horological Institute. In 1963 Randall left for Switzerland and a period of vert' intense practical study at the Technicum Neuchâtelois Watcb makers School at La Chaux-de- Fonds. Through the kindness of the director Samuel Guye he was allowed to make a large deck watch ( the 65nun calibre) to compete in the trials at Neuchâtel Observatory, studying under Paul Vuilleurnier for chronometry and Pierre Girardet for springing and adjusting. Note: The tourbillon in this watch rotates very deliberately in six minutes rather than the more conventional one minute. The main problems a faster rotating carriage are caused by the inertia of the carriage assembly. This must accelerate rapidly from rest to enable the escapement to function, then be abruptly halted afterwards. In order for the tourbillon to function, yet not destroy itself rapidly, it lias to be made very light, yet still retain sufficient strength to resist ail the strains imposed. To achieve these requirements the carriage is usually made of steel. Not only is the construction difficult and expensive, since the steel parts must be very thin yet still undergo hardening and tempering without distorting, but the resulting carriage is highly susceptible to the effects of magnetism. In recent years our modem Western world lias become highly polluted with magnetism, there are magnets ail around us, and most items made of steel soon become magnetised as well. As a result the steel carriage in tourbillons, can easily become magnetised which in turn upsets the rate of the watch. Tourbillons rotating only slightly more slowly, are still adequate for averaging our positional errors. However, the inertia problems of the carriage are reduced so dramatically that the parts can be made of brass, a material that is not subject to magnetism.