10th February 2022
About time: a history of civilisation in 12 clocks.
David Rooney
Many members of the South London Branch will be very happy and pleased to welcome back David Rooney who has contributed many talks and lectures to our branch over the years.
David, here with a new book that has been occupying a lot of his time, is now a freelance researcher and writer. He is a council member for the Antiquarian Horological Society. Born and brought up in South Shields he has had a lifetime’s involvement in horology. His parents started their own horological business in 1982 converting parts of the family home into workshop and office when David was just a small boy. His mother, a researcher, did the accounts and managed the business and David can remember being taken to many properties where his father cared for their horological exhibits. Many of those people that his mother and father met still fondly remember the expertise that his parents lavished on their clocks.
So, it is no wonder that David would follow a career path inspired by their own. After working at the Science Museum as a technology curator, David was to become Curator of Timekeeping at the Royal Greenwich Observatory which is where many of us enjoyed hearing his story of the lady who sold time, Ruth Belville. David then left to work again at the Science Museum setting up the mathematical gallery and publishing his second book whilst being Curator of Time, Navigation and Transport. He has now turned freelance and collated a lot of the information that he has already researched along with further new stories taking the often-difficult task of putting pen to paper.
His new book “About time: a history of civilisation in 12 clocks”, a very catchy title, is published by Penguin books. This book tackles the history of the world, the history of us, how with time we have been controlled and politicised. How empires have been built. This is not a technical book on horology but how clocks and time has been used for centuries as a source of control, power, morality, and belief.
The meeting was held at The White Hart Barn in Godstone and made accessible via Zoom to those unable to attend.