Traditional brilliance at keeping time
Clockmakers Museum
See this fine collection which traces the craft of making mechanical clocks and watches from 1300 to the present day.
The glory days
The golden age of English clockmaking was between 1666 and 1700. Skilled craftsmen in London exploited the new discoveries of pendulum clocks and the anchor escapement.
Scientists and skilled workers together continued to produce a wide range of excellent timekeepers throughout the eighteenth century and beyond.
The end of an era
In the second half of the nineteenth century the London craftsmen failed to keep up with changing times. They could not compete with machine-made clocks and watches from France, Germany and America. Some turned to making scientific instruments instead. London declined as a centre for the industry.
A chemical oddity
One of the more extraordinary exhibits in the museum is an early the 19th century gas-powered clock. When the clock has nearly run down a pellet of zinc drops from a brass spiral into a jar of sulfuric acid. This produces hydrogen gas. The pressure of the gases forces up a piston which rewinds the clock.
Craft skills in the twenty-first century
The great tradition of inventive clock and watchmaking lives on. The museum celebrates the work of clockmakers such as George Daniels who invented the coaxial escapement - claimed to be the first practical new watch escapement to be invented for 250 years.
Submitted by: Checked by Sir George White, 21 January 2007
