- Museum number
- 1958,1201.1132
- Description
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SILVER PAIR-CASED TIMER WITH FAST-BEATING BALANCE.
Stop-watch for four hours with two subsidiary seconds dials.
Massey Lever escapement; crank roller.
Balance oscillates at 43,200 per hour, or 12 times per second.
Enamel dial.
Silver pair cases.
- Production date
- 1813 (case)
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 45.60 millimetres (dial)
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Diameter: 48.40 millimetres (inner case)
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Diameter: 45.70 millimetres (movement)
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Diameter: 54.90 millimetres (outer case)
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Thickness: 25.80 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Text from 'Watches', by David Thompson, London, 2008, p. 108-109.
Edward Massey
SILVER PAIR-CASED LEVER WATCH
LONDON, 1813
SIGNED: 'Edw. Massey, Coventry No.170. MASSEY'S PATENT'
Edward Massey was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1768 and married Jane Roulstone, with whom he had seven children. He worked as a watchmaker from around 1790, with businesses in Hanley and Burslem from c. 1795 to c. 1804. He was based in Ironmonger Row, Coventry, between 1813 and c. 1821; in Scoles in Prescot between 1819 and c. 1830; at 28 King Street, Clerkenwell, between 1833 and 1847; and at 17 Chadwell Street, also in Clerkenwell, between 1847 and 1852, the year he died. He is renowned in the horological world for his introduction of a new form of lever escapement, known as the 'Massey lever', which in many ways established the pattern for the modern detached lever escapement still in use today. Massey's interests did not only lie in the field of watchmaking, as demonstrated by his invention of a series of ship's log and sounding devices from 1802 onwards. Massey's involvement with the maritime and horological worlds overlap here with a watch designed for the specific purpose of surveying at sea. The outside appearance of the watch gives little away until the dial is examined closely, for the indications are not standard. The main dial is calibrated 1-4 and has hour and minute hands, although the minute hand is a plainly fashioned replacement. The minute hand revolves once in twenty minutes and the hour hand once in four hours. Each hour division on the dial is divided into fifteen (i.e. four minute) intervals, and there are further divisions within the chapter ring at twenty-minute intervals. At the bottom are two subsidiary dials. The dial on the right has a hand revolving once in twenty seconds and its circle is divided into 2V2 second intervals; that on the left is divided into half-second intervals. Thus, in operation, this seconds hand revolves around the dial in 2½ seconds, no mean feat for a mechanical device. The purpose of this timer was for surveying at sea, based on the difference between the speed of light and that of sound. A small boat, or a number of boats, would be despatched from the mother ship to a distance but remaining within sight of it. A cannon would be fired and the time between seeing the gun flash and hearing the report would be measured. Sound travels at 761 mph at sea level and so the distance can be calculated from the time lapse. The system could equally be used on land, and Massey himself, in a letter written to the Board of Longitude on 17 June 1823, describes a similar watch:
"A watch with decimal seconds for the purpose of ascertaining with accuracy Distance by Sound and also for ascertaining minute divisions of time in taking observations: I applied myself to produce this result at the suggestion of Captain Owen. This watch also answers very well for the pocket."
The specific maritime use of Massey watches like these is described in detail by Commander Edward Belcher in 'A Treatise on Nautical Surveying', published in 1835.
The watch's silver cases were made by William Riley of St John's Street, Coventry, and the pendant was manufactured by William Wooley of Birmingham. The movement has an escapement of Massey's design, the third form of his detached lever installed in an ébauche frame made by Joseph Preston in Liverpool; the dial plate was stamped 'JHP 195 170'. Edward Massey's name and address are engraved on the back of the outer case, although it is an address which he did not have until 1833, suggesting that he might have kept this watch in his possession as a personal item long after it was made.
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Comment from Richard Good, Catalogue of Watches in the British Museum. Vol. V (Unpublished manuscript)
Made by Edward Massey
Coventry and London, 1813
Silver pair-cased timer with ratchet-tooth lever escapement and Massey type III roller(1) for ascertaining distance by the gun-fire method.(2)
Signature: On the barrel bridge 'Edw. Massey COVENTRY', on the back plate 'No 170' and on the balance cock 'MASSEY'S PATENT'. On the back of the outer case 'Edwd Massey King St CLERKENWELL London. 170'.
Case: Silver pair cases, both with the Birmingham hallmark for 1813 and the case maker's mark W R in an oval cameo.(3) The pendant is stamped with the maker's mark W.W in an oval cameo.(4) Both cases also punch numbered '4'. The bezel and case are cut away for the stop lever.
Dial & Hands: The main hand makes one revolution in four hours. The flat dial is marked with Arabic numerals 1 - 4 at the quarter positions with batons at twenty minute intervals.
The minute hand makes one revolution in 20 minutes and the minute track has divisions of twenty seconds with the minutes marked by elongated batons. Below centre are two subsidiary dials with overlapping scales. The hand on the right-hand dial makes one revolution in twenty seconds and the dial is numbered 22, 5, 72, 10, 15, 20. The hand on the left hand dial makes one revolution in 22 seconds and the dial is numbered 1, 2, 22.
Gold spade hands, the larger hand a replacement. The subsidiary blued-steel hands are counter-balanced and have gold bosses.
Dial-plate: scratch marked 'July 84 JHP 195 4 170'. The number 170 was scratched before gilding and matches the movement number. The scratched number 4 matches the case number. There are three unexplained holes in the edge around the latch area.
Dust-cap: Missing.
Movement
Frame: A full-plate layout, the back-plate supported by four turned pillars. A typical Liverpool balance cock inscribed
'MASSEY'S PATENT' on the foot. The balance cock is stamped with a 'D' and is scratched '170' underneath (see also Cat No. 71 (registration no. 1958,1201.944)).
Ebauche Marks: None
Fusee, Barrel and Mainspring:
Fusee: six-turn fusee with Harrison's maintaining power and a brass maintaining ratchet wheel.
Barrel: internal diameter 17.5 mm, height 4.9 mm.
Mainspring: height 4.7 mm, thickness 0.20 mm.
Barrel Arbor: diameter 5.15 mm, not snailed.
Hooking: square.
Train: Gilded train of high quality. The centre wheel solid, the third and fourth wheels with four crossings.
Jewelling: Jewelled bearing for the balance pivots only, with a ruby endstone in a wedge in the potence, and a diamond endstone in the balance cock.
Escapement: A ratchet tooth lever escapement with a Massey type III roller. There is no draw. The pallet body is of steel with a lever of brass. The acting faces of the pallet stones are flat. A gilded-brass escape wheel with three crossings.
An equal impulse escapement.
No. of teeth embraced 3.5
Balance & Spring: The noticeably small three-armed steel balance has a diameter of 14.0 mm and height 0.5 mm. A blued -steel flat spiral spring with 62 turns.
Means of Regulation: A Bosley regulator with an integral block made to carry a temperature compensation curb but this curb apparently never fitted. The regulator registers against a divided scale with 'F' and 'S' engraved on the back plate.
Train Counts and Beat Rate:
Great wheel 60 (fusee)
Centre wheel 64 pinion 12
Third wheel 60 pinion 8
Fourth wheel 56 pinion 8
Escape wheel 15 pinion 7
Beat Rate: 43,200
Motion work: cannon pinion 12, minute wheel 48
minute pinion 14, hour wheel 42
Stop Mechanism: The part of the stop-mechanism that operated against the balance rim is now missing.
Winding System: Key wound.
Dimensions
Outer case: diameter 55.0 mm, height 18.1 mm.
Inner case: diameter 48.4 mm, height 24.2 mm (over glass).
Movement: diameter 45.7 mm, height 17.1 mm, pillar height mm.
Provenance: Formerly in the Ilbert collection. Ilbert purchased this from Malcolm Gardner in February 1940
Notes:
(1) This watch has a type III escapement although it was made only a year after the patent of the type 1 escapement. (see introduction). It has been suggested this may be a later replacement.
(2) A similar watch but with decimal seconds is described by Edward Massey in a letter dated 17th June 1823 to the Board of Longitude (Board of Longitude Vol.25, Public Record Office), He writes :-
"a watch with Decimal Seconds for the purpose of ascertaining with accuracy Distance by
Sound and also for ascertaining minute divisions of time in taking observations: I applied myself to produce this result at the suggestion of Captain Owen. This watch also answers very well for the Pocket".
It will be gathered that the watch referred to here is not just a timer but can also be used as a conventional pocket watch.
(3) William Ryley, ca.1790, St John's Street, Coventry. An incuse mark registered in 1824. (see Priestley, p.173)
(4) William Wooley, Birmingham, mark first registered 4th March 1813 (see A. G. Grimwade, pp. 354 and 717).
Commander Edward Belcher, A Treatise On Nautical Surveying, London 1835, pp.19-20.
Exhibited: Newcastle Under Lyme Museum, 1977, see Alan Treherne, 'The Massey Family', p. 22 (cat no. 34).
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Latest: 2 (2017)
- Acquisition date
- 1958
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1958,1201.1132
- Additional IDs
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: CAI.1132 (Ilbert Collection)
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: Q69 (Ilbert Ledger)
