User:PJ at DM/The Massey family: clock, watch and nautical instrument makers
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The Massey family: English clock, watch and nautical instrument inventors and manufacturers
Overview[edit]
Through three or more generations between the late 18th and 19th centuries, a family of English Roman Catholics in various towns and cities made influential contributions to both the design and manufacturing of clocks, watches, chronometers and nautical instruments.[1]. Examples of their work, in finished form or related documents are held in various national collections including the The National Maritime Museum, the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the British Museum, the National History Museum, and the Science Museum.
Their contribution[edit]
The Masey's principal distinctive contribution, to watchmaking, was through the design of new types of escapement, and, in nautical instruments, the first reliable and affordable ship's logs and depth sounders. Massey depth sounders were extensively used in the surveying of the North Atlantic for the laying of telephone cables.[2] [3] One of the Masseys, Edward (2) (1768-1852) is cited in academic studies of historical precedents for the fate of industries which fail to understand their customers' needs.[4] Prodigious filers of patents, there are numerous entries in both the UK and USA patents office of their work.
References[edit]
- ^ Citation publisher = The Borough Museum, publication-place = Newcastle-under-Lyme, author = Alan Treherne, url = http://openlibrary.org/books/OL4287564M/The_Massey_family, title = The Massey family, publication-date = 1977
- ^ Charles H. Cotter (1970). A Brief History of Nautical Logs to A.D. 1800. Journal of Navigation, 23, pp 187-195 doi:10.1017/S037346330003839X
- ^ Title = A short account of Massey's Patent log and sounding machine, with the opinions of several captains in the Navy, Merchants Seamen, and Pilots, who have practical use or experimental trials with them. Author = Bill Place published: LONDON: Year of publication = 1806,Publisher = BLACKS AND PARRY
- ^ Author = T Proctor,Title = Creativity and Innovation Management, Year = 1998, VOL = 7 NUMBER = 4, pages = 204-211, publisher Blackwells\ Wiley Online Library, extract = ... It is interesting today to compare the contents of the Horological Museum in Geneva, for example, with those in the UK. ... However, it wasn't really until Edward Massey in 1814 invented the crank roller lever that the detached lever escapement as it subsequently became widely...