To start with one of his first important commissions: In 1676 Tompion was engaged to build a pair of precision clocks for the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.  I find this hard to believe, but I couldn't for the life of me find a picture of these clocks, in one of the most visited tourist spots in the world. It's sort of like not finding a picture of the Mona Lisa. They were very long (2 seconds) pendulum clocks, built into the woodwork of the Octagon room.  The clocks were geared to run for a full year on a single wind (not, generally, a good idea) and the movements were positioned below the pendulum (also proved bad mechanical practice despite repeated attempts over the centuries). Here's a picture of the dial of one of the clocks:

You are going to laugh when I told you where I found it; a coffee table book. (Image credit:  Clocks, Pleasures and Treasures  Simon Fleet  G. P. Putnam's Sons, NY 1961)

The dial is on a velvet ground, in the Dutch manner, and the minute hand makes a revolution in two hours. This may be a mechanical concession to the gearing for long duration.  Every minute is numbered.  These movements are in the collection of the British Museum, and one of them is displayed, in situ, in Greenwich, along with a modern replica. A curious fact is that the pendulums swing from front to back in these clocks.

Also on public display on the major tourist route, and difficult to find a picture of, is the important month duration equation regulator, from 1707 in the Pump Room in Bath:

 (Image credit:  Thomas Tompion, his Life and Work  R. W. Symonds  Spring Books, London 1969)

We haven't touched on Equation of time yet, but in brief, the sundials that clocks were set to, vary as much as 17 minutes fast or slow from mean (or clock) time. Equation clocks have an annual calendar, with a cam, and a dial to display the difference between mean and apparent time.

Here's a great clock with a 24 hour dial (and a royal provenance) from late in his career:

Longcase Clock
Thomas Tompion
 MOD10/6121/1 - mahogany-

The non-maritime horological includes many masterpieces, including this Tompion regulator presented to Queen Anne during her appointment as Lord High Admiral in 1708. Thomas Tompion (1639-1716), who worked in Fleet Street, was one of the greatest clock and watchmaker's whose attention to detail was legendary; to his work is due the supremacy of English horology in the 18th century. Tompion's achievements include making the first clocks for the Greenwich Observatory in 1676.

(image credit UK Ministry of Defence)

Some biographical information: Tompion was born in Northill, Bedfordshire, and christened in Northill church in 1639.  There is some evidence that he didn't remain Anglican:

Quaker craftsmen played a leading role in the production of accurate instruments for measuring time and longitude.   Thomas Tompion (1638-1713) made clocks of extraordinary  beauty and precision for the Greenwich Observatory, and twelve month  grandfather clocks still in use in Buckingham Palace and Windsor  Castle.   Daniel  Quare (1649-1724) made watches, clocks and barometers.  Quare refused to pay tithes and was often fined.   He also refused to be the king's watch maker for conscience' sake because  he  would have had to swear an oath.   Known in all the royal courts of Europe he succeeded in  maintaining his Quaker simplicity and integrity.   George Graham (1673-1751) designed cylinder and dead beat  escapements for watches that are still used.   He invented the mercurial pendulum which compensated for  changes in room temperature, and created the Mural Arc at Greenwich  for accurately mounting a telescope so that star positions could be  recorded accurately.

This is from pendlehill.org, and states that three of the big names in English horology were Quakers.  I've not seen this cited in other writings, but it makes sense: One of the reasons that English technology was so vibrant was that it attracted people driven out by religious intolerance elsewhere. Quakers also keep really good records.

Tompion was admitted to the clockmaker's company on Sept. 4, 1671. He was a bachelor, and much mentioned in the diaries of Robert Hooke, of whom more will be heard later.  He was briefly partners with Edward Banger around 1701, and both names appear on quite a few dials.  Was it just a business partnership?  It's always dangerous to speculate.  Here's a juicy item from The Post Man Feb. 4, 1701:

Lost from Mr. Tompions House in Fleetstreet at Water Lane end, on Sunday in the Evening, a small black Bitch of the Dutch Breed, She hath dew claws upon her hinder legs. and her ears cut, with a Brass Collar about her neck, with this inscription Edw. Banger at the 3 Crowns and Dial in Fleetstreet, at Water-lane end, at Mr. Tompions.  Whoever gives notice of her to Mr. Tompion, so as she may be had again, shall have 5s. reward.

He had Tompion's name engraved on his dog's collar? We report, you decide.

Tompion was again in partnership, this time with the great horologist, George Graham, in 1711.  He died in 1713, and is buried in Westminster Abbey, next to George Graham.

So that, aside from a few ledger sheets, is about what we know of the life of one of the most famous clockmakers in the world.  It's more than we know about most of them.  The most important thing to know about them is the clocks.

Here is yet another great clock with a Royal provenence:

 

(image credit history.org), a wonderful article on the Tompion at Colonial Williamsburg.  Go read it. It tells the story of the struggle to get an export license for this vastly important clock, and how they succeeded on a technicality.

Tompion was apprenticed to a blacksmith, and his steel work is indeed wonderful.  Here's a snapshot of a repeating bracket clock movement, and a detail of the springs:

That beautiful circular spring is not needed: The fusee barrel click is only set up once when the clock is assembled.  No one else ever put any spring, let alone such a beautifully finished one, there.  Not every clock by Tompion was a royal masterpiece: here's a bench picture of a striking longcase clock.  Note the latched plates, and the bolt and shutter maintaining power:

(image credit: arcadianclock.com)

Next time: The fourth of the famous four early English clockmakers, Daniel Quare.

Previously:

Monastic alarms and the beginnings of clockmaking
De Dondi's remarkable astrarium
Early tower clocks
Gothic iron clocks
Rennaisance clocks
Early english lantern clocks
Huygens and the pendulum
Fromanteel's English pendulum clocks
Huygens in Paris
Clement and the recoil escapement
Edward East and the golden age