When natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt set off on his journey to South America in 1799, he had a piece of Dresden with him: a precision timepiece by Saxon clock-maker Johann Heinrich Seyffert. The clock with the second hand was to be primarily used in mapping South America. Unfortunately, it was not precise enough – errors in seconds could result in deviations of several hundred metres when it came to determining longitude. Luckily, Alexander von Humboldt had a second, more precise timepiece with him – one from France. There actually were already several centres for clock-making in the early 19th century, and Dresden was one of the more important ones. Historian Dr. Sibylle Gluch finds additional clues in the books of Dresden’s clock-makers’ guild.
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