A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



The family of Frodsham has produced 

 several highly skilled chronometer and watch- 

 makers. William Frodsham, of Kingsgate 

 Street, Red Lion Square, received the hono- 

 rary freedom of the Clockmakers' Company in 

 1781, and attested the value of Earnshaw's 

 improvements in 1804. He took his son into 

 partnership in 1790, and died in 1806, when 

 the business was continued by John Frod- 

 sham until 1814. William James Frodsham, 

 another member of this family, started in 

 Change Alley, was a fellow of the Royal 

 Society, and was some time in partnership 

 with William Parkinson; he died in 1850, 

 and left four sons who were brought up to the 

 trade. One of them, John, was in business 

 with his son in Gracechurch Street from 1825 

 to 1842. Charles, another of the sons of 

 W. J. Frodsham, was the founder of the 

 present firm of Charles Frodsham & Co. 

 He lived from 1810 to 1871, and started 

 business in 1842 at 7, Finsbury Pavement, 

 and in the following year succeeded John R. 

 Arnold at 84, Strand. He conducted many 

 experiments to investigate the principles of 

 the compensation balance and the balance 

 spring, and wrote many papers on technical 

 subjects ; he also invented many improve- 

 ments which still exist in chronometers and 

 watches. He was succeeded by his son, 

 H. M. Frodsham, in 1871, and the firm 

 became a limited company in 1893. They 

 gained the Admiralty prize of iJO for 

 excellence of marine chronometers. 



English watches were highly esteemed at 

 the end of the 1 8th century, but about this 

 time a swarm of worthless timepieces bearing 

 the forged names of eminent London makers 

 swamped the best markets and inflicted a great 

 blow upon the high reputation of English 

 work. The Swiss took advantage of this to 

 drive us out of the foreign markets, and much 

 distress was caused among operatives in the 

 trade, which led in 1816 to the appointment 

 of a Parliamentary Committee on the petition 

 of the watchmakers of London and Coventry. 

 The Swiss makers still continue, with the 

 Americans, to be our most formidable rivals 

 in the production of cheap watches, although 

 their work will not compare in accuracy with 

 the more costly watches produced by English 

 makers. The necessity for the frequent repair 

 of these foreign time-keepers has given em- 

 ployment to an increasing number of the less 

 skilful members of the trade in this country. 



Little has been done in England to syn- 

 chronize our public clocks, and London is in 

 this respect still much behind other great cities. 

 A system of magnetic clocks devised by Sir 

 Charles Wheatstone is at work at the Royal 



Institution and other places. A single motor 

 clock upon this principle will govern sixty or 

 seventy indicating clocks, the maintaining 

 power being supplied by magneto-electric cur- 

 rents. A clock in the Royal Observatory, 

 Greenwich, distributes the time to clocks in 

 a few London centres, but the general adop- 

 tion of this much-needed system, though often 

 talked about, seems as far off as ever. 



This is not the place to trace the progress 

 of the art of watchmaking in England, which 

 comes more suitably in the portion of this 

 work to be specially devoted to the City of 

 London, the most notable improvements in 

 the art having been made by Tompion, 

 Graham, Mudge, and other eminent London 

 makers. Early in the reign of Charles I, 

 when the Clockmakers' Company was incor- 

 porated (1632), the City of London was cer- 

 tainly the centre of British clock and watch- 

 making. Clerkenwell next became the head 

 quarters of the trade, and maintained its 

 supremacy as long as verge watches continued 

 in use. Soon after the invention of the lever 

 escapement by Mudge in 1750, the movement- 

 making was transferred to Lancashire. Here 

 in 1866 the movements were made in 

 Wycherley's factory by machinery in eight 

 standard sizes, the different parts for thousands 

 of movements being perfectly interchangeable. 

 The movement when received by the manu- 

 facturer is usually first sent to the dial-maker 

 to be fitted with a dial. The watch then 

 passes through the hands of various subsidiary 

 makers in the following order : The escape- 

 ment maker with whom is associated the 

 wheel-cutterand the pallet-maker, the jeweller, 

 the finisher, and the fusee-cutter. The stop- 

 work is then added, and (when necessary) the 

 keyless work fitted. The case-maker, balance- 

 maker, and hand-maker then add their work, 

 and the examiner fits the movement to the 

 case and puts on the hands. A work of great 

 skill and delicacy remains, the introduction of 

 the balance-spring. The screws of the 

 balance require adjustment with the greatest 

 care in order that the watch may. keep time 

 at temperatures ranging from 40 deg. to 90 

 deg. 



The principal development of watchmak- 

 ing in recent years is the application of 

 machinery. This was attempted in London 

 by the British Watch Company, established 

 in 1843, at 75, Dean Street, Soho, to manu- 

 facture watches with duplicating tools invented 

 by P. F. Ingold. An excellent watch was 

 designed and several were made, but the in- 

 corporation of the company was successfully 

 opposed by the ' trade,' and the undertaking 

 consequently failed. In America the attempt 



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