
Instruments · Slave clock
Slave Clock - Synchronome Electric Clock Co, Brisbane, 1938
- Maker / attribution
- Synchronome Electric Clock Co (Maker)
- Date
- 1938
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Brisbane, Greater Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Object type
- Slave clock
- Holding institution
- Museums Victoria, Melbourne
- Accession / object no.
- ST 20780.3
- Catalogue title (original)
- Slave Clock - Synchronome Electric Clock Co, Brisbane, 1938 (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Museums Victoria, Melbourne (object number ST 20780.3), this is a slave clock by Synchronome Electric Clock Co, made in Brisbane, Greater Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, England, dated 1938. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Instruments collection. 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
Summary — Museums Victoria
Slave clock for electric clock system, Synchronome Electric Clock Co, Brisbane, Australia, 1938. Albert George Jackson founded the Synchronome Electrical Co in Brisbane in 1904, to be the supplier of clocks using the Synchronome electrical timekeeping system developed by Frank Hope-Jones and G. B. Boswell in England in 1895.
Physical description — Museums Victoria
Slave wall clock in circular wooden case with brass bezel and roman numerals.
Provenance
Loan & Subsequent Bequest from Mr John Askew, 06 May 1938
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Timing instruments became electrical and specialised: industrial time recorders, sports timers and aviation instruments.
Read the period in the timelineMore instruments from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Scientific and navigational instruments
Timekeeping has always been tied to astronomy, navigation and measurement. Observatories used transit instruments to determine the exact moment a star crossed the meridian, and set their regulators by it; navigators combined sextant observations with chronometers to find longitude; surveyors, engineers and physicians used counters, pedometers and timers derived from watch and clock technology.
Instruments in this collection show how time measurement supported science and everyday technical life. Their makers were often the same workshops that produced clocks and watches, and their scales and dials document changing units and standards.
What to look for
- Engraved scales and verniers; the units used (degrees, hours, decimal divisions).
- Makers' signatures and town names, often on the main plate or limb.
- Accessories and fitted cases that indicate the intended use.
- Inventory or institutional marks from observatories, navies or schools.
Dating clues
- Vernier scales spread after the seventeenth century; dividing engines after Ramsden (1770s) made fine scales common.
- Mass-produced instruments with patent numbers belong mostly to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
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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