418 Description of an Instrument for [Dre. 
ARTICLE VI. 
Deser iption of an Instrument for ensuring the Attention of Watch- 
men. By Henry Beaufoy, Esq. 
{fe Dr. Thomson.) 
DEAR SIR, London, Oct. 25, 1815. 
THE losses anid inconvenience to which the community are ex- 
posed through the inattention of watchmen to their nightly duties 
are a theme of general complaint. The depredations committed, 
not unfrequently within a few yards of the watchman’s station, are 
a practical proof of the very insufficient manner in which the 
rounds are performed. ‘The cause of the evil is evidently to be 
traced to the inability of the employers to compei vigilance by the 
certainty of detection. 
Having occasion myself some time ago to conduct a process in 
which success _ depended on an undeviating hourly attendance 
throughout the day and night, it became necessary to devise some 
means by which the presence of those appointed to manage the 
operation might be insured. 
The watch clock, of which I have the honour to enclose you a 
drawing, completely answered the purpose. It is equally adapted 
to civil and military as to manufacturing purposes. By placing the 
clock in any building at the further extremity of the round, it not 
only points out occasional dereliction from regularity, but registers 
the precise hour in which the neglect took place. 
In the first wheel or register 1 had made, the inner or hour circle 
was omitted for the sake of getting rid of extraneous weight; but 
in the second it was introduced as combining the double purposes of 
the common house, as well as of the re gister, clock. 
I am conscious that this communication is too insignificant to be 
worthy of a place in your Journal ; but having derived advantage 
from the use of the register myself, a: think it possible that some of 
your readers interested in manufacturing establishments may feel 
no disinclination to adopt a safe check on the confidential, and-an 
unerring detector of the careless, in their employ. 
T remain, dear Sir, 
Your most obedient and obliged servant, 
el : Henry Beauroy. 
i a F 
The machine consists of a common eight day striking clock, the 
glass front of which is reduced to the diameter of the hour cirele, 
as shown in fig. 1, Plate XLI, The hour and minute hands 
are removed, and ‘the register substituted in their room. The 
register, being required to make but one revolution in L2 hours, is 
fixed to the hour arbor of the ee Te figures on the hour 
9 
