Frank Hope-Jones

Frank Hope-Jones (1867-1950) was an outstanding figure in the horological world. He was a perfectionist, always seeking a better performance from the clocks he made and demanding an extremely high standard of finish both to the cases and the movements.

He had wide ranging interests.as is shown by this list of some of his many activities:

Chairman, Vice-President and Gold Medallist of the British Horological Institute;

Honorary Member of the Horological Institute of America;

Honorary Member of the Horological Society of New York;

First Fellow of the New Zealand Horological Institute;

Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers;

Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society;

First Chairman of the Wireless Society of London;

Chairman of the Radio Society of Great Britain;

Medallist, the Royal Society of Arts, London, the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London, and the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia.

His interest in radio, or wireless as it was at first called in the UK, tied in with his interest in horology, so by 1913 The Synchronome Company was manufacturing its ‘Horophone’ (Figure 2), a receiver with a crystal detector designed by Frank to bring in time signals, weather reports and news broadcast in Morse code from a few high powered wireless telegraphy stations such as that at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The Horophone was built to the meticulous standards one would expect from a clock making firm.

This was very early days for radio and the signals had to be interpeted with the help of a graphic chart.

In 1923 Hope-Jones suggested to BBC engineers the idea of an automatic clock which would provide five pips as a time signal The idea was taken seriously and after the Astromer Royal (Frank Dyson) added an additional (and according to Hope-Jones, an unneccessary pip) it was adopted and the signal, produced by equipment designed by Hope-Jones, was first broadcast in 1924.