Hi, I have been sticking to buying just Pocket Watch Cases lately; but I have lapsed into my old habits with this movement. “FRENCH, 62 Cornhill, CITY OBSERVATORY LONDON” The large clock and time-ball in Cornhill there referred to belong to the establishment of Mr. French. Santiago James Moore French, or sometimes just James Moore French, was active from 1808 to 1842. He was a London chronometer maker operating at the Royal Exchange, later at Cornhill.[SUP][12][/SUP] French won a minor prize from the Board of Longitude for his chronometers and his no. 720 was the standard (that is, considered the best to which the others are compared). This movement is in going order and will test my skills fixing the Dial. What is known about this man? Regards Ray
You ask too many tough questions, Ray I think your assumption is wrong - I don't think there is anything known about French beyond what you found out, which is more than I have managed to do! I love that picture of his Cornhill place, and it's he first I knew of his time ball. I have two French watches, #11548 dated 1847 and the other #10494 dated 1858 ... thus demonstrating a common problem with serial number sequences! Both dates are outside the date range I have recorded of 1810-40 during which time French was a member of the Clockmakers Company. I assume that my ywo watches and yours were made by his successors rather than Santiago himself.
Hi Martin, I thought that the movement looked later than 1842. I will have to look for a son. Do your movements look similar? I read somewhere that his "Timeball" was linked to "The Royal Observatory" but I can't find it again. (In 1837, British physicists, William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patented the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph using the same principle of electromagnetism.); I will keep looking. Regards Ray
I think your movement looks later than 1840, as does (and is) my later one. I can't find any menthion of a son, but it seems obvious that the firm outlasted Santiago and continued to make watches ... whoever then owned it. The royal Observatory at Greenwich has a time ball - it could be seen particularly by ships' captains in Greenwich docks who would set their timepieces by it. The Greenwich Observatory is on a hill beside the river in what is now Greenwich Park.
Hi Martin, I looked at the "The Royal Observatory at Greenwich" on Google Earth and the "Time Ball" is still there. Can you see it from your house? Regards Ray
Not quite ... I'm about 10 miles from Greenwich with an awful lot of houses in between But I have been to the Observatory or seen it from the river several times - Greenwich is one of my favourite places to visit.
I thought that this may have been of interest to Pocket Watch Collectors; who probably set their Pocket Watches from the Radio or a Computer. This what people used in earlier times.Time ball locations Adelaide Time Ball-34.839246,138.480958Aloha Time Ball, Hawaii21.307107,-157.866079Boston Time Ball42.356817,-71.056582Brighton Clock Tower Time Ball0,0Brisbane Time Ball-27.465753,153.023077Capetown Time Ball-33.905918,18.419226Cincinnati Time Ball39.139088,-84.42264Cornhill Time Ball0,0Deal Time Ball51.2219,1.4042Electric Telegraph Office Time Ball0,0Fremantle Time Ball-32.05617,115.741172Gdansk Time Ball54.406366,18.661236Glasgow Time Ball55.856796,-4.260928Greenwich Time Ball51.477819,-0.001278Hong Kong timeball22.294791,114.169757Lyttelton Time Ball-43.606483,172.726775Nelson Monument Time Ball55.954476,-3.182748New Orleans Cotton Exchange29.952216,-90.071425Newcastle Time Ball, Australia0,0Norwich Time Ball52.628547,1.296973Pt Gellibrand Time Ball Tower-37.52, 144.54San Francisco Time Ball37.79543,-122.393502St Helena Time Ball-15.955652,-5.699158St Louis Time Ball0,0Sydney Time Ball-33.859594,151.204558Times Square Time Ball NYC, USA40.756046,-73.990257Washington D.C Time Ball38.921261,-77.06652From: “The One o’Clock Gun & Time Ball Association”. Regards Ray
Ray - I've just come across this thread while researching Thomas Porthouse and his partnership with French. Now this is Jacob French, and he's the maker/jeweller who had premises called 'The City Observatory,' (eventually sold to Bennett). Jacob was something of a scoundrel, and not at all in the Santiago French league! In fact Santiago's son, John, and William French, who were based at 9 Royal Exchange in the 1850s/60s, placed newspaper ads in 1860 to specifically disassociate their business from Jacob's activities. The whole story of the Porthouses and Jacob and his brothers is a fascinating one, which I'm expecting to complete by the end of the year. Meanwhile thanks for your original posting of the images of Jacob's watch and the premises. Regards. David.
We had a fascinating talk at the BHI about the restoration of the ball at Greenwich. It had a bit of a hard life being kicked about by builders. I knew about the French makers of the Royal Exchange, they were well known clockmakers.
If the Bennet mentioned in post No 9 is Sir John Bennet he was a character Wkipedia has an article about him John Bennett (watchmaker) - Wikipedia There is also a thread about Sir John Bennet's workshop in the Tower Monumental and street clocks forum under Sir John Bennet Jeweller shop Dearborn
Just to follow-up on a couple of the interesting side issues: This is my 'local' Timeball, at Deal: And for more on Bennett: The Old Watchword: A Man of Contradictions
Very interesting article Davy I think The Advertising Standards Authority would have had a little chat with Sir John Bennet about some of his claims in his adverts
