Northern Section

To be held at Trinity Methodist Church, Trinity Road, Sale, Cheshire, M33 3ED at 7.30pm, unless otherwise stated

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Meetings - 2024

Club Night (August 2024)

The August meeting was another club night, its theme being Watch and Clockmakers’ tools. Many items brought in by members are illustrated below.

Aug 24 - 1 jacot and john torry.jpg
Jacot Tool - A French Tour a Pivoter used for burnishing the pivots on watch arbors. This example has various lanterns, spares, and also has the pivot gauge. Generally driven with a handheld horsehair bow which gives good control of the operation. Below – Various watchmakers’ tools from the workshop of John Torry, Birkenhead, 1838-1901.
Aug 24 - 2 swiss universal.jpg
This type of dead-end "Swiss Universal" and "English Mandrel" (an interchangeable term) was a design introduced during the 1700s, possibly by the inventive watchmaker Vauscher, based in what was then the centre of the trade in the Swiss town of Fleurier. A common feature of the English Mandrel, the spindle was supported in a single bearing at the front and against a hardened centre at the rear; this being a simple but effective arrangement reflected contemporary small-lathe practice for much of the 1800s. Another of the lathe's significant features was the inclusion of a decent compound slide rest that allowed the operator precise control of the cutting tool. In many cases these lathes had what appeared to be three slide rests however, on the Swiss lathes this fitting was not a slide but a very clever means of adjusting the tool height.
Aug 24 - 3 assorted bits.jpg
Book by Malcolm Wilde "Clock Wheel & Pinion Cutting" giving full descriptions and guidelines: Wheel Cutters x 50 purchased from Furtwangen Clock Fair in Germany for 1 Euro Each: Home made Wheel Cutter: Piece of CZ 120 brass used in clockmaking: Blue pivot steel: Staking Tool & Set of Punches: Watch Poising Tool: Small needlefiles: 5 sided Broaches: Magnifier for finding scribed crosses: Parallel Pliers: Small Hammer: Water of Ayre Stone - Sharpening Stone: 2 x Depthing Tools: Walsh's Catalogue.
Aug 24 - 4 Swiss wheel cutting engine.jpg
Swiss wheel cutting engine with pivoted frame. This was accompanied by two hand-written letters from the seller to the buyer dated November and December 1922.
Aug 24 - 5 Rounding up tool.jpg
Rounding up or Topping Tool for working on watches. In the foreground is a set of tools and fitments for the above including multiple cutters, stumps and runners and a small spanner.
Aug 24 - 6 Lancashire mandrel.jpg
A Lancashire Mandrel.
Aug 24 - 7 Lathe Headstock.jpg
Lathe Headstock with Screw Head Copier, including six master threads and a spacer al dating to c.1830.
Aug 24 - 8 Lancs fusee engine.jpg
Rare bow-fronted Lancashire Fusee Engine which previously belonged to Ted Crom. Members were also shown a copy of Ted Crom’s book, Horology with Cutting Engines, 1700-1900.

Other items shown included: gathering pallet blanks both right and left handed; a large selection of pinion wire, fifty wheel cutters purchased at a Furtwangen Clock Fair for 1 Euro each; a home made wheel cutter; piece of CZ 120 brass used in clock making; watch poising tool; blue pivot steel; five-sided broaches; magnifier for finding scribed crosses; parallel pliers; Water of Ayre stone for sharpening tools; Walsh’s catalogue; and a copy of Malcolm Wilde’s book, Clock Wheel and Pinion Cutting giving full descriptions and guidelines.


Comic, Novelty and Advertising Clocks & Watches (June 2024)

While perhaps not encompassing ‘comic’ clocks and watches, the selection of novelty and advertising items brought in by members for display and discussion was fascinating.

Novelty items were by far the most numerous and ranged from an antique automaton to souvenir items featuring music and/or movement. A small sample of the display is shown below.

Jun 24 - 1 monkey harp.jpg
A large, seated monkey automaton harp player by either Gustave Vichy or Roullet & Decamps is certainly a novelty. It was made in the second half of the nineteenth century and is in very good playing condition.
Jun 24 - 2a pocket watch.jpg
Jun 24 - 2b pocket watch.jpg
Two very similar gold skeletonised pocket watches with jacquemart figures which ‘strike’ the hours and quarters on two bells. Maker/s unknown.
Jun 24 - 3 Collection by Schmid.jpg
A collection of clocks mostly by Schmid of Germany. Some have music and/or moving automata.
Jun 24 - 4 collection small brass.jpg
A collection of miniature battery-driven clocks each one in a heavy brass case. Some follow traditional styles, others are imaginative on themes such as motor racing, sailing and cooking.
Jun 24 - 5 nursing home.jpg
This quartz wall clock is one of one hundred made to advertise a nursing home in Lancashire.


Members' 10-minute talks (May 2024)

The theme for the May meeting was members’ ten minute talks; four members stepped up to present. These ranged from updating members on a clockmaking project and on new finds, two very different items by the same maker, and organ clocks.

These were:

  1. Update on progress on making a Tekippe three wheel regulator
  2. Two 50 year old items by Heuer
  3. Updates on Liverpool’s tidal clocks and one made in Scotland
  4. Organ clocks
May 24 - 1 Tekippe regulator.jpg

The Tekippe regulator - progress

Following a meeting in October 2022,

  • The escapement which has its pallets on the pendulum, was completed but its ball race made it unreliable.
  • The escape arbor has been renewed.
  • The way the barrel is wound has been improved so it no longer affects the pendulum
  • The size of the bob has been increased.
  • A suitable, American case has been found.
May 24 - 2a Heuer desk clock.JPEG
May 24 - 2b Heuer Kentucky.jpg

Two items by Heuer

This desk clock by Heuer, launched in 1974, is now very rare. It is mains powered; its seven-segment display requiring 200v to run it. There is a quartz movement with integrated circuits and transistors. It told the time throughout our meeting.

Another Heuer item was a chronograph wristwatch also launched in 1974 on the USA market where it was marketed as the Kentucky.

May 24 - 3a Finney  details.jpg

Updates on Liverpool’s tidal clocks and one made in Scotland

Finney table clock with map of the Northern Hemisphere in the arch and a strange face engraved on the Liverpool patchwork centre with a mouth-shaped date aperture. What sort of person/creature/spirit is this?

May 24 - 3b Gilmour dial.jpg

Part of the dial of a clock by Thomas Gilmour. The spandrels show: Top left: Newton, Top right: Columbus, Bottom left: Cook Bottom right: Herschel

24 hour dial. Subsidiary dials: Top – seconds, Bottom – date and days of the week

Why is the compass reversed?

What do the D and M numbers indicate?

May 24 - 4 Pyke Barrel Organ.jpg

Organ clocks

Our member has been researching the makers of organ clocks and observing their progress in auctions for several years. Although not a clock, but driven by clockwork, this barrel organ by George Pyke, clockmaker to King George lll is a fascinating piece of work. It is housed in a Chippendale-style bureau-bookcase. It has a total of 160 pipes, intact, original bellows and two drums of tunes: one pinned with twelve single tunes and another with six spirally pinned tunes.


Chronographs, stopwatches and portable timers (April 2024)

This topic inspired members to search their collections; the image below shows a large display which was brought by just one member.

It includes timers for photography, aircraft, cookery, telephone call charges, medical and military uses. Amongst the chronographs and stopwatches there were examples made specifically for timing torpedoes, split second chronographs for timing race horses and for yacht racing, chronographs for aircraft use including one with a slide rule for calculating fuel usage, early automatic chronographs by Zenith, Universal Geneve and Omega and a French tachymetre for calculating speed or distance travelled.

Apr 24 - 1 Large collection.jpg

Items shown by other members included a Cadencia portable metronome by Swiss Home Watch Company and a pocket watch which doubled as a thermometer; a Russian chronograph and an example signed by M. Hoffenberg of Leeds; a heavy, Blick portable time recorder and a timer rescued by a member from his workplace when it was scrapped 20 years ago – surprisingly its battery is still working!

Apr 24 - 2 Pocket Metronome-Cadencia.JPG
Cadencia portable metronome.
APr 24 - 3 Pocket watch with thermometer.JPG
Pocket watch by Louis Appolt incorporating a thermometer.
Apr 24 - 4 Leeds chrono.jpeg
Apr 24 - 5 works timer.JPG
Electronic timer rescued in 2003 by a member from his workplace when it was no longer required. It can time intervals from one hundredth of a second to 10 hours. Its original power source (which is unknown) is still capable of running and displaying the timer.


An update on research into James Condliff, his family and their clocks. (March 2024)

Although many of James Condliff’s clocks are widely admired, the range of the work of three generations of Condliff clockmakers is probably better known in the north of England than elsewhere. Whilst touching upon much of the ground covered by Darlah Thomas in the London Lecture of January 2024, this talk included further information which has recently come to light. The images below illustrate some of the range of products made by the Condliff family.

Mar 24 1 HMP Lpool.jpg
This is the turret clock made by James Condliff in 1854 for Walton Jail, Liverpool, (now known as HMP Liverpool). It has been replaced by an electric clock but the mechanism is now displayed in the main entrance of the prison. Photo: Sue Harris, HMP Liverpool, 2021
Mar 24 2 Dreweatts.jpg
This skeleton clock is a Series 1-2 hybrid timepiece. It has a brass frame with its winding barrel set within the movement arch, and a serpent, balance wheel and helical spring mounted in the lower area which are all characteristics of Series One clocks. However, it has a single chapter ring which is familiar on James Condliff’s Series Two and Three skeleton clocks. Each clock in this hybrid series is different from all the others, usually in the position of the barrels, the shape and position of the serpent, or its complete absence and some have a strike or ting tang chime on gongs in the timber base. Photo: Dreweatts
Mar 24 3 Classic Condliff Reg.jpg
Mar 24 3a Condliff stamp.jpg
A classic style Condliff regulator with a 12 inch dial. There is no name on the dial but on the movement there is the Condliff stamp and the name of the original purchaser: Jno B. McFadden, 1832, a Pittsburgh jeweller, watch and clock maker. It is a high quality, top of the range instrument with all the refinements required by the serious horologist or astronomer of its time. The Condliff stamp is to be found on the base of the movement’s front plate. Photo: Jonny Flower
Mar 24 4 Penlington.jpg
Many clocks made by the Condliff family in Liverpool were sold by retailers whose names appear on their dials. This is a two train table clock signed by retailer: Josh Penlington. Several clocks with similar inlaid brass inset in different patterns have appeared on the market in recent years. The Condliff stamp is on the back of this movement.


Bring and display: horological items relating to X, Y and Z. (February 2024)

Members found these letters challenging, but some lateral thinking resulted in an interesting evening. Items shown are listed below and a selection of images is included:

Letter X. This being the most difficult letter, some interpretations were creative …

Ten horological reference books (X the Roman numeral for 10)

Ex-military items:-
A wristwatch by Omega dated 1943 which was issued by the RAF.
A mechanism for timing aircraft turns, probably dating to WWll, marked ‘Signal Corps US Army’, and ‘Sangamo Electric Company, Illinois’.

Feb 24 Timer 1.jpg
Feb 24 Timer 2.jpg

Letter Y.

Three pocket watches signed ‘Thomas Yates, Preston’. These were hallmarked 1849, 1860 and 1873. In addition, there were two 1920s Yates watch keys, each showing a different numbered location within Friargate, Preston.

Two items connected with America – Yanks!
A girl on a swing replaced a standard pendulum on a very decorative clock.
US government ‘Marathon’ chronometer.

A 1960s year-going longcase clock by Peter Bradley of Leicester.

Feb 24 Marathon 1.jpg

Letter Z.

Three pocket watches:
James Lowe, Hazel Grove’ [Stockport].
A warranted railway timekeeper signed by CB Mazzucchi, Crook, [County Durham].
A fine movement and dial only, signed Zimmerman, Liverpool, number 16158.

Two Swiss quartz ‘carriage clocks’ made by Imhof, one signed ‘Garrard’ and the other ‘Garrard & Co., London’.

Feb 24 Zimmerman 1 x.jpg
Feb 24 Zimmerman 2x.jpg


Prescot Time Ball Project opening (January 2024)

Thirty-two Northern Section members and guests were invited to a simple opening ceremony at the Prescot Time Ball Project on 13th January 2024. We were the guests of Ron Musker and his family; Ron has been the driving force behind this project. A few years ago, Ron purchased an old time ball which had once been mounted on Beale’s Building in Islington, London. When that building was demolished in 1970, the ball became redundant after eighty years’ service. It arrived in Prescot in poor condition, but Ron had plans. The Flat Iron Building in Prescot which Ron had owned since the 1970s was ready for refurbishment and as it had a significant place in the town’s horological history as the home of the Lancashire Watch Company office, strong room, a few workshops and small warehouse, it was ideal for his purpose - to have a functioning time ball on his building as a beacon of the town’s horological past. We were there to witness the project’s completion.

Prescot Visit 1 Our visit.jpg
Jim Arnfield welcomed members and guests and then Justin Koullapis, who has been interested in the project since it began, spoke on the history of time balls and of Prescot’s former role in our horological history.
Prescot Visit 2 clock.jpg
The clock for the project was made by John Johnson of Prescot c.1815. Johnson’s workshop was about 100 metres from the Flat Iron Building.
Prescot Visit 3 Time ball before restoration.jpg
The time ball before restoration.
Prescot Visit 4 Lifting arm during construction.jpg
The ball lifting-arm during construction.
Prescot Visit 5 Phil Ron Jim Brian.jpg
The horological team. From left: Phil Irvine, Ron Musker, Jim Arnfield, Brian Percival.
Prescot Visit 6 the finished project.jpg
The project apparatus complete.
Prescot Visit 7.jpg
The apparatus is located in the stairwell of the building just inside the entrance hall.
Prescot Visit 8 FIB testing.jpg
The Flat Iron Building with the time ball raised during a period of testing (that is why the clock is showing 11 o’clock). It will rise to the top of the pole a few minutes before 1pm daily and drop exactly as the clock strikes one o’clock.


AGM and video presentation (January 2024)

The meeting opened with the usual greetings and notices and then the AGM followed. Once the formal proceedings were completed, we had a refreshment break and then the group was shown a video entitled The Anatomy of a Singing Bird Box. The box, thought to date to c1865, was made by Frenchman Jacques Bruguier (1801-1871) who worked in Geneva.

The film was made and narrated by John Moorhouse and explains the construction and operation of the box and its bird automaton which John had the task of restoring. He explained some of the problems he faced and detailed how to set up and adjust the mechanism.

Jan 24 Singing Bird-DVD x.jpg