George Margetts (1748-1804)Was born June 17, 1748 at Woodstock in Oxfordshire. He became free of the Clockmakers' Company on October 11, 1779 and carried on business at 21 King Street, Cheapside till the end of the century when he moved to No. 3 Cheapside. At the time, he already produced the astronomical watches for which he is best known today. The venture does not seem to have been successful, for in 1788, the Morning Chronicle noted Margett's bankruptcy.In 1789 he presented to the Board of Longitude a "Description of a detached Pendulum", but did not receive the support he hoped for. However he continued his investigations into Longitude and at the next meeting of the Board, presented a Longitude Table. Fortunately, the petition presented by Margetts in 1789 has survived and supplies a few extra information concerning his inventions. The adjustment to the gridiron pendulum was designed to give the astronomer an opportunity of adjusting the expasion or contraction of the Pendulum to counteract the various effects of heat, cold, moisture or atmospheric pressure.The tables mentioned in the Board of Longitude minutes for August 1789 were published that year, and were accompanied by "a logarithmic Rotula invented by the author for making decimal and sexagesimal proportions.....which will greatly facilitate the various calculations necessary to be made in every branch of Mathematics and of Astronomy and Navigation".Despite the great variety of his publications, Margetts does not seem to have prospered. In 1789 he suffered heavy losses in the India Trade.On October 7, 1799, Margetts was elected to the livery of the Clockmakers'Company. He died on December 27, 1804.Bibliography: Antiquarian Horology, vol. 7, pp. 304-316, an article by A.J. Turner about the life and work of Margetts with extensive bibliography.