Gustav Horstmann

Copy of G Horstmann's 1856 micrometer at the Museum of Bath at Work .

Friedrich Gustav Adolph Horstmann

1828 October 21st. Born in Westphalia, Germany, one of ten children born to Ernst Heinrich Horstmann (1798-1853), a village schoolmaster, and his wife Franziska Charlotte Petermann.

c.1850 Gustav Horstmann emigrated to London. He become foreman of a clock and watchmakers in London and later moved to Bath. At first he worked for local companies before setting himself up as Gustav Horstmann, Watch and Clock Maker, and Jeweller in 1854.

1856 He won a prize "to devise the most accurate and foolproof device to measure the smallest item". This was a micrometer able to measure items as small as 1/10,000 of an inch; the original is in the London Science Museum, and a copy is on display at the Museum of Bath at Work (see photo).

1858 June 22nd. Married Louisa Priscilla Knott (1834-1904)

Gustav patented a device for "a new or improved mode of obtaining motive power ... for winding clocks, timepieces and other mechanism, and also for ventilating ... green-houses ..." He made several self-winding regulator clocks using this principle; one is on display at the Museum of Bath at Work.

He married Louisa Knott; they had five sons (Otto, Frederick, Hermann, Albert and Sidney) and three daughters.

1861 Birth of daughter Ida M. A.

1863 Birth of son Gustav Otto Henry Horstmann

1864 Birth of son Frederick Otto became an engineering draughtsman

1866 Birth of son Ernest Hermann became a Watchmaker in Bath

1869 Birth of son Albert became a jewellery shop-keeper in Bath

1870 Birth of daughter Augusta Louisa

1874 Birth of daughter Pauline Katherine

1881 Birth of son Sidney Adolphe

4 of his sons were apprenticed to Gustav.

Later the company became G. Horstmann and Sons.

1893 Gustav Horstmann died in April, with around one hundred patents to his name.

See Also

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Sources of Information

• South-West Electricity Historical Society [1]