The Magic Clock

A piece of History from Parriss Jewellers

The following article was published in The Sunday Mercury 14th April 1946.
The secret of a clock which has long mystified the people of Nuneaton has been revealed to me by Mr E.G.Parriss. The clock on display in his Abbey Street window seems to consist merely of two hands attached to the glass – there is no sign of any works.

Hundreds have stopped to look at the clock, and there has been considerable speculation as to its motive power. “Many people have called in to ask me how it works” Mr Parriss said. “One day a nurse came from the hospital to say that the clock had caused such an argument among the men on her ward that she felt it necessary to pacify them by obtaining the details.

Mr Parriss has improved on the one handed clock made by a prisoner of war taken at Copenhagen. This prisoner, John Schmidt, arranged a watch movement in one end of a hour hand so balanced that it would move the hand accurately through 360 degrees every 60 minutes. Mr Parriss, however, experimented with the principle and fixed the movement to the minute hand and geared an hour hand to it.

Mr Parriss has recently invented a free pendulum electric master clock, the impulse of which consists of 3-16th inch ball bearings, which roll down on a short track at a consistent speed on to the pendulum, make the electric contact and then return to the starting point.

This clock was shown at the British Industries Fair in 1948. He began work on this clock in 1944, when he set out to solve the problem which had baffled horologists for years – how to free a pendulum from any extraneous work. This he achieved and his clock forms a chapter in a book written by Mr F Hope – Jones, the greatest authority on electric clocks.

The Free pendulum master clock is now on display at the Science Museum, London.

E.G.Parriss was the son of the Founder of Parriss Jewellers and Grand Father to the current owner. How times have changed! If only I could find the time(and have the skill) to invent a clock.

We still repair clocks here at Parriss Jewellers, but we now specialise in Jewellery, both traditional and contemporary. Visit our website http://www.parrissjewellers.co.uk to see a selection of items we have in store.