Clocks · Synchronous motor electric clock
Warren Synclock by Everett Edgcumbe & Co. Ltd
- Maker / attribution
- Everett Edgcumbe & Co. Ltd (maker)
- Date
- c. 1929
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Synchronous motor electric clock
- Materials / technique
- metal; wood
- Dimensions
- Overall: 230 x 425 x 170 mm
- Holding institution
- Royal Museums Greenwich
- Accession / object no.
- ZBA1774
- Credit line
- National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Warren Synclock (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Royal Museums Greenwich (object number ZBA1774), this is a synchronous motor electric clock by Everett Edgcumbe & Co. Ltd, dated c. 1929. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: metal; wood. Recorded dimensions: Overall: 230 x 425 x 170 mm. 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
Catalogue description — Royal Museums Greenwich
An early domestic mains electric clock, using a 'synchronous motor', in a wooden free-standing case. Dial inscribed 'Warren Synclock / Everett Edgcumbe / London'. The first clocks using alternating current (AC) electricity as their time source were patented by the American inventor Henry Warren in 1918. They took their time from the domestic mains electricity supply. Power stations used accurate clocks to monitor and correct the frequency of the alternating current they generated, making it sufficiently precise to regulate the clock's movement. The first British models of these 'synchronous' clocks were introduced by Everett Edgcumbe in the late 1920s and marketed as the 'Warren Synclock'. This is a very early example. From the 1930s to the 1960s, synchronous clocks were very popular, providing accurate time at low cost. They never needed winding, and every clock in the house read the same time. Many new houses had electric sockets positioned near the mantelpiece to allow easy connections for these clocks. Synchronous motor electric clocks take their time from the domestic mains electricity supply. Power stations used Greenwich Time to monitor and correct the frequency of the alternating current they generated, making it sufficiently precise to regulate the clock's movement. The first synchronous motor clocks were patented by the American inventor, Henry Warren, in 1918. The first British models were introduced by Everett Edgcumbe in the late 1920s and marketed as the 'Warren Synclock'. This is a very early example.
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Between 1900 and 1945 clocks were electrified: master-clock systems ran factories and offices, synchronous mains clocks entered homes, and the Shortt free-pendulum clock set new standards of accuracy before the first quartz clocks (1927). Art Deco design reshaped mantel and table clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Electric and synchronous clocks
Alexander Bain patented the electric clock in 1841, and through the later nineteenth century electricity was used both to drive pendulums and to distribute time. Master clocks sent impulses every half-minute or minute to subsidiary ('slave') dials across factories, schools, railway stations and post offices; Matthäus Hipp's toggle (1842) kept pendulums swinging with minimal interference. William Hamilton Shortt's free-pendulum clock (1921), with a slave pendulum doing the mechanical work, became the most accurate mechanical clock ever made in series.
In the 1920s and 1930s synchronous motor clocks, which count the alternating-current cycles of the mains supply (50 or 60 Hz), arrived in homes; Telechron in the United States and Smiths 'Sectric' and Ferranti in Britain made them in great numbers. Battery clocks such as the Bulle, Eureka and ATO used electromagnetic impulsing of balances or pendulums.
What to look for
- Electromagnets, contacts and coils in place of springs or weights.
- Cables, terminal blocks and labels for voltage or frequency.
- Master/subsidiary systems: a subsidiary dial has a stepping mechanism and no escapement.
- Brand names such as Synchronome, Gent, Magneta, Telechron, Smiths, Ferranti.
Dating clues
- Bain and Hipp clocks: from the 1840s.
- Synchronome master clocks: from 1895.
- Synchronous mains clocks: from the late 1920s (UK grid frequency standardised in the 1930s).
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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