|
THREE TOURBILLONS PLUS ONE. Published on site by kind permission of
the Author: Michael BECKINGHAM. (51A). Arborfield Army Apprentices School. (1950-53) |
|
|
|
Editor’s Note. |
|
The
following article is reproduced from the April 2014 Journal of the ‘British
Horological Institute’. It
complies with the Terms & Conditions set by the Institute for use of
their material. The
Copyright © and Source is acknowledged as the British Horological
Institute. The
Copyright © and Original Article remain the property of Michael Beckingham
M.B.H.I. ___________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
|
Michael
Beckingham M.B.H.I. |
|
|
|
|
|
The
author was born in Bristol in 1934, and in 1950 attended the Army Apprentices
School in Arborfield, graduating as an Instrument Craftsman in 1953. In 1955
he moved to Auckland, New Zealand and worked as an instrument technician with
Tasman Empire Airways (now Air New Zealand) and later to Kawerau with Tasman
Pulp and Paper Co as an instrument engineer, returning to Auckland in 1958,
where he established Beckingham Instrument Co, to service medical, scientific
and surveying instruments. In
1979 he joined the Japanese company of Sokkisha (now Sokkia), at that time
Japan’s largest maker of opto-electronic surveying instruments, and moved to
Sydney to establish Sokkisha Pty Ltd, in Australia. In 1984 he was appointed
International Technical Manager, based in Tokyo, and in 1986 moved to England
to set up Sokkisha UK Ltd. In 1988 he returned to New Zealand and became a
director of Trimble Navigation NZ Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Trimble
Navigation, California. From 1993 he was consultant to the head office and
commuted to Silicon Valley on a monthly basis to assist Trimble, pioneers in
GPS, to develop their real-time kinematic GPS for use in the general survey
market. He also headed a design and development division to produce an
opto-electronic co-ordinate measuring system that would seamlessly integrate
with GPS when GPS signals could not be received. During this period he was
awarded four US patents. He remained in this position until 2001, when he
retired to Whitianga, an idyllic seaside town on the Coromandel Peninsula,
where he can indulge his passion for fine instrumentation. He was elected an
Associate of the BHI in 1991 and a Member (M. BHI) in 1993. ___________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
|
Editor’s Note. 2. |
|
After
contacting Michael, he refined some of the detail of his service at
Arborfield which is shown below………. |
|
‘My
time at Arborfield was actually from February 1951 (51A) to February
1954. I was then posted to 34 Base
Workshops at Donnington, Shropshire, until October 1955 when I obtained a
discharge by payment. I then left for
New Zealand’. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
|
The first chapter of ‘Three Tourbillons Plus One’ (April
2014) can be read from HERE. ‘Adobe Reader’ is required to read the above pdf. file. It can be downloaded from the Icon below
__________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
|
|
|
First Published: 1st May 2014. Latest Update: 1st July 2014. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
