Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
This paper was presented at a meeting of the Bristol Channel Branch of the Institute i n Cardiff on 28 April 1976.
The work and life of John Thomas Towson falls neatly within the professional group so aptly styled by the late Professor E. G. R. Taylor as the Mathematical Practitioners. Born in Devonport in 1804, Towson was educated at Stoke Classical School in that town and on leaving school followed his father's trade as a chronometer maker. When only 22 years of age Towson invented a device for banking the balance of a chronometer and his invention was communicated to the Society of Arts in 1826.