Instruments · Marine chronometer
Marine chronometer by John Bliss and Co., New York, c. 1875–1880
- Maker / attribution
- John Bliss and Co. (maker)
- Date
- c. 1875–1880
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Place
- New York
- Object type
- Marine chronometer
- Dimensions
- Height 18.5 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 329
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 329)
- Catalogue title (original)
- JOHN BLISS and Co., N°. 2788. A fine 2-Day Marine Chronometer by this well-known American maker (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 329), this is a marine chronometer by John Bliss and Co., made in New York, United Kingdom, dated c. 1875–1880. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Instruments collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 18.5 cm. The record is illustrated with 2 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Dealer description — Howard Walwyn
A fine 2-Day Marine Chronometer in a rosewood brass bound three-tier box by this well-known American maker. The 56-hour silvered dial is signed ‘ John Bliss, New York, No.2788 . The movement has spotted brass plates and a spring-detent escapement with Kullberg style balance. There is a subsidiary seconds dial, an ‘up & down’ dial indicating the state of the wind and a twelve hour dial with Roman hours and Arabic five minutes. The brass winding ratchet is original. The hands are gold, to avoid rusting in the salty sea air, and are almost certainly original. The well patinated 3-tier case has loop brass side carrying handles and brass bound corners. Height: 7 ¼ in (18.5 cm) Width: 6¾ in (17.5 cm) Depth: 7 in (18 cm) * The firm of John Bliss operated from premises at 128 Front Street, New York, between 1880 and 1929. Front Street runs from the Brooklyn Bridge to Hudson Ave. and Navy Street, close to the Docks Area. They supplied chronometers to the US Navy which were highly placed in the Washington Observatory trials of 1886. They are also recorded as supplying meteorological instruments and many of their movements were supplied by makers in England, particularly Victor Kullberg. According to Mercer’s lists in ‘ Chronometer Makers of the World ’ the serial number of this Chronometer means it can be dated between 1875 and 1880. HW5656
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Instruments spread into industry, science and sport: stopwatches, chronoscopes, metronomes, watchmen's clocks and time recorders.
Read the period in the timelineMore instruments from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific Horology
Atlas type guide
Marine chronometers
A marine chronometer is a precision timekeeper carried at sea to find longitude: the navigator compares local noon, observed with a sextant, with the time at a reference meridian kept by the chronometer. Each hour of difference corresponds to fifteen degrees of longitude. John Harrison proved the method in the 1760s; Pierre Le Roy, Ferdinand Berthoud, John Arnold and Thomas Earnshaw then developed the detent escapement and the compensation balance that made chronometers practical to manufacture.
By the nineteenth century London, Liverpool, Le Locle and Glashütte supplied navies and merchant fleets. A typical box chronometer has a spring-detent escapement, a fusee to equalise mainspring torque, a bimetallic compensation balance with a helical balance spring, and is mounted in gimbals inside a wooden box so that it stays level.
What to look for
- Gimbals and a three-tier wooden box with a glazed inner lid.
- A power-reserve ('up and down') indicator on the dial, usually showing 56 hours on two-day instruments.
- Spring-detent escapement and a cylindrical (helical) balance spring visible through the movement.
- Admiralty or navy marks (broad arrow), and rating certificates from observatories.
- The maker's number on the dial and movement; many makers' registers survive, allowing dating.
Dating clues
- Earnshaw-type spring-detent chronometers became standard after about 1800.
- Auxiliary compensation devices on the balance appear from the mid-nineteenth century.
- Quartz and radio time signals ended routine use of mechanical chronometers in the 1970s and 1980s.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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