Salomon Coster
Salomon Coster (* um 1622 in Haarlem, † December 1659 in The Hague; Salomon Hendricxz ) was a Dutch clockmaker of the 17th century. He was the first watchmaker who created a pendulum clock.
Life and watchmaking performance
Salomon Coster received a solid training as a watchmaker in Haarlem and made already at around 1640 high quality travel and carriage clocks. Shortly after his marriage in 1643 he moved to The Hague.
Discovered in 1656 by the Dutch astronomer, mathematician and physicist Christiaan Huygens ( 1629-1695 ), the pendulum law and developed the idea of using a pendulum as a regulator for watches.
Coster succeeded in Huygens mission to design and build a movement for this new principle. The first watches had a transition period of about eight days, with the clockwork and the striking mechanism were driven by a single spring. Coster received on June 16, 1657 twenty-one years, the privilege, the only one to make this kind of watches and sell. His first pendulum clocks he signed therefore with " Samuel Coster, Haghe, met privilege 1657 ".
Coster employed from 1657 Fromanteel John, the son of the famous London clockmaker Ahasuerus Fromanteel, for at least eight months in his workshop in The Hague. On September 3, 1657 a contract was signed that allowed Fromanteel, also produce these watches. Fromanteel then made Huygens ' invention known in England. A year later, Coster worked for a time with the French watchmaker Nicolas HANET, the later at least eleven watches brought to Paris and resold there. The watches excited because of their good transition results a sensation and interest.
After his sudden death in December 1659, his widow continued the watchmaker operation still continued for a year. He was then taken over by Pieter Visbagh (1634-1722), a clockmaker from Middelburg had already worked with the Coster 1646-1652.
Received Watches
By his early death in 1659 Coster could not exploit his privilege and themselves produce only about thirty clocks, which still seven pieces in museums and private collections exist. Some of his early travel watches are also obtained.
A clock from 1657, ie from the year in which Huygens invention was patented, was discovered in May 1923 by chance in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, where she had been forgotten and unmarked in the exhibition hung on a wall. After a later reconstruction of the museum they got lost again. The oldest surviving clock by Coster also dates from 1657th It is now in the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden in the Netherlands.
Coster pendulum clocks had a transition period between 30 hours and 8 days. They were powered either by spring action or weights and several watches had an impact mechanism. The works were mounted in simple, veneered with ebony clock cabinets. In a letter to Ismael Boulliau called Huygens, in whose name the watches were sold in January 1659 prices 48-130 florins.
Based on Coster's watches developed the renowned Dutch clock type the Haagse Klokk.