| [Illustration: Ancient Watch, in form of a Book.] |
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This little time-piece dates from the period when blacksmiths were
watch-makers, or at all events when watch-makers were blacksmiths. The
works are all of iron; the case was made, probably, before glass was
used for such instruments, and it is not unlikely that this watch is
of as old a shape as even the Nuremberg eggs. A more ornamental
time-piece, of perhaps a somewhat later date, is the curious little
instrument which is portrayed in our next illustration; the works of
which are also of iron. It possesses the advantage of serving either
as a clock or a watch, or as both, being of a portable size, and yet
when set on a stand would serve as a pretty ornament to a drawing-room
table. The bell at the top is so arranged that when the hand touches a
trigger the hour is struck upon it, but the bell itself may be
detached without any interference with the movement by which the time
is kept.
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| [Illustration: Ancient Table Watch, with Bell for striking (Temp |
| _circa_ 1525).] |
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A clock was purchased by Queen Victoria at Strawberry Hill sale and is
now at Windsor, which was a present from Henry VIII. to Anne Boleyn,
and since from Lady Elizabeth Germains to Horace Walpole. It is
described by Walpole as a clock of silver gilt, richly chased,
engraved and ornamented with fleurs-de-lys, little heads, &c. On the
top sits a lion holding the arms of England, which are also on the
sides. On the weights are the initial letters of Henry and Anne within
true lover's knots, at the top 'Dieu et mon droit,' at the bottom 'the
most happy.'
The emperor Charles V. (Henry's contemporary) was so much pleased
with observing the movements of time-pieces, that it is related of
him, that he frequently sat after his dinner with a number of them
upon the table before him, and that even after his retirement to the
monastery of St Just he still continued his interest in them. He
endeavoured to adjust their movements and keep them in order, but,
upon finding it impossible to make any two watches agree with each
other in keeping time, he was induced to reflect how much more absurd
it must be for a man to attempt to regulate the more varied and hidden
emotions of nations in consonance with those in his own breast.
Ancient watches used to strike the time, and we read of Charles V. and
Louis XI. that, watches having been stolen from them in certain
crowds, the thief was detected by their striking the hour.
In 1577 Moestlin had a clock so constructed as to make just 2528 beats
in an hour, 146 of which were counted during the sun's passage over a
meridian, and thus determined its diameter. The alarum or alarm is one
of the earliest additions to the mechanism of the clock, and is still
used in Dutch clocks. This contrivance took its origin from the
circumstance of prayers being read at stated periods in monasteries by
night as well as by day, such an invention being of course of much
service in arousing the priest to perform his duties.
In 1631 the Company of Clockmakers was incorporated in England by
Charles I., who granted them a charter prohibiting the importation of
clocks, watches, and alarms. So that at this period Englishmen were
sufficiently skilled in the production of horological instruments to
consider their importation in the light of an intrusion. The Company
consisted of a Master, three Wardens, and ten or more Assistants who
had power to make by-laws for the government of all persons using the
trade in or within ten miles of London. They were authorized to enter,
with a constable or other officer, any ships, vessels, warehouses,
shops, or other places, _where they shall suspect bad and deceitful
works to be made or kept_, and if such were found they seized them in
the King's name, and having proved their unworthiness, the
objectionable works were broken up and destroyed. There are many
instances mentioned of such 'searches' upon the Books of the Company,
and although the practice has long become obsolete, for in these times
of free trade no such restrictions would be tolerated, yet it would
perhaps be found that some testing by a modern 'searcher' or tester
would be of some protection to the public now-a-days, when thousands
of watches are sold which, like Peter Pindar's razors, are intended
rather for the market than for use. The following are illustrations of
some time-keepers of the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the
seventeenth century.
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| [Illustration: Ancient Watch with Dial, 1580.] |
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This is a very curious but not uncommon combination of the watch with
the dial,--the latter being marked inside the watch-case and having a
gnomon moving on a hinge so as to allow of its lying flat and being
enclosed within the case when not in use.
Our next illustration is of one of the earliest examples of a round
watch made in England, the date being 1593. It contains not only a
dial showing the hour, but a sort of general calendar in miniature.
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| [Illustration: English Round Watch, 1593.] |
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Of much about the same date is the following example in silver and
brass. It is of the same style of time-keeper, and shows how our
forefathers liked to know not only the time of day but the period of
the month; and how they watched the moon's changes, and in a word
made an almanac of their watches.
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| [Illustration: Oval Watch, 1593.] |
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It was not an unusual thing for religious persons who used rosaries at
their devotions, to add to their beads a miniature skull, with a view
it may be to remind themselves of the frailty of life by way of
stimulus to the preparation for the future state. When watches were
invented the Memento Mori death's head was made into a watch-case, as
in the illustration on page 44.
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| [Illustration: Ancient Ornamental Watch.] |
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The Lauder family, of Grange and Fountain Hall, possess the _Memento
Mori_ Watch there engraved, they having inherited it from their
ancestors, the Setoun family. It was given by Queen Mary to Mary
Setoun, of the house of Wintoun, one of the four Marys, maids of
honour to the Scottish Queen. This very curious relic must have been
intended to be placed on a _prie-dieu_, or small altar, in a private
oratory; for it is too heavy to have been carried in any way attached
to the person. The watch is of the form of a skull: on the forehead is
the figure of Death, standing between a palace and a cottage; around
is this legend from Horace: '_Pallida mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum
tabernas Regumque turres_.' On the hind part of the skull is a figure
of Time, with another legend from Horace: '_Tempus edax rerum tuque
invidiosa vetustas_.' The upper part of the skull bears
representations of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and of the
Crucifixion, each with Latin legends; and between these scenes is
open-work, to let out the sound when the watch strikes the hours upon
a small silver bell, which fills the hollow of the skull, and
receives the works within it when the watch is shut.
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| [Illustration: Old English Calendar Watch.] |
| |
|[Illustration: 'Memento Mori' Watch belonging to Mary Queen of Scots.]|
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Nor about this time was the opportunity omitted of inculcating by
means of pictorial watch illustrations, that Scriptural knowledge
which was in the less educated times not so much taught by books as by
pictures. The watch case given on the following page is of about 1600.
It is obviously of English workmanship, and is a fair specimen of the
period,--it may be, indeed, that, looking at it, one may well doubt
whether art has much advanced in watch-ornamentation during the last
270 years or so.
We give our next illustration as another example of an ancient Table
Watch. This watch has a revolving dial at the top, by means of which
and the fixed point or hand the time is indicated (page 46).
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| [Illustration: Watch-case (_circa_ 1600).] |
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Such was the state of clockwork when Galileo, the great astronomer,
then a medical student at Pisa, happened to discover, while gazing up
at the roof of the cathedral when he should, perhaps, have been
devotionally occupied, that the lamps suspended therefrom by chains
of equal lengths, swung, and made their vibrations in long or short
arcs, in almost the same space of time,--a fact, the truth of which he
ascertained by the beats of his pulse.
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| [Illustration: Table-Watch, _circa_ 1630.] |
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This isochronal property, as it was called, was described in a
treatise which he published at Paris in 1639, entitled 'L'Usage du
Cadron ou de l'Horloge physique universelle.' The first application
which Galileo made of his discovery was the professional one of
testing the rate and variations of the pulse, and it is even denied
that he did more than suggest its applicability to clockwork.
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| [Illustration: Ancient Silver Dial and Gold-cased Watch. One hand.] |
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The honours of the invention of the pendulum-clock have been contested
by Vincentio Galilei, son of the great astronomer, who is said to have
made a pendulum-clock at Venice in 1649, and Christian Huygens, a
noted Dutch mathematician, who (in his excellent treatise, 'De
Horologio Oscillatorio,' which was the foundation of most of the
subsequent improvements in horometrical machines) clearly shows that
he had constructed a pendulum-clock previous to 1658. His reputation
will be somewhat obscured, however, if we yield to the claims of an
Englishman named Richard Harris, an ordinary workman, who, it is said,
invented the pendulum-clock which was fixed in the turret of St
Paul's, Covent Garden, in 1642, and which is generally believed to
have been the first pendulum-clock in Europe. The pendulum when first
applied to clocks was suspended by a silken cord, and the arc
described by the bob or weight at its end was a segment of a circle,
but it being found that this was in opposition to scientific
knowledge, and that the curve described by it should properly be part
of a cycloid or oval; Huygens tried to remedy the error by causing the
silk cord in its motion to side or strike against a curved piece of
brass, but he thereby caused a greater error than he corrected. Dr
Hooke afterwards suspended the pendulum by a thin flexible piece of
steel, the bending of which, as the pendulum swings from side to side,
produces the required cycloidal motion. In 1658 Dr Hooke invented the
Anchor Escapement which is still in use together with the flexible
spring to the pendulum above described. Before, however, we proceed
further with our historical summary of the progress of watch and
clock making, it may be well to introduce here two illustrations of
the watches worn by two of the most eminent Englishmen of about this
period.
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| [Illustration: Ancient Box Watch.] |
| |
| [Illustration: The Watch of Oliver Cromwell.] |
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The following watch was made about 1625 by Jonn Midwall in Fleet
Street, who was Warden of the Clockmakers' Co. in 1635, and died about
1638. It is one of the early examples of a fob-watch. The case is of
plain silver, fitted with glass over the face, and the chain of the
same metal. The family crest of Cromwell was a demi-lion holding a
ring in its paw, but the Protector substituted for the ring the handle
of a tilting spear, as engraved on the chain; the Cromwell arms on
the reverse, and the initials O.C., certify to its genuineness. The
arms as engraved and the crest are identical with those on the banner
used at the Protector's funeral. The silver seals which were at one
time attached to this chain are now absent, but they were a few years
back in the possession of some descendants of the Cromwellian family,
who allowed Sir Charles Fellows to take impressions of them. The
watch, as it is here engraved, remained for upwards of a century in
Holland, was there purchased by an English nobleman who presented it
to his godson, and by him given to Sir C. Fellows, who believed that
it was probably worn by Cromwell from 1625 until his death in 1658. In
shape it reminds one of the Nuremberg egg watch. The following is an
excellent example of an early watch-case of the round shape still in
use.
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| [Illustration: Early Ornamental Round Watch-case.] |
| |
| [Illustration: John Milton's Watch, made by William Bunting, London, |
| 1631.] |
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The history of this watch is somewhat singular. From inscriptions
which appear upon it, it seems to have been made by William Bunting,
(whose name is entered upon the books of the Clockmakers' Co. as
elected to their court in 1645, he being then resident in Pope's Head
Alley, Cornhill,) in 1631, and presented to John Milton in the same
year, which was the date of the poet's leaving Christ's College,
Cambridge, and taking up his residence with his father in Horton,
Buckinghamshire, he being then about 23 years of age. From that time
down to the early part of the present century we have no record of
the watch or its possessors, but that in 1819 it was bequeathed by the
last surviving member of an old family in Baltimore in the United
States, who had treasured it for some generations, to some old ladies
residing near London, the bequest including also a number of coins of
the reigns of Charles the 1st and 2nd, some medals of Fairfax and
others, as well as a few rings, but nothing of a later date. The chest
which contained all these relics safely arrived in London, and not
long after was, with its contents, offered for sale to an eminent
chronometer-maker. The coins and medals being in an excellent state of
preservation were soon disposed of at high prices, but the watch being
only silver gilt, and steel-faced, was considered to be of little
value, and a few shillings only were allowed as a fair price for it.
It was put into a drawer in its discoloured state and there remained
until 1828, when for the first time the inscription on the face of it
was discovered upon its being accidentally cleaned up, and it was then
presented to Sir Charles Fellows, well known for his connoisseurship
in such matters, and as a collector of ancient time-pieces. The
maker's name upon the inside of this watch is thus given: 'Gulielmus
Bunting, London, 1631.' Sir Charles Fellows died in 1860 and
bequeathed this one watch only to the nation; but his relict, Lady
Fellows, who died in 1874, left the whole of the celebrated collection
of ancient watches which her husband had brought together, to the
British Museum.
In 1675 Tompion, under Hooke's direction, made a watch with a spiral
balance for Charles II. Up to this period watches had but one hand and
only pointed the hours, but the spiral pendulum spring having been
applied to the balance, it regulated the oscillations with some
nicety, and the minute wheel and hand were soon after added.
A watch was found upon Guido Fawkes when he was arrested for the
Gunpowder Plot, which had been purchased by Percy and himself the day
before 'to try conclusions' for the long and short burning of the
touchwood with which he had prepared to set fire to the train of
powder.
The following is one of the earliest examples we have met with of an
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| [Illustration: Early Watch, with double case.] |
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It is apparently of French make, date of 1660, and is a remarkably
neat and small specimen of the watches of that time.
The annexed illustration is a curious example of a watch of the date
of 1580, to which a pendulum was added in 1670, and which is still
capable of keeping time.
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| [Illustration: Ancient Watch with Pendulum.] |
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Our next illustration is another specimen of antique design and
ornamentation.
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| [Illustration: Ancient Brass Watch-case with lid protecting Dial.] |
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In 1676 Barlow, a London clockmaker, invented some mechanism whereby a
person at night might ascertain, in the dark, the hour last struck, by
pulling a certain part of it, and this contrivance gave the name of
_repeater_ to all time-pieces in which it was used. For this invention
Barlow tried to obtain a patent, but he was opposed by Daniel Quare
and the Clockmakers' Company, who said that Quare was the original
inventor. The question was tried by James II., and the decision given
in favour of Quare. The following memorandum was entered upon the
books of the Company with reference thereto. '1688, Sep. 29.--Be it
remembered that in pursuance of the order of the Court of the 8th day
of February, 1687-8, and according to the order of the Court of the
5th March, 1687-8, the patent endeavoured to be obtained by one Mr
Edward Barlow, a priest, and to be granted to him by the king's
majesty for his sole making and managing of all pulling repeating
pocket-clocks and watches, he pretending to be the true and first
inventor of that art and invention, was by diligence and endeavour of
the Master, Wardens, and Assistants of this Company, with great charge
and expense, which was borne by and out of the stock of the Company,
very successfully prevented, and upon the 2nd March, 1687-8,
ordered by the king in Council not to be granted.'
In 1695 Tompion invented the cylinder escapement with horizontal
wheel, but this was not brought into general use until some time
after, when it was much modified. It was, however, a very valuable
invention, and exercised considerable influence upon the shape of
subsequent watches, inasmuch as it dispensed with the vertical crown
wheel, and permitted them to be made more flat and therefore more
conveniently portable.
We now come to the time when the use of jewels was first invented and
applied; and as these, by being so hard and uninfluenced by friction
as to allow the pivots to play without wearing away,--as metal would
do by constant action,--afterwards gained for the English peculiar
fame as manufacturers of watches, we shall be excused for enlarging
upon this point. About the year 1700 Nicolas Facio, a native of
Geneva, having invented the use of jewels in watches, and failed in
his attempt to persuade the Parisian watch-makers into the adoption of
his notions, came to London. In May, 1705, he and two other
watch-makers, Peter Debaufree and Jacob Debaufree, obtained a patent
for his invention to extend over fourteen years. In December, 1705, he
petitioned, as we shall presently see, to be granted a more extended
term, and then the Clockmakers' Company opposed the application upon
the ground of the invention not being a novel one, and in proof of
their statement produced the watch, of which we give an illustration,
as made by Ignatius Huggeford, a member of their own Company, some
time before the application of the pendulum-spring. As this watch had
a large amethyst mounted upon the cock or pivot of the balance-wheel,
the Committee of the House of Commons were induced to decide against
Facio's petition and to throw out his Bill.
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| [Illustration: Ignatius Huggeford's Original Jewelled Watch.] |
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