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The Encyclopedia of Horology

London, England · 1790 – 1853

Edward John Dent

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Chronometers and precision clocks, including 'Big Ben'

Life & work

Edward John Dent rose from a difficult early life to become one of the foremost English chronometer and clock makers of the nineteenth century, working initially in partnership with John Roger Arnold (son of John Arnold) before establishing his own firm, E. J. Dent, which built a strong reputation for marine chronometers and precision regulators supplied to observatories, the Royal Navy and the East India Company among others.

Dent's firm's best-known achievement is the Great Clock of Westminster (housed in the Elizabeth Tower and popularly known by the name of its bell, 'Big Ben'), designed by Edmund Beckett Denison (later Lord Grimthorpe) and built by the Dent firm — Edward John Dent did not live to see it completed, and the work was finished by his stepson Frederick Dent after E. J. Dent's death in 1853.

The Dent firm continued under several successors after his death, and the Dent name persisted commercially into the twentieth century and beyond; as with other historic maisons, later 'Dent' products should be understood in relation to whichever successor business produced them, not attributed to Edward John Dent personally.

Training, contributions & innovations

  • Built the mechanism for the Great Clock of Westminster ('Big Ben'), completed after his death by his successor firm
  • Supplied precision marine chronometers to the Royal Navy and commercial shipping
  • Built a reputation for exacting regulator and observatory clock work in Victorian London

Inventions & patents

  • No specific personal patent of Edward John Dent's is confirmed in the sources consulted beyond his firm's chronometer and clock production; the Great Clock of Westminster's escapement (the gravity escapement) was designed by Edmund Beckett Denison, not by Dent.

Signatures & markings on surviving work

  • Chronometers and clocks signed 'E. Dent, London' or 'Dent, London', later 'Dent & Co.'

Collecting significance

Genuine E. J. Dent marine chronometers are respected collector items; buyers should note the firm continued for decades after his death, so 'Dent' alone does not establish the piece as from his own lifetime.

Photographs

Edward John Dent Clockmaker
Edward John Dent Clockmaker — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain. Wikimedia Commons file page
Marine Chronometer- Arnold & Dent, No. 1131
Marine Chronometer- Arnold & Dent, No. 1131 — Will Fisher, CC BY-SA 2.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

Photographs are illustrative examples of the type, not necessarily the exact object described. Verify details against the source file page.

Sources & references

  1. Vaudrey Mercer, R. E., biographical works on nineteenth-century English chronometer makers
  2. Parliamentary and Westminster Clock records on the Great Clock of Westminster

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.