Thomas S. Negus

Thomas S. Negus (May 1, 1828 – March 17, 1894) was a 19th-century American businessman. He was well known for the manufacture and sale of maritime chronometers and nautical instruments in New York City under the name T.S. & J.D. Negus Company. He served on the Board of Pilot Commissioners for New Jersey. He died on March 17, 1894, in Jersey City, New Jersey. The firm continued in New York under the trade name "Negus" as a nautical instrument manufacturer and retailer into the 20th century.

Early life

His brother, John Davidson Negus (1832–1890) was a partner in the T.S. & J.D. Negus Company.

Career T.S. and J.D. Negus

In 1848, Negus and his brother John D. Negus founded the firm of T.S. & J.D. Negus, which manufactured and sold maritime chronometers and nautical instruments at 140 Water Street, New York City near the East River. The firm made chronometers for the United States Navy as well as shipmasters and yachtsmen. Their instruments were among the best manufactured in the country. The firm traded as T. S. Negus & Co. in 1864 and as T.S. & J.D. Negus in 1869. The firm was described as "probably the most prolific American Chronometer manufacturer" up through the first quarter of the 20th century. From 1886 to 1887, in competitive trials of chronometers at the United States Naval Observatory, located in Washington, D. C., their chronometers passed first place in a list of 45 chronometers submitted for testing.

Thomas's brother, John D. Negus, died on September 26, 1890. John's son, John S. Negus continued in the firm under the T.S. & J.D. Negus name until his death on July 14, 1944. His son, John C. Negus, from Brooklyn, continued with the firm as senior partner until his death on December 15, 1961. His son, John S. Negus II, ran the family business until his death in 1963.

On May 1, 1931, the firm moved to 69 Pearl Street, New York. They had a five-story building with the words "Negus" on the front window. On the office safe was the gold lettering that said: "T. S. & J. D. Negus, Est. 1848." A Negus chronometer went with Robert Peary to the North Pole. Another was with Richard E. Byrd at the south Pole. When John Mercer Brooke was on the North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition in 1852, he said the best chronometer on the expedition proved to the one made by T. S. Negus and Company, which was purchased by the government for $325. The Negus chronometer was thought to be a district advantage compared to those made in Europe.

Instruments

Negus instruments for sale included: alidades, binnacles, barometers, binoculars, chronometers, clinometers, clocks, compasses, lamps, lanterns, megaphones, octants, peloruses, sextants, telescopes, and quadrants. Below are two examples.

Taffrail Logs, operating on principles in a manner similar to a car's odometer by towing a rotor from the stern (or taffrail) by a long line. Negus boasted that their improved Taffrail Log was "the best ever manufactured." It featured a swivel-bearing mount for the recording element that was designed by John S. Negus and intended to reduce the irregularities encountered in rough seas. It the time it cost $27. The U.S. Navy transferred this example to the Smithsonian in 1950.

Box Chronometer, a 56-hour marine chronometer with a spring detent escapement, and indications for hours, minutes, seconds, and up and down. Weston College donated it to the Smithsonian in 1967. It the 1930s it cost $450. T. S. & J. D. Negus, Illustrated Catalogue of Nautical Instruments (New York, ca. 1938).

Legacy

The pilot-boat Thomas S. Negus was named in honor of Negus in 1873. On October 9, 1873, the pilot boat Thomas S. Negus won a notable victory over her competitors in the Cape May Regatta, which was a race from Owl's Head Point around to Cape May Lighthouse in New Jersey, and back to the Sandy hook Lightship. Thomas S. Negus, of the N. J. Pilots' Commissioners, was one of the invited guests on board the Negus during the race. Negus later wrote: "Arrived at the Lightship off Sandy Hook at 8 h. 49 m. 30s. A. M. Hailed Judges on board, who informed us we were the second boat in, The Enchantress only being ahead of us."

Gallery