Instruments · Marine chronometer
Parkinson & Frodsham 19th century two-day marine chronometer
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 19th century
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Marine chronometer
- Dimensions
- Height 7 in (18 cm)
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 31, lot 1367
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 1367, The Clock Auction, Gardiner Houlgate (26th October 2023)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Parkinson & Frodsham 19th century two-day marine chronometer, no. 2614, the signed 3.5" silvered dial with blued steel hands, 'up/down' indicator, Roman numerals, outer minute track and subsidiary sec (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 31, lot 1367), this is a marine chronometer, dated 19th century. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Instruments collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 in (18 cm). The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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
Lot description — Gardiner Houlgate
Parkinson & Frodsham 19th century two-day marine chronometer, no. 2614, the signed 3.5" silvered dial with blued steel hands, 'up/down' indicator, Roman numerals, outer minute track and subsidiary seconds dial with an engraved Military broad arrow, 'Parkinson & Frodsham, Change Alley, London 2614', signed fusee movement with maintaining power and Earnshaw type escapement, helical hairspring, dust cover, contained in a brass gimbal mount and mahogany three tiered case with brass handles and inset plaques, the case 6.25" wide, 7" high
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
The longitude problem was solved by the marine chronometer and lunar distance methods; dividing engines made precision scales possible, and observatories set time by transit instruments.
Read the period in the timelineMore instruments from this periodEarlier: Early Modern 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.
Read next:Spring detent (chronometer) escapementDetent escapement
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