Clockmaker / electrical engineer
Matthias Hipp
Also recorded as: Hipp, Matthias
Pioneer of electric timekeeping, inventor of the Hipp toggle and the Hipp chronoscope.
Hipp devised in 1842 an electrically maintained pendulum in which a small toggle ('Hipp'sche Wippe') closes a contact only when the swing falls below a set amplitude. He directed the Swiss federal telegraph workshops in Bern and founded a telegraph and electric-clock factory in Neuchâtel. His chronoscope measured intervals to a thousandth of a second.
- Country
- Germany / Switzerland
- City / centre
- Reutlingen; Bern; Neuchâtel
- Life / active
- 1813–1893
- Status
- Historical individual
- Key people
- Matthias Hipp
Innovations & specialities
- Hipp toggle electric pendulum (1842)
- Hipp chronoscope
Works by Matthias Hipp in the catalogue
Open in the catalogue →
Instruments · 1848-1874
Chronoscope of Hipp type
Science Museum Group, London
Instruments · 1888
Stopwatch / timer by Hipp, Matthias, Switzerland, 1888 (Science Museum Group 1889-38)
Science Museum Group, London
Instruments · 1888
Stopwatch / timer by Hipp, Matthias, Switzerland, 1888 (Science Museum Group 1889-38/1)
Science Museum Group, London
Linked through the Atlas maker authority list, which reconciles the spellings used by different institutions. Attributions are as stated by each holding institution or auction house.
